" kichigai..... "

The incident involving Mishima and the four other Tatenokai students was met by disbelief when it was first reported in the Japanese media. No one seemed to believe the story at first. After all, there hadn't been a reported case of hari-kari in Japan since the end of the Second World War. When the initial report of what had finally happened to Mishima and Morita was sent to police headquarters in Tokyo, the orders that were sent back to the police at the scene were " if the body is still warm do your utmost to save Mishima's life". When a reporter for a leading Japanese newspaper, the "Mainichi Shimbun", who was present at the Ichigaya base during the incident, reported his story by phone, he was told to " go back and check your facts " by his superiors at the paper. The paper then ran the headline "INJURED MISHIMA RUSHED TO HOSPITAL" for its late afternoon edition.

The first official government comment on the affair at the Ichigaya base was made by a friend of Mishima's, the Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato. Mishima had been friends with both the Prime Minister and his wife. When reporters asked Prime Minister Sato what he thought of the incident at the Ichigaya base as he was leaving a meeting of the Japanese Diet where he was making a speech, the prime minister stated about Mishima that kichigai, out of his mind."