Fukagawa Drift Container Set for Opening on the 29th as the Third Appraisal Center Begins Preparations

The three liquid-filled drift containers found in Fukagawa have been the subject of an unusual decision: as previously reported, the quarantine committee ruled on Sept. 16 that only one of the three would be opened in a sealed environment, with the other two kept in storage indefinitely — the first time part of a quarantined drift find has been designated for permanent storage. The container chosen for opening is the one where the phenomenon most consistently appears: the image on the liquid's surface failing to track when the vessel is tilted, a discrepancy that neither X-ray nor acoustic testing has traced to any flaw in the measuring equipment. On the 25th, the Third Appraisal Center announced it has begun preparations for that opening.

Work began on the 25th with an airtightness test of the chamber and the installation of recording equipment. The schedule runs as follows: the 25th through 27th, airtightness testing and equipment calibration; the 28th, a final rehearsal of the opening procedure using no actual container; and the 29th, the opening itself. Officials said the process will unfold in stages inside the sealed chamber — first measuring internal pressure and composition, then cracking the lid just enough to sample any gas, and judging how far to open it from there. "We won't be throwing it open all at once," an official said. "Whether something happens or nothing happens, keeping a record is the priority."

Attendance at the opening will be limited to quarantine committee members, a representative from the Fukagawa neighborhood association if requested, and Third Appraisal Center staff; there will be no media access to the site, the same arrangement used for past drift-object openings where danger hadn't been ruled out. A same-day bulletin on whether the container opened and what, if anything, was confirmed is planned for the 29th, but detailed academic data will follow only after the opening is complete, as previously reported, with early October the earliest likely release.

Officials repeatedly stressed that opening the container does not equal solving the mystery. "The only information we have about the likely contents is still, as previously reported, at the level of 'a liquid resembling water,'" one said. "Even if we manage to sample the contents, that doesn't mean we'll immediately understand why the surface image fails to track." The subtle differences in engraving style among the three containers also remain an open question — comparing the container being opened against the two staying in storage is an ongoing task, and the possibility of multiple points of origin is expected to remain neither confirmed nor ruled out.

As previously reported, the Fukagawa neighborhood association remains split over whether the opening should happen at all. Reacting to the start of preparations on the 25th, one resident who had favored opening it said, "At the very least, I want them to report accurately what was learned and what wasn't." A more cautious resident said, with a complicated expression, "I'm worried this will eventually spill over onto the two containers that were supposed to just stay in storage." A neighborhood association officer who attended the Sept. 12 resident briefing, previously reported, said, "There's a feeling that the end of September has simply arrived. I think some people are ready for it, and some aren't."

As previously reported, the city's Drift Object Museum is temporarily displaying the Fukagawa children's shoe — Lineage 122 — alongside the tricycle of Lineage 31 in its "Belongings No One Has Claimed" exhibit. A curator there had said there's more than one way to face such objects, but this opening is proceeding separately from the museum's exhibit, for quarantine and academic purposes only, with no display or public viewing currently planned.

The Third Appraisal Center frames this opening not as an act of solving the mystery but as a check on whether the decision to keep the other two in storage was the right one. Whatever is or isn't confirmed on the 29th, the underlying cause of the liquid surface's non-tracking image is expected, for now, to remain unresolved. This paper will report the results as soon as they're available.