Number Nine Research Laboratory

The , also called the , was a military development laboratory run by the Imperial Japanese Army from 1937 to 1945. The lab, based in Noborito, Tama-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan focused on clandestine activities and unconventional warfare, including energy weapons, intelligence and spycraft tools, chemical and biological weapons, poisons, and currency counterfeiting. One of the weapons developed by the lab was the fire balloon, thousands of which were launched against the United States in 1944 and 1945. The other weapons researched and developed by the lab included Nuclear weapon, weapon for Biological warfare, Chemical weapon, Suicide weapon, machinating weapon, canned bomb, Superhuman strength ray, murder ray, and electric throwing gun etc. As mentioned above, because the lab executed fantastic research such as superhuman strength ray somewhat, and there were many unclear points of substance, it is drawn as an occult and suspicious laboratory among various creations. However, practically, the main research was severe and poorly imaged, such as machinating weapon, biological and chemical weapon, suicide weapon. The Operation Sugi is notorious because the lab made Counterfeit money to China worth 4 billion yen during World War II in order to disarrange Chinese economy, and counterfeit notes worth 3 billion yen were actually used in China at that time. The unit, which at its peak was staffed by 1,000 scientists and workers, was disbanded upon Japan's defeat at the end of World War II.
According to a 2007 book review in the CIA's journal "Studies in Intelligence", "Ban Shigeo, a technician at the Japanese Army's 9th Technical Research Institute, left a rare and valuable account" of his work at Number Nine Research Laboratory, which was published posthumously in 2001 as "Rikugun Noborito Kenkyujo no shinjitsu [The Truth About the Army Noborito Research Institute]". According to the review, "the US Army quietly enlisted certain members of Noborito in its efforts against the communist camp in the early years of the Cold War... Ban led the 'chemical section' of a US clandestine unit hidden within Yokosuka naval base during the Korean War..."
On 7 April 2010, a museum, called the defunct Imperial Japanese Army Noborito Laboratory Museum for Education in Peace, was opened at the lab's former site. The museum exhibits artifacts from the lab and gives information on the unit's mission and operations. The museum sits on the Ikuta campus of Meiji University.