| Tiphaine Véron | |
| Birth Date: | 22 July 1982 |
| Birth Place: | Rennes, France |
| Disappeared Place: | Nikkō, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan |
| Nationality: | French |
| Known For: | Missing person |
| Height Cm: | 165 |
Tiphaine Véron (born 22 July 1982[1] ; disappeared 29 July 2018) was a French tourist who went missing in the historical Japanese city of Nikkō, located 150 kilometers north of Tokyo. She was last seen eating breakfast at the hotel where she was staying.
Tiphaine arrived at Narita International Airport in Tokyo on 27 July 2018.[2] She had meticulously planned her three-week vacation, with detailed plans of where to go, up to about 14 August, when she was scheduled to return to France. She stayed in Tokyo for her first night, before heading to Nikkō by train on the 28th. CCTV footage caught her heading to her hotel in Nikkō, the Turtle Inn Nikko, from the train station that day.
On 29 July, five witnesses saw Tiphaine eating breakfast at the hotel. She then left to go sightsee, as she had planned to do.[2] Tiphaine never returned to her hotel, and the owner filed a missing person report the following day.[2]
On 1 August, the Véron family was notified of Tiphaine's disappearance by the French Embassy.[2] Tiphaine's sister and two brothers then traveled to Japan on 6 August to assist in the search. In addition, Tiphaine's mother sent a letter to French president Emmanuel Macron, urging him to increase resources for the search.
On 9 September, Tiphaine's sister, Sibylle, appealed to tourists visiting Nikkō, asking if they had any photos relating to her case. She also called out to Macron on 17 October, in the courtyard of the Élysée, when he was meeting with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, who was visiting France at the time.
On 10 November, a protest and information campaign "to find Tiphaine" by 500 citizens took place in Poitiers.
From 7 to 17 May 2019, a search was carried out by mountain rescue experts but yielded no results.
In August 2019, a new search, consisting of five volunteers and seven dogs from Japan Rescue Dog was organized, but that too was fruitless.
After the May 2019 search, the Véron family declared that they did not believe that Tiphaine was involved in an accident but that foul play was involved, and that they were planning to make additional trips to Japan. They also stated that the files submitted to French authorities by the Japanese police were incomplete. They considered that the interrogations carried out by Japanese police were incomplete and contradictory to what they perceive had actually happened around the time of Tiphaine's departure from the hotel. Tiphaine's Google Maps data had made it possible for her family to track her locations from when she set foot in Japan until 11:40 am of the day of her disappearance, when her Wi-Fi connection was lost.
Tiphaine's relatives have created the association "United for Tiphaine".[3]
Xavier Niel, founder of the telecommunications company Free, assisted the Véron family technologically.[4] In particular, Niel's research of her phone signals established that Tiphaine's phone was disabled forcefully, such as the battery being torn off or the phone being destroyed, rather than by normal means.[5]
Comedian Élie Semoun made an appeal on social media in July 2020, on the second anniversary of Tiphaine's disappearance.[6]
The investigation was also aided by Kazunari Watanabe, a local pensioner who has visited Nikkō over 40 times to take part in the search.[7]
In July 2020, French justice minister Éric Dupond-Moretti took over the case, stating that he was in the process of identifying the best way to urge future actions in Japan.[8] [9]
An investigating judge was appointed in Poitiers,[4] and an active investigation remains open in France for kidnapping and forced confinement, in support of the family's belief that foul play was involved in Tiphaine's disappearance.[10]