Global South guerrillas hijack the Japanese oil tanker Arabian Light, threatening to blow it up in Tokyo Bay, unless the Cabinet complies with an economically devastating ultimatum.

The Moon Mask Rider is a tokusatsu movie produced by Purumie International/Herald Enterprises and distributed by Nippon Herald Pictures, was released theatrically on March 14, 1981. Considered Japan's answer to the American box-office fiasco, The Legend of the Lone Ranger (released the same year), this updated version of the Moonlight Mask legend bombed at the Japanese box-office. Daisuke Kuwahara (who, like Klinton Spilsbury , disappeared from doing films) plays George Owara (Moon Mask Rider's new alter-ego), and the rest of the cast made up of veteran action starlets: Sue Shihomi, Daijiro Harada and Takayuki Godai.

A large earthquake hits Tokyo, which was predicted by a seismologist but was ignored.