Kouji Haneda

Kouji Haneda was a talented shogi player that his "not-related-by-blood" brother, Shukichi Haneda, deeply respected. By the time of his death he had won four shogi titles. Many had high hopes that Kohji would win all seven of the major shogi titles.

Seventeen years ago, he died under mysterious circumstances when in the United States participating in a chess tournament, a game he also enjoyed. Ai Haibara suggests that Kohji may have been murdered with APTX 4869 since a person with the same name appeared on the list of people killed by the poison. It has been discovered that Rum may have been involved with his death due to the dying message missing letters that could be arranged to spell "ASACA RUM".