You Only Live Twice (film) manned spacecraft disappear mysteriously in orbit. With each nation blaming the other amidst the Cold War, Bond travels secretly to a remote Japanese island to find the perpetrators and comes face to face with Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the head of SPECTRE. The film reveals the appearance of Blofeld, who was previously a partially unseen character. SPECTRE is working for the government of an unnamed Asian power, implied to be the People's Republic of China, to provoke war between the superpowers. During the filming in Japan, it was announced that Sean Connery would retire from the role of Bond, but after
You Only Live Twice (film) war. Blofeld summons Osato for not having killed Bond, who immediately blames his assistant, Brandt. Blofeld then gives Osato a last chance, but as Brandt leaves, he activates a mechanism that drops her into a pool filled with piranhas. Brandt is forced to pay for her failure with her life by being devoured alive, and Blofeld instructs Osato to kill Bond. Bond is then informed of Tanaka's plan: he is to train with Tanaka's ninjas, disguise himself as a Japanese fisherman alongside a Japanese wife, and infiltrate SPECTRE's island. Before this plan can be completed, Aki is killed when she