Earlier than the West’s fascination—obsession, actually—with actuality TV, there was Denpa Shonen, the place a Japanese man was left alone, bare in a room, for an entire yr within the hopes of profitable a big money prize. Unbeknown to him, his expertise was being broadcast to tens of millions of viewers. So the place is Nasubi now and what occurred to him after this unbelievable, if not ethically questionable, social experiment?
His story is the topic of The Contestant, a documentary by British filmmaker Clair Titley, accessible to stream on Hulu as of Might 2, 2024. Nasubi is the pseudonym of a Japanese comic, whose actual title is Tomoaki Hamatsu.
In 1998, Nasubi thought he was auditioning for a TV present when producer Toshio Tsuchiya, enlisted him to participate in a problem. Remoted in an condominium devoid of furnishings and meals, Nasubi was ordered to strip bare. He was required to win the whole lot he wanted for each day residing by coming into contests from a pile of magazines supplied to him, with the aim of profitable 1 million yen price of prizes (round $8,000) to finish the experiment.
Though Nasubi may have left at any time, his sheer willpower stored him within the room for 15 months, reduce off from all household contact. What Nasubi didn’t know was the viewers of 15 million watching his entire expertise. With out his data or consent, he grew to become essentially the most well-known man in Japan in a demented form of Truman Present. So the place is Nasubi now? Learn on to seek out out.
The place is Nasubi now?
Hamatsu nonetheless sometimes works as a comic and actor however spends most of his time as an activist and advocate, working to lift funds for his hometown of Fukushima which was devasted by an earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent nuclear catastrophe in 2011.
“I would like everybody to know the folks of Fukushima are working onerous,” he advised the Related Press in April 2024. “Life is regularly returning to what was once within the exclusion zones. In fact, I notice the highway to decommissioning the nuclear vegetation continues to be a protracted battle. However I would love folks to know the Fukushima of at this time, really feel hope by visiting Fukushima and watch Fukushima rebuild.”
The documentary marks 25 years since he discovered himself an unwitting participant in a actuality TV present. “My intuition for survival kicked in, so I simply needed to survive and do no matter to get out of this. So I’ve to attain this sweepstake aim to get out,” he advised TVInsider, reflecting on his time on the present in an interview translated from Japanese.
“So each time I bought the little product within the contest, I bought a pleasure—that was a extremely real pleasure that I felt, however it was on the similar time it was a battle with solitude, loneliness, and all different issues. So I spotted that my coronary heart was breaking little by little, and so I couldn’t actually afford to consider making folks snicker on the finish. It was my intuition for survival to kick in.”
He continued, explaining how he’s leveraged his fame as a platform from which to do good. “It’s a protracted journey for me to make my coronary heart right into a optimistic motion, geared to the optimistic issues however when in 2011 went large East Japan earthquake hit. I’m from Fukushima, so I went to the affected space, and folks there have been pleased, inspired by me. As a result of on this location, folks had been complaining about, “There’s no privateness, there’s not sufficient meals,” after which they bear in mind me. I had nothing, so I may inform them, ‘Not less than you will have a human contact. It is vitally wholesome for you that you’re surrounded by these fellow individuals who take care of one another.’”
He concluded: “In order that form of factor grew to become greater due to my expertise of this actuality present. I may assist folks in that approach and provides new hope. And say they mentioned they notice, ‘Oh, you had been consuming pet food. We’re consuming human meals,’ that form of factor. … Typically I felt like I shouldn’t have carried out the fact present, however now I really feel like I needed to stay with it and make a use of it.”
The Contestant is on the market to stream on hulu now.