The Reality TV Experiment: Nasubi

This is the fifth part of Tomoaki Hamatsu’s story, I strongly recommend you start at the beginning here to learn the full story.

Resume: In January 1998, Tomoaki Hamatsu, a 22-year-old aspiring comedian, was randomly selected to participate in the upcoming "Denpa Shōnen" first season: "Denpa Shōnen Teki Kenshō Seikatsu", which roughly translates to “The Crazy Youth Prize Life”. The premise of the show, “Can someone live only by rewards in Japan and Korea?”, brought Tomoaki Hamatsu, nicknamed Nasubi, to a very dangerous living situation for 15 months. Here is the story of Nasubi.

In a large event hall, Nasubi was brought to an insulated waiting room. On the outside, the waiting room looked like an oversized gift box eagerly watched by 1,000 live viewers and many more at home. On the inside, the waiting room was nearly identical to the four previous apartments Nasubi lived in. Naked, at ease and unsuspecting, Nasubi waited while the crowd silently counted down.

The roof of the waiting room lifted and the wall fell, uncovering a vulnerable Nasubi. Frightened by the stunt, he backed off and stared at the crowd before him. His body remained mainly stiffened by shock, except for his head as he looked from left to right, trying to acknowledge the situation. Nasubi was speechless: He stared at the crowd, his mouth wide open until he realized, confused, that he was broadcasted on a screen right behind him. The crowd laughed at Nasubi's complete confusion and the hosts finally intervened: "Congratulations, Nasubi-kun, May I come in?"

"This is not my house: My house has collapsed, and then I found many people." explained Nasubi while the crowd laughed at every sentence."Why are they laughing?" he asked. Without answering, the host continued: "Do you understand where you are now?" "You know where, don't you?" added the second host. "What is this?" Nasubi answered confused. "You reached the goal and won The Crazy Youth Prize Life, congratulations! The audience came here to congratulate you!"

The Nasubi Fever

The confusion dissipated so the host showed Nasubi and the viewers a quick video summarising Nasubi's experience. This video provided insight into the Nasubi Fever in and outside Japan.

Nasubi had the chance to glance at the media coverage the series got. Mass media quickly caught Nasubi's story and offered coverage on the subject. The producer also fed the fever, selling Nasubi's content in every form possible. Nasubi's appreciation of his ramen bowl was sold to promote Umaka Chan Tonkotsu's ramen for a commercial which was aired during Nasubi's experiment. The footage itself was already compiled into VHS, which sold more than 100,000 copies. Nasubi's diary was published in five books and the first diary became a bestseller with 800,000 copies sold.

Furthermore, Nasubi learned the fact that the Internet had been watching him 24/7 from July 1998 to March 1999. At the end of the contest, the website cumulated 16 million accesses, which was a record in early Japanese internet history.

Back in his hotel room, the host came to congratulate Nasubi: "You're a tough guy. [...] If I were in your situation, alone, I would die. I worried about you. Are you ok, mentally?" As this very serious subject was brought to the table, the screen shows "hentai"(which refers to pornographic scenes in anime and manga) and Nasubi replied: "Are you a pervert?" The scene cuts as the mental effects of the challenge are swiftly evacuated.

Three days later, on March 31, 1999, Nasubi, still in his hotel room, watched the finale's premiere on Nippon TV. A special video is available, which shows Nasubi reacting to his own experience.

And that's the end of Nasubi's story...

Or so we thought for the next 20 years.

__________

To be continued