Before the West’s fascination—obsession, really—with reality TV, there was Denpa Shonen, where a Japanese man was left alone, naked in a room, for a whole year in the hopes of winning a large cash prize. Unbeknown to him, his experience was being broadcast to millions of viewers. So where is Nasubi now and what happened to him after this incredible, if not ethically questionable, social experiment?
His story is the subject of The Contestant, a documentary by British filmmaker Clair Titley, available to stream on Hulu as of May 2, 2024. Nasubi is the pseudonym of a Japanese comedian, whose real name is Tomoaki Hamatsu.
In 1998, Nasubi thought he was auditioning for a TV show when producer Toshio Tsuchiya, enlisted him to take part in a challenge. Isolated in an apartment devoid of furniture and food, Nasubi was ordered to strip naked. He was required to win everything he needed for daily living by entering contests from a pile of magazines provided to him, with the goal of winning 1 million yen worth of prizes (around $8,000) to end the experiment.
Although Nasubi could have left at any time, his sheer determination kept him in the room for 15 months, cut off from all family contact. What Nasubi didn’t know was the audience of 15 million watching his whole experience. Without his knowledge or consent, he became the most famous man in Japan in a demented kind of Truman Show. So where is Nasubi now? Read on to find out.
Where is Nasubi now?
Hamatsu still occasionally works as a comedian and actor but spends most of his time as an activist and advocate, working to raise funds for his hometown of Fukushima which was devasted by an earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent nuclear disaster in 2011.
“I want everyone to know the people of Fukushima are working hard,” he told the Associated Press in April 2024. “Life is gradually returning to what used to be in the exclusion zones. Of course, I realize the road to decommissioning the nuclear plants is still a long battle. But I would like people to know the Fukushima of today, feel hope by visiting Fukushima and watch Fukushima rebuild.”
The documentary marks 25 years since he found himself an unwitting participant in a reality TV show. “My instinct for survival kicked in, so I just had to survive and do whatever to get out of this. So I have to achieve this sweepstake goal to get out,” he told TVInsider, reflecting on his time on the show in an interview translated from Japanese.
“So whenever I got the little product in the contest, I got a joy—that was a really genuine joy that I felt, but it was at the same time it was a fight with solitude, loneliness, and all other things. So I realized that my heart was breaking little by little, and so I couldn’t really afford to think about making people laugh at the end. It was my instinct 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 long journey for me to make my heart into a positive action, geared to the positive things but when in 2011 went huge East Japan earthquake hit. I’m from Fukushima, so I went to the affected area, and people there were happy, encouraged by me. Because in this location, people were complaining about, “There’s no privacy, there’s not enough food,” and then they remember me. I had nothing, so I could tell them, ‘At least you have a human contact. It is very healthy for you that you are surrounded by those fellow people who care for each other.’”
He concluded: “So that kind of thing became bigger because of my experience of this reality show. I could help people in that way and give new hope. And say they said they realize, ‘Oh, you were eating dog food. We’re eating human food,’ that kind of thing. … Sometimes I felt like I shouldn’t have done the reality show, but now I feel like I had to live with it and make a use of it.”
The Contestant is available to stream on hulu now.