BHA56: The Horrific Japanese ‘Truman Show’ of 1998

July 31, 2023

Would you believe me if I told that in 1998, a real Japanese man would be tricked into a survival-horror version of the ‘Truman Show’ in real life? Would you then believe me that this broadcast got upwards of 17 million viewers at a time, and that it was all broadcast and sold under the genre of “comedy”?

Well believe it or not, it happened, and this week on Black Hoodie Alchemy I’m explaining the entire harrowing experience of Tomoaki Hamatsu on this gameshow — the man forever dubbed now as “Nasubi” (which means “eggplant” in Japanese).

You can listen to the show right here or anywhere you stream your podcast action!

Through gameshow producers dangling the carrots of fame, glory, and honor in the name a burgeoning comedy career for Nasubi, this man became a contestant of a show that saw him locked naked in a room with nothing but a pillow, a radio, pencils, and index cards to write on in order to enter in as many sweepstakes as he wanted. Nasubi would have to do this — surviving off of only what he won through the sweepstakes and with no other contact with the outside world — until he won $10,000 worth of sweepstakes prizes.

Nasubi would have to endure these conditions for over a year, with more twists and turns than you could imagine! How was all of this legal, how did this man survive this full-on existential nightmare, and what is he doing now? All this and more on this week’s Black Hoodie Alchemy!

I hope you dig it.

As Within So Without: From UFOs to DMT (the doc I was featured in recently that you can watch here for free!)

my LINKTREE — with Youtube, Instagram, links to my books DIVE MANUAL and HUNT MANUAL and all that shit!

Show Notes:

NY Post – Real Life Truman Show

The Eggplant and Everest

Interview with Nasubi

Months of Isolation in Horrifying Reality Show

Web Archive Play-by-Play article

Dystopian Nightmare of Nasubi

Interview with Nasubi & the Gameshow Creator (separately)

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