Johatsu, the people who disappear in Japan – Martians

In Japanese society, one word evokes a complex and disconcerting reality: Johatsu. This term, which literally translates as “evaporated people,” defines an intriguing yet heartbreaking human phenomenon. There are terrible days where our only option seems to be to send everything to hell, disappear and abandon our social responsibilities forever. It is a very bitter feeling, and a truly disturbing desire. However, for some Japanese the desire to disappear does not remain a simple wish. Imagine what it would be like if one day you disappeared. In no way are we referring to something that has no remedy, but to the possibility of delete your identity from one day to the next.

It is an opportunity where even the government offers you assistance to carry out the process, with one condition: that you explain your tragedy. Every year, this is the fate of thousands of Japanese citizens. Sanya It is a district very far from the center of Tokyo, it is located to the south in the vicinity of Yoshino-dori. During the 1960s the neighborhood enjoyed some popularity, but over time it even changed its name and fragmented into several communities.

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No matter where you come from, when you arrive in Sanya you will find a very particular atmosphere: a culture very different from the capital, full of people where no one talks or knows each other and, even stranger, they seem to be very comfortable with this situation.

Johatsu, those that evaporate overnight.

This small region seems like a magnet for johatsu (“evaporated people”). Obviously they do not master any type of magic or supernatural art, but their intention bears certain similarities. What they once were, can never be again. Most of these individuals were tormented by the shame of a lost job, perhaps the unexpected failure of a marriage, or a debt that grew so large that it became unpayable.

Whatever the reason, There are thousands of Japanese citizens who renounce their identity and seek the protection of the anonymous world. The book The Vanished: The “Evaporated People of Japan”, the work of journalists and photographers Léna Mauger and Stéphane Remael, gives us an account of these surreal stories. It is a small window into what is happening with a fraction of current Japanese society, although the stories of these people who flee modern society out of shame They go back many years in the past.

The failures.

Ichiro is part of the evaporated people. In the 1980s he made a living as a martial arts teacher, while his wife devoted herself completely to his son. At a certain point they decided to leave Tokyo, apply for a loan from the bank and open a restaurant around the city.

However, the business failed in a very short time, Ichiro saw that his debt was impossible to pay and made the decision to follow the same path as thousands of his compatriots: they sold their property, packed up their belongings and fled. The difference is that they did it forever, as if he had died. It is estimated that since the mid-1990s, an average of 100 thousand men and women in Japan disappear every year.

These people plan their own disappearances, banishing themselves from society along with their tragedies: debts, loss of a job, divorces or even failure in an exam. The curious thing about this phenomenon is that individuals can disappear because there is another social structure, under Japanese society itself, where They can start new lives and get other jobshaving the possibility of forgetting a past full of failures.

“Social outcasts.”

In fact, when these people disappear they know they can find a way to survive. According to what he relates in the book Mauger:

“They are lost souls but, it turns out, they live in lost cities of their own creation. The Sanya district is an example, a large number of neighborhoods within Tokyo, whose names were removed by the government. In these places, the johatsu “They live in tiny hotel rooms, often without Internet or private bathrooms.”

The johatsu have increased among Japanese society in important historical stages: after the aftermath of World War II, when national shame was at its highest point, and after the financial crises of 1989 and 2008. In a way, the shadow of economy emerged to serve those who never want to be found again, those who want to make their disappearances look like kidnappings, or their homes look like they have been robbed.

That’s how it all started.

Evaporating is more like an administrative disappearance. The johatsu choose to change their names, address and relationship with any business. For the Japanese, this emergency exit can be surprisingly easy. Japanese privacy laws give citizens the ability to keep their whereabouts secret. In fact, only in criminal cases are the police authorized to extract personal information from criminals. johatsuand family members cannot search financial records.

It is believed that this social phenomenon skyrocketed in the late 1960s. At the beginning of the 1970s, multiple cases of young workers in the countryside and rural areas appeared who fled from the hard jobs in big cities. Mauger refers to Night-Time Movers as one of the main companies in charge of “cleaning” an identity.

The founder of this company is a guy named Shou Hatori who at one point worked as a moving service until one night, at a karaoke bar, a woman approached him and asked if she could make an arrangement for him to “disappear along with her.” with its furniture.” The woman confessed that she could not bear her husband’s debts, a situation that was ruining her life. Hatori charged $3,500 for that first move. Since then, his franchise has only grown and today it is gigantic, practically serving all kinds of people and social levels.

However, as the journalists relate in their book, whatever the reason that leads a Japanese citizen to disappear, it is no less painful than the boomerang effect that is unleashed on their families, who for their part are ashamed of having a missing family member, to the extent that they choose not to report it to the police.

This is the phenomenon of johatsuanother relief valve for Japanese pressure. Some estimates They point out that 20% of these disappearances end in death (even by suicide), but as long as there is no complaint, law enforcement agents are not obliged to go further.