2023-12-09
4 分钟What if someone close to you just … vanished one day? That happens to tens of thousands of families a year in Japan, and it happened to Jake Adelstein, too, back in 2018 — when his accountant disappeared, just before tax day. Adelstein, the author of Tokyo Vice, and co-host Shoko Plambeck go in search of that missing accountant, and take us on a journey into the fascinating and bizarre world of Japan’s johatsu, or “evaporated” people. Subscribe now to unlock all shows on The Binge -All Episodes. All at Once... and you’ll be the first to access The Evaporated: Gone with the Gods as soon as it drops on December 12, 2022. A Campside Media & Sony Music Entertainment production. Find out more about The Binge and other podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Something really shady is going on here with Morimoto.
Morimoto's gone.
He has disappeared.
What if someone close to you just vanished?
The older generation sees these things happening and think, well, this is Kamikakushi, isn't it?
Of course it is.
They'll be taken away by the spirits.
Disappearing without a trace is something that's been part of the japanese cultural imagination for hundreds of years.
Back in the day, it was called kamikakushi, or hidden away by the gods.
Nowadays, we have other words for it.
There's shiso, to simply disappear, or johatsu, literally to evaporate.
Every year, over 80,000 people are reported missing in Japan.
Every cop knows they are born.
I put the number at three times that amount.
Almost anyone who lives in Japan probably knows someone.
A friend of a friend.
Or maybe it's your own friend who went missing.
I've worked in Japan for 30 years as an investigative journalist and a crime reporter.
Unfortunately, I'm used to people being here one day and gone the next.
She was supposed to be a normal woman, happy, interested by Japan.