Mystery behind Japan’s disappearing people

What drives thousands in Japan to vanish without a trace, erasing their past to start anew?

Transcript

00:00Imagine knowing someone for years and then they disappear without a trace.

00:04For decades, it has been a real social and cultural phenomenon in Japan.

00:07The Japanese call it Johatsu.

00:09People intentionally vanishing to start afresh, cutting all ties to their previous existence.

00:14People hire disappearance agencies and call Unigeya, paying a fee for new identities or plastic surgeries.

00:20They quietly erase every trace of you overnight and then they help you start over.

00:25New life, new name.

00:26That is how some go Johatsu.

00:28They vanish like steam.

00:30Johatsu is the Japanese word meaning evaporating people,

00:33originally used to describe those who disappeared during the post-World War II era.

00:37The places Sanya in Tokyo and Kamagasaki in Osaka are known as liberated zones

00:42where Johatsu individuals sometimes resurface.

00:45These areas are notable because IDs are not strictly checked,

00:48allowing people to live without formal identification.

00:51According to China's state news agency, Jinua,

00:53Japan recorded 84,910 missing person cases in 2022 alone,

00:58marking the second consecutive year of increase.

01:00Not all these are Johatsu,

01:02but the rising numbers reflect a growing sense of disconnection and silent retreat in Japanese society.

01:07Some who vanish eventually find their way back years later,

01:10only to return to homes where their absence has settled into silence and family shame.

01:14Others remain ghosts in the world,

01:16living out their days in the stillness of anonymity.