Hikikomori

Masaru Emoto, for most of his life, was an ordinary middle-manager for a newspaper. Then one day he stepped out of the shadows to announce that he had discovered a new fundamental force in the universe - emotional water memory. Check my album, Ruined Numbers , for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream the album on Spotify or YouTube Mu...

We continue covering the environmental disaster that resulted in Minamata Disease, how those responsible knowingly continued to harm all living things around them with mercury, and the legacy that the dozens of mass poisonings by corporations left on Japan Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page , and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we...

We start a 2-parter on what might be the most terrifying man-made environmental disaster in Japanese history, namely the purposeful, prolonged and secret dumping of toxic waste into coastal waters by multiple Japanese chemical companies, some of which are still around and thriving. Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page , and she is also the co-host of our horror mov...

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page , and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast . Check my album, Ruined Numbers , for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream the album on Spotify or YouTube Music. Enjoy! You can also find me on Twitter @...

The continued US military presence in Okinawa has long been a complex and thorny issue, particularly for the locals who frequently suffer the consequences of their occupation in 1945 never quite ending. We look at the moments over the past 80 years that have proven pivotal to the anti-base movement in Okinawa. Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page , and she is also...

Following from the high-profile case of Mai Watanabe, aka Itadaki-Joshi, we look at the reason why she conned millions of yen - to support her favourite host. Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page , and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast . Check my album, Ruined Numbers , for sale on Bandcamp! It'...

Today we look at the evolution of "compensated dating" into its modern form, "Papa-Katsu", where women seek out sugar daddies as a form of sex work. We also consider the con-artist Mai Watanabe, known more widely as Itadaki Joshi, who made headlines across the world for her merciless acts of fraud. Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page , and she is also the co-host...

Content Warning: Mass Murder It's rough. Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page , and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast . Check my new album, Ruined Numbers , for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream the album on Spotify or YouTube Mu...

Following on from the previous episode's theme of eugenics in Japan, we look at how individuals who express eugenic beliefs can impact the world around them in horrific, horrific ways. Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page , and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast . Check my new album, Ruined Numbe...

In 1948 the Japanese Government, still under firm control by the Allied occupation forces, wrote into law the Eugenic Protection Law. While this law was similar to the myriad of pro-eugenic laws across the world, Japan's eugenics law is notable for having been only repealed in the 90s. Today's guest is Kieran Bennett! You can follow him via his Twitter profile , or check out his portfolio of video...

We made it! The completely arbitrary milestone of 100 that's solely meaningful to humans because of our bias towards base 10! To celebrate, here's a nice story about an island covered in the cutest rabbits you've ever seen, also a poison gas factory. Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page , and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do tog...

We continue the most famous and baffling fraud case of modern Japan with the tale of Mamoru Samuragochi. This week we examine exactly how the supposed deaf composer was able to get away with presenting another person's compositions as his own for 18 years. Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page , and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we...

Born as a second-generation Hibakusha, that is to say a child of Hiroshima A-bomb survivors, Mamoru Samuragochi faced hardship, prejudice and increasing illness throughout his life. Despite these enormous setbacks, he became one of the most respected and successful musical composers in Japan, despite becoming almost entirely deaf. He was also a liar. Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her...

Today, the JWs have as many as 250,000 adherents in Japan, despite having an extremely rocky start in the country in the early 1930s. In recent years, the JWs have experienced controversy in the media and courts once again, this time for serious allegations of abuse of its own members and children.   Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page , and she is also the co-hos...

When the AIDs epidemic began tearing its way through gay communities throughout the world, there was almost no effort made by governments to address the escalating health crisis whatsoever.  Even when heat-treated blood became available, pharmaceutical companies were strangely reluctant to offer these newer, safer products, particularly in South America and Asia, but no country was quite as ruthle...

Weather News Live is a 24-hour a day stream dedicated to reporting the weather... sort of. It has gained huge popularity on the internet over the last few years with live shows hosted by "Casters", young women who have attracted huge fanbases. By far the most popular has been Saya Hiyama who, in mid-2023, found herself at the centre of a controversy normally only reserved for those in the Idol ind...

We end our series on Miyoko Sumida by looking at possibly her most disturbing family invasion with the Oe household, as well as how this eventually led to her accidental arrest and the fall of the Sumida gang. We also find out how the Yakuza hides bodies (allegedly). Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page , and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podca...

We continue covering the disturbing crimes of Miyoko Sumida and her family, as she infiltrates and rips apart two more families. Today we look at how she added her loyal enforcer, Masanori Ri, and her presumed heir, Tanimoto Rui, to her organisation. Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page , and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do tog...

Miyoko Sumida was a psychopath with a disturbing ability to manipulate others for her own ends. She was also seemingly obsessed with keeping other people by making them members of her family though marriage and adoption. In a horrifying 25-year career of criminal gang activity and serial murder, Sumida became more cult leader than yakuza. Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Inst...

Yoshikazu Suzuki was a perennially-failing music shop salesman, and in the early 90s his debt had amounted to an astronomical level. His plan to get himself out of this debt was to rise above this, literally, by following in the footsteps of Lawnchair Larry. Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page , and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that w...

In April of 2018, the writer Elif Batuman had an article published in The New Yorker, titled "Japan's Rent-a-Family Industry". It explored a cultural phenomenon in Japan, that of agencies where one could hire an actor to perform in a social interaction that would be otherwise awkward or impossible. It became such a popular and celebrated article that it would win the National Magazine Award for th...

The Glico-Morinaga Case began in 1984, when the CEO of the Glico Corporation was kidnapped, naked from his home during a bath. While that kidnapping resolved itself fairly rapidly, what followed was a campaign of fear across Japan, as a mysterious organisation began threatening to poison the public's food. Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page , and she is also the...

Content Warning: Murder. In the months after the Osaka Dog-Lover Serial Murders ended, but before the perpetrator of that case was caught, a completely separate but weirdly similar case occurred in Saitama. Gen Sekine, a fairly successful dog breeder and utter psychopath, decided that the best way to dig himself out of financial trouble was to kill his way out. Today's guest is Cassie! You can fin...

Content Warning: Murder We return to murder with the serial murders that took place in Osaka in 1992. Over a period of 4 months, the ultimate fail-son Yoshinori Ueda used a chemical used to euthanise dogs to subdue and murder 5 people.  Today's guest is Cassie! You can find her via her Twitter . Also be sure to check out her Vtuber persona, Sleep Panda Mei , who streams on Twitch ! Check my new al...

Today we explore the working class industrial art movement called "Dekotora", where truckers decorated their vehicles in outrageous and totally bitchin' styles. We also visit a modern day comparison to Dekotora, the phenomenon of "Itasha", or "painful cars"... If you want to see a gallery of the vehicles we're talking about today, check out this unlocked Patreon Post with all the relevent pics . T...