Original subtitles

If you put what we're about to show you in a movie,

I doubt anybody would believe it.

Centers on a man trying to win his way out of a tiny apartment.

Surviving just on the prizes from magazine sweepstakes.

It's the hit of the season.

Every week, more than 30 million people tune in

to watch some young hopeful enjoy intense hardship.

Japan's latest human experiment in popular television.

The producers say, he doesn't even know he's on television.

He could leave at any time. The door isn't locked.

His delight at winning is apparently genuine.

Even if it's dog food or something inedible.

We're trying to show the most basic primitive form of human being.

♪ How many days? ♪

♪ How many lies? ♪

♪ Oh, na, na, na, na, na, na ♪

♪ Na, na, na, na, na ♪

♪ Is there a way out? ♪

♪ Is there a way out? ♪

♪ Is there a way out? ♪

Hmm.

Hmm.

Hmm.

The show has become hugely popular.

It's a show dedicated to putting young people through endurance tests.

In the late 1990s,

I was the BBC Tokyo correspondent.

It just so happened that the BBC bureau was in the same building

as the production company

that was making Denpa Shonen.

So it was kind of in the air, the success of this program.

And all my Japanese colleagues were watching it.

Whenever the producer Tsuchiya came into the room,

you knew something big was gonna happen.

It was a show where unknown people

could make their name and become celebrities practically overnight.

It was astonishing.

Prize competitions.

People pin all their hopes and dreams

on just one postcard.

But whether you win or lose

is in the lap of the gods.

Now at the end of the 20th century,

for the first time in human history,

a man will attempt to live on competition prizes alone!

It's a snowy day in Tokyo.

January 1998

somewhere in the city...

What does Tsuchiya the producer say to these expectant participants?

Luck?

And then...

A lottery box is wheeled in.

Meticulous preparations have been made for this audition.

But for these young hopefuls, it is still shrouded in mystery.

Who is this lucky very man?

Nasubi!

And this guy's face is

long!

He's excited, shocked, and happy to have drawn the winning ticket.

Woo!

He thinks he's used up all his luck.

He has no clue that luck is the key to this challenge.

Oh!

Susunu! Denpa Shonen Challenge Number 1

will be...

Denpa Shonen A Life in Prizes.

At the time when there were all these competitions in magazines,

usually, all it consisted of was sending in

a postcard with your name and address on.

Whether you would win or not was in the hands of the gods.

Let's recap, there's a room

and inside the room, a table,

a pile of new postcards, a ballpoint pen,

a telephone, a radio, a floor cushion, an air conditioner

and lots of the latest issues of magazines.

The challenge is to see whether someone can survive on competition prizes alone.

Nasubi starts totally naked.

Using magazine and radio competitions,

he will diligently apply for prizes by postcard and phone.

As Nasubi's wealth grows and the room fills with prizes,

this program will bring you weekly progress reports.

The ultimate goal is to win prizes worth a total monetary value

of 1 million yen.

Only then will Nasubi's challenge come to an end.

A life in prizes! Go!

A diary!

"I have had to embark on this ludicrously absurd project

"and they have made me go naked.

But I'll just have to try to find enjoyment in everyday."

He enjoys himself.

Nasubi was completely naked so they had to cover up his genitalia

with something.

They started with a big black dot.

But Nasubi's name means eggplant

so they quickly switched that out for an emoji in the shape of an eggplant.

Which, as years have gone by, has now become

completely current parlance in emoji for penis.

So th-that's probably where it all started.

A total of 963 applications

and he has won

nothing!

"My head is full of thoughts of food.

"It doesn't matter what,

"but please let me win something.

I'm begging you."

Nasubi is intently writing his application postcards.

And then...

Hai?

"I've done it! I've won something."

Hey.

"Oh, that's cruel!

The gods and fate are too cruel!"

Hai?

What has he won?

"It is 12 cartons of fiber jelly made by Kibun food Chemifa."

Could it be rice?

♪ Dun-dun-da-da ♪

It's rice!

Nasubi has noticed something.

"I don't have a saucepan.

"I've put some rice in the used fiber jelly container.

"As an experiment I've soaked it

"in hot water from the tap to see what happens.

"If I leave it overnight,

I just hope something will have happened by the morning."

Well, was the experiment a success?!

"Disgusting..."

Next day...

"I put the rice I'd soaked in hot water near the gas ring

to see whether being next to the heat would have an effect."

Three hours later.

And what's the result of this experiment?

Oh!

Oh. Mm.

Mm.

Whoa!

Success!

"Once again, the gods have lent Nasubi a helping hand!"

"Normally my thoughts are how to survive this ordeal.

"And I don't have enough nutrition going to my brain to think of anything else.

"But recently my thoughts keep wandering to the outside world.

"Scenes of what it was like to be an ordinary person.

"The smiling faces of my family.

"It hurts my heart to think of my parents back in the countryside.

"I'm worried that my mom is shedding tears.

Worrying about her shabby, naked, idiotic son."

Nasubi does this week's winning dance with sake.

Ooh, ooh, ooh!

You just were rooting for him.

You were rooting for him to, to make it to the end.

Nasubi. Nasubi. Nasubi. Nasubi...

Nasubi. Nasubi.

It's sake!

Boiled beans,

chocolate,

a Pokémon desk mat.

"Esteemed rice, are you really going to abandon me?"

He's going to eat it!

Then...

But...

"Disgusting..."

And then...

A miracle has happened.

I'm proud of all the loot I've acquired

sitting behind me.

I concentrate on writing postcards as if my life depends on it.

I see the shadowy figures of people outside my window.

And hear the murmur of voices.

I'm lonely.

I feel like I want to cry, I'm so miserable.

Being alienated from human contact for this long,

makes you absolutely long for human warmth.

Nasubi. Nasubi. Nasubi.

Nasubi. Nasubi. Nasubi...

A globe.

A face pack.

Shoes.

This week's winning dance.

"The excitement of holding one in my hand

was like holding the petal of a forbidden flower."

"As I opened my mouth wide and placed the potato chip inside,

"I lost all awareness of that moment.

"It was as if something in my body had been released

and flown away."

Denpa Shonen had a pretty good audience

but this segment was totally different than anything they had done before.

And people started talking about it, and it gradually grew and grew.

And it became this sensation.

And it was one of the most successful and popular shows in Japan at the time.

Reality TV was not yet a thing.

The Truman Show which was that same sort of concept,

didn't come out till later the same year.

And Big Brother was a couple of years in the future.

Japanese television has always been famous for its extreme programs

in which participants undergo some very unusual acts of endurance.

Well now the most popular program has come up with a really bizarre feature.

He has no food and he only wears clothes

when he's won enough competitions to earn them.

I'm cold.

Another televised moment in the life of Nasubi.

It's all part of a new phenomenon which is called webcam.

Nasubi does know he's being filmed but he doesn't know why.

The audience aren't laughing at him.

They're laughing in sympathy.

Every week, more than 30 million people tune in.

The highlights of Nasubi's life are broadcast once a week.

The studio audience roar with laughter

at each new mishap or triumph.

When he reaches the target,

or he gives up, or goes crazy,

it's sure to be on TV.

Videos of his life and his diary are now bestsellers.

But not everyone in Japan is fascinated.

I think it's a rather bizarre and grotesque program.

Younger people seemed to find it funnier than older people.

People who had experienced hardship in their own lives,

you know, people who'd lived through the Second World War in Japan,

didn't think it was funny that he... the only thing he had to eat

was uncooked rice or dog food.

This is the control room.

Fifty staff wearing special T-shirts

are working 24 hours a day.

Due to high user levels, we apologize to those who had trouble connecting.

Protecting Nasubi's modesty with an eggplant

is an unprecedented challenge for live broadcast streaming.

Tensions can be high with some near misses.

Tschuiya the producer has entered Nasubi's room.

And then...

But...

He naps!

Hm.

Could it be a prize?

Nasubi has a full checkup.

According to the health report later received...

Nasubi is deemed to be in good health.

I asked the doctor if he thought it was dangerous to carry on.

He completely brushed it aside, saying I was young.

But I keep losing more and more hair.

I really notice how much my body hurts.

Having lost all awareness of days of the week,

my grip on reality cannot be relied upon.

For months, my life has just been a struggle

between sanity and madness.

Nasubi. Nasubi. Nasubi.

Nasubi...

Who am I? What am I doing? What am I living for?

Maybe it's all over and they're clearing up

and have forgotten about me.

Sometimes I wonder

if I'm even in Tokyo or in Japan.

Maybe I've been abducted by aliens.

What's the prize?

Two kilograms of rice is 750 yen.

Which means...

His total has reached 1,000,164 yen.

Which means!

He's reached his 1 million yen goal.

And his Life in Prizes is over!

That night

Mr. Tsuchiya enters his room.

Take a look.

He's using them to celebrate the goal.

Ooh!

But Nasubi doesn't seem to realize...

A Life in Prizes, Nasubi reaches his goal!

Oh!

His clothes are being returned!

Wearing clothes, he travels by car.

Then he arrives... somewhere.

Then the producer

removes the eye mask.

What does he see?

Nasubi gets a present of Korean BBQ meat to celebrate his goal.

And a day in an amusement park.

The producer treats Nasubi to a jar of kimchi.

And then...

Hmm.

But then...

Ooh.

Nasubi's new challenge starts now.

A Life in Prizes in Korea, go!

Aaaah?!

♪ Feelin' scared today ♪

♪ Write down: "I am ok" ♪

- ♪ Woo, ooh ♪ - ♪ Sticking around ♪

♪ For this shit ♪

♪ Ooh, ooh ♪

♪ Another day ♪

♪ Another day ♪

♪ Not another day ♪

"I'm frantically staying alive in this room.

"I never know what monsters are lying ahead in wait for me.

"Seriously

it is not impossible that I might die."

He had to learn Korean

in order to survive.

There is no correlation between

being able to read Japanese and being able to read Korean.

They are completely different languages.

It's unthinkable, really.

You are so cruel, Denpa Shonen.

I want to teach you a lesson.

This is my revelation.

Everything starts from now.

I'm on my countdown to going home.

Eh... oh...

By the time Nasubi reached Korea,

he really knew how to win these competitions.

So he, sort of, gamed the system

and was beating the producers at their own game.

But he still didn't know that he was well-known across Japan.

So then, his goal changes to first class.

Which means

his new goal is 81,600 yen.

Which means

to reach his goal he still needs 33,800 yen.

You can do it, Nasubi!

Ah!

He's gone past his goal of 81,600 yen.

But then...

Yikes! He's noticed!

Huh?

And then the producer says...

The producer leads Nasubi off.

Ah...

Oh! No, no, no! Ooh!

Uh...

Uh...

Hmm.

Yay!

Hm.

Whoa...

And the diaries in which Nasubi got everything off his chest...

Four volumes were made from the Japan series.

And one volume from Korea.

So far, 800,000 copies have been sold.

They've become best sellers.

I was invited to take part in

the press conference, that they called it.

It was actually an audience show.

They didn't know what I was gonna ask.

And...

I wanted to ask a provocative question.

Wow.

And that brings us to the end of Denpa Shonen's Naked Special.

Mm.

♪ Winter's city side ♪

♪ Crystal bits of snowflakes ♪

♪ All around my head and in the wind ♪

♪ I had no illusions ♪

♪ That I'd ever find a glimpse of ♪

♪ Summer heatwaves in your eyes ♪

♪ You did what you did to me ♪

♪ Now it's history, I see ♪

♪ Here's my comeback on the road again ♪

♪ Things will happen while they can ♪

♪ I will wait here for my man tonight ♪

♪ It's easy when you're big in Japan ♪

♪ When you're big in Japan ♪

♪ Tonight ♪

♪ Big in Japan ♪

♪ Be tight ♪

♪ Big in Japan ♪

♪ Big in Japan ♪

Nasubi!

Nasubi!

For those of you that are just tuning in,

a major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9

has hit Japan.

In the, uh, Japanese seismic scale, that is the maximum from 0 to 7.

The Meteorological Agency is issuing a tsunami warning

for Japan's Pacific coast.

The nuclear crisis at the Fukushima plant today,

a second explosion in one of the reactors.

Hi, namaste!

Breaking news this morning of a strong earthquake

measuring around about 7.5

hitting Nepal.

Oh...

♪ I believe ♪

♪ Love that's waiting for me ♪

♪ Love that's waiting for you ♪

♪ Yeah, I believe ♪

♪ Love that's waiting for me ♪

♪ Love that's waiting for you ♪

♪ There will be love there ♪

♪ There will be love there ♪