In Japan, people disappear in large numbers, helped by a booming “evaporation” industry.
Are you in debt? Are you stuck in a bad marriage? Do you face legal action? If you live in Japan, the answer to your problem is simple. Evaporate!
Who hasn’t thought (at least once) of disappearing to solve some annoying problems like debts or a bad marriage? In Japan, it is part of the culture.
Right around the world, people routinely disappear but in Japan, it has reached proportions never seen elsewhere. It is estimated that 100,000 people disappear each year. Some will be found at some point in the future but Police estimate that over 10% of all reported missing persona are “evaporated”, never to return to their old life. That’s around 11,000 people each year.
Akari was severely abused by her husband. She eventually reached a point where she could no longer take the beatings. She decided to become a “jouhatsu”, a term used to describe an “evaporated person”.
They are people who intentionally disappear and forever conceal their whereabouts from key people in their “past life”.
Akari hired a special “evaporation” agency (called yonige-ya or fly-by-night shop) to help her and her children disappear.
Depending on circumstances, the agency charges between $500 and $3000 for their service. In extreme situations they can charge up to $12,000 depending on the kind of move required, the number of people involved and the amount of personal possessions that needs to be shifted.
The agency can manage all aspects of the evaporation including finding a new place for the evaporated to live.
One morning, Akari’s husband left for work. The yonige-ya agency immediately moved in with a large truck and a van. Akari helped a team of six workers quickly fill up the truck with furniture and personal belongings. A seventh team-member was following her husband to ensure that he did not somehow return home.
It was a big operation but in no time, they were on the road heading for Akari’s new apartment in another city. The agency took care of everything, from finding the apartment to safely moving Akari, her two children and their possessions.
Akari’s husband would have returned from work to find a house virtually empty and his family missing. Divorce papers were left on the kitchen bench. He is unlikely to ever find his wife even though she is still using the same phone number. The police or any other government agency are powerless to help him.
In Japan, People’s “evaporation” is made possible by some of the world’s toughest privacy laws. The Japanese Constitution is clear about people’s rights:
“All of the people shall be respected as individuals. Their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness shall, to the extent that it does not interfere with the public welfare, be the supreme consideration in legislation and in other governmental affairs”.
Any law that does not strictly respect this “supreme consideration” is unconstitutional. This is a unique example of a Collectivist culture with strong constitutional protection for individual rights, including a right to the pursuit of happiness.
The right to privacy is derived from the right to pursue happiness, which means everything and nothing at the same time. This is probably why it needed a Supreme Court ruling.
A 1969 Japanese Supreme Court ruling prohibited reckless or arbitrary disclosure of information about an individual’s private life. It ruled that citizens’ liberty in private life shall be protected against the exercise of public authority.
Privacy is thus sacrosanct in Japan. If someone evaporates and the Police know where the person is, they cannot reveal anything to the family.
All kinds of people disappear in Japan. Proud men who cannot face the shame of losing their job orchestrate their own evaporation and restart a new life elsewhere. Students who fail their exams and cannot face their family are also potential evaporated. Evaporation is the perfect solution to a lot of short-term problems.
Detective agencies are often hired by those left behind. Most of the time, they hit the privacy wall and cannot find anyone who will help them with the investigation. Occasionally, they find that the evaporated person has committed suicide, not able to cope with the hardship of a new life away from comfortable habits and established social networks.
Japan PI is a detective service that helps locate missing persons. On its website, it makes clear that the privacy laws in Japan severely limit investigative work:
“Investigative services in Japan differ greatly from those in other countries. There are strict privacy laws and there are no instantaneous search databases that allow investigators to locate individuals’ addresses from a first and last name”.
“The majority of government records, which are often open to the public in other countries, are strictly confidential in Japan.”
“The Act on Protection of Personal Information (effective since April 1, 2005) severely limits the acquisition of personal information by the public.”
Standards investigative techniques common to other countries (such as following a person on CCTV) simply do not work in Japan. In order to find people, Japan PI focuses on the following:
- Records of outgoing phone calls before and after the disappearance
- Home/mobile phone statements
- Credit card statement
- ATM and/or credit card activity
- Computer history
- Personal belongings left behind
- Paid bills
Sometimes, years go by before any sign of the missing person is found, if any.
After missing for 7 years, a person can be declared dead for legal purposes such as insurance claims. However, many “dead” people in Japan are still alive. They are just living in another town.
Although it is more common for a single person to evaporate, there has been many examples of couples disappearing together. When facing insurmountable debts, couples cash up their leftover assets and disappear with the money to restart a new life without debts.
It’s like a video game. If you don’t like the current game, you just hit the reset button and start with a new life.
Evaporation is taboo in Japan. People simply do not talk about it, just like they never talk about suicide. It took a 2008 investigation by a French journalist to shed some light on the issue. She discovered a slum in Tokyo controlled by the local mafia where employers go to find cheap labour. Most of the people living in the slum are evaporated, living under an assumed name and without proper identification papers.
In Japan, the issue of people evaporating is so serious that some politicians have suggested implementing new laws to stop it. Unfortunately the constitution is the main stumbling block because it gives anyone the right to disappear without a trace. Or more accurately, they disappear with a trace that nobody is allowed to follow.