We have written before about some unusual services that Japan famously offers, including services that allow you to rent a fake family. But what about a service that would help you to just disappear completely? To just walk away from your life and start over again. This is probably something that you would expect to see in a crime TV series but believe it or not, it is something that exists in Japan to a certain extent.
In this article, we are going to talk about what is known as johatsu (蒸発) in Japanese, people who disappear from their lives voluntarily and the companies that help them make this happen. This phenomenon isn’t something that is reported on as frequently in Western media because it’s certainly not as lighthearted or as quirky as something like renting a family. The reality of johatsu is much darker and sadder. People would only voluntarily walk away from their lives for very serious reasons and often, their families are left to shoulder an enormous burden and carry the pain of not knowing what happened to them. So why does this happen? How are there companies openly able to assist with this? Let’s take a look at the strange phenomenon of johatsu and by extension, the “night moving” companies that help people to disappear.
What is Johatsu
Johatsu literally means “evaporation” and can be colloquially used to refer to a person who disappears from their own life intentionally without leaving a trace. An example of this is someone who simply walks away from their job and their family and starts a new life somewhere else with no evidence of their whereabouts. This is of course, by no means unique to Japan. You don’t have to look far in most countries to find cases of someone having been discovered living a new life with a new family far away from their old one. But something about the phenomenon in Japan, where companies exist to aid in this process, has caught on in the pop culture consciousness.
The term johatsu originated in the 1960s to refer to people who disappeared to flee unhappy marriages. The social stigma of divorce in Japan was very high at the time and rather than face it, people would simply vanish. The phenomenon continued, becoming especially prevalent in the Japanese media in the 1990s as the Japanese economy worsened and people attempted to flee debts or failed businesses simply by intentionally going missing. Ongoing theories about why people choose to do this are varied with the most common theory being that societal pressure and work culture in Japan sometimes drives people to flee their existing lives. While there have definitely been cases of this, the reality is that people have many different reasons to want to escape their lives. While johatsu is something that definitely happens, the majority of it appears to be more in the realm of people fleeing debt or abusive relationships.
The Reality of Johatsu: The Statistics
A lot of articles about johatsu tend to exaggerate actual statistics of the phenomenon, conflating total missing person numbers with johatsu cases. People go missing for many different reasons such as diseases like dementia or criminal reasons like abduction. Japan has on average 80,000 to 100,000 missing person cases per year with the numbers remaining consistent since the 1950s. This may seem high at first glance but it’s actually quite low compared to many developed nations. Compare it, for example, to the UK which has a little over half the population of Japan but has an average of 170,000 missing person cases per year.
Of those people that go missing each year in Japan, typically around 95% of them are located. Of the remaining number, only a few are likely to be cases of johatsu. There are claims that a significant number of disappearances go unreported which is possibly true but even so, statistically the number of actual johatsu is likely to be low. With that said, there is no doubt that it exists and there are companies that operate openly in supporting people who want to vanish in Japan.
Night Movers
This is where the existence of yonige-ya comes into play. Often translated as “Night Movers”, these companies assist people in fleeing from their lives and starting new ones. Night moving companies offer services for those who need to escape from a bad situation. This has sometimes been romanticized but the fact is that most cases that yonige-ya deal with are those of people fleeing domestic violence or abuse. This often involves moving a person and their possessions late at night to a new location which is where the name comes from. Night movers have some overlap with private detective agencies and it is sometimes a service offered by these agencies.
The fees charged by these companies vary greatly depending on the severity of the case and how much needs to be moved. One company’s website lists its fees between 50,000 to 300,000 yen depending on factors like the distance to be moved, items to be disposed of and paperwork to be completed. Night moving companies can also refer people on to lawyers or counselling, assisting with things such as dealing with debt collectors or filling in paperwork with city hall. As far as the legal grounds for these companies go, as long as they are not assisting in a criminal act, it is not illegal for them to assist someone in running away in the middle of the night.
Running Away in The Modern Age
With an abundance of technology in existence, one would think it would be more difficult for a person to disappear but the concept of johatsu still remains an ongoing concern in Japan. With more and more pressure mounting up in everyday life, many people feel the temptation to abandon it all and run away. From a distance, Japan should be a country that is hard to disappear from. City halls keep detailed records of people who move in and out of their districts. Things like healthcare and tax records are meticulously kept. On the other hand, there are strict privacy laws preventing loved ones or detectives from accessing records that would help locate someone. It is possible to voluntarily disappear but it’s understandable that you would need help to do it.
The other side of johatsu is what happens to families and friends left behind. People go missing for many reasons and the people left are always stuck with the pain of not knowing exactly what happened or why. Even if it is a topic that is somewhat taboo and rarely spoken about, johatsu remains a very real part of modern Japanese culture.
