We’ve all seen our fair share of wild reality TV—from contestants eating bugs in the jungle to couples breaking up in front of millions.
But nothing, truly nothing, compares to what happened nearly 30 years ago on a Japanese show called Susunu! Denpa Shonen.
It wasn’t just another extreme format. It was something darker, something disturbing—and now, thanks to a chilling new documentary, the world is being reminded of the price one man paid for the sake of entertainment.
The Premise That Became a Psychological Prison
Back in the late 1990s, a young aspiring comedian named Tamaoki Hamatsu—later nicknamed “Nasubi,” meaning “eggplant”—agreed to take part in what he believed was a quirky experiment.
The deal? He would be locked in a tiny apartment in Japan, stripped of all clothes and contact with the outside world, and forced to survive purely on prizes won from magazine sweepstakes.
He thought only a small portion of the footage would ever be shown—if at all.
What he didn’t know was that his every moment—naked, starving, desperate—was being broadcast weekly to a captivated audience of 17 million viewers across Japan.
A Game Show Masquerading as Torture
The man behind the show, producer Toshio Tsuchiya, had pitched himself to Nasubi as a creative genius. At the time, Nasubi idolized him.
But as the days turned into months—335 of them to be exact—the challenge became a twisted display of human endurance and manipulation. Nasubi didn’t eat unless he won food.
He didn’t talk to anyone. The only thing he was given was a dirty cushion to cover himself, and even that became a joke for the audience.
Eventually, Tsuchiya admitted on camera that he had lied to Nasubi about the show’s reach.
“I told him most of it wouldn’t be aired,” he said, smiling.
Cameras, Cartoons, and Cruel Edits
While Nasubi starved and submitted nearly a thousand sweepstake entries without winning anything in the first 10 days, producers edited the footage into six-minute segments full of slapstick sound effects, silly music, and censor bars shaped like eggplants.
They superimposed humorous captions over footage of him dancing around naked, eating dog food, or reacting in joy when he finally won something.
Behind the scenes, the production crew was instructed not to speak to Nasubi—not even once.
“The challenge was about being alone,” Tsuchiya explained coldly.
But as Nasubi said later, the silence felt more like cruelty than discipline.
Family in Shock, Nation in Laughter
While Nasubi remained in the dark, his family watched helplessly as their brother and son appeared naked and increasingly gaunt on national television.
His sister, Ikuyo, described the moment she first saw him on screen: “What are you doing? You’re joking! I felt angry, sad, and embarrassed.
A grown man, my little brother, naked on TV.”
The show, once dubbed “the naughty boy” of Japanese television, was far from harmless entertainment to those who actually knew Nasubi.
From Japan to South Korea—And Back Again
When Nasubi finally reached the goal of earning one million yen (about $8,000) in prizes, the way Tsuchiya broke the news was horrifying.
He woke him up in the middle of the night by bursting party poppers in his face under bright lights.
Then, instead of congratulating him and letting him go, the producer flew him to South Korea to do it all over again for an international version.
This continued for another 99 days—434 in total. Nasubi believed he was being abducted by aliens.
He was so disoriented that when he returned to Japan and entered a new apartment, he stripped naked, expecting more of the same torment.
But this time, the walls fell away to reveal a TV studio and a cheering live audience.
It was the first time he realized millions had been watching.
Nasubi’s Transformation and the Weight of Betrayal
The betrayal ran deep. “At the audition, Tsuchiya was like a god to me,” Nasubi told British filmmaker Clair Titley.
“But from that point on, he became the devil.” And Tsuchiya? He was still unapologetic.
“If the person didn’t want to live, I’d have gone too far,” he admitted. “But it’s hard to know at the time.”
Tsuchiya is still active in the television industry. He owns a production company and even teaches part-time at the University of Tokyo. He’s written books.
He’s called what he captured during those 15 months “extraordinary.”
A Climb Toward Healing
Despite everything, Nasubi found a way to reclaim his story.
In 2016, he climbed Mount Everest—not for glory, but to raise awareness about the Fukushima earthquake disaster and to transform his trauma into a source of purpose.
Tsuchiya helped him fundraise for the climb as part of a personal redemption arc.
Still, forgiveness has been difficult. In a Reddit AMA, Nasubi admitted, “There is still something in me that hates him.”
But he’s also learned to see meaning in the suffering: “I realised that instead of regretting my past, I have to learn to live with it… and turn it into something useful.”
The Documentary That Reopens Old Wounds
The Contestant, airing on BBC One under the Storyville banner, brings this shocking story back into the spotlight.
It lays bare the twisted reality behind one of the most infamous shows in television history—and the real human cost that came with it.
If you think reality TV is outrageous now, just wait until you watch this.