I'm convinced this is the worst reality TV show ever, and you probably have never heard of it

Reality TV has given us some really weird moments over the years. We’ve seen people eating bugs and what not! But nothing comes close to what Japan came up with in the late 90s. A man was locked inside a bare apartment with no clothes and no food. The only way he could survive was by winning prizes through mail-in sweepstakes. If this doesn't sound like torture, I don't know what does. The weirder thing is that millions of people tuned in every week to watch that.

The man was Tomoaki Hamatsu, better known by his nickname Nasubi, which means eggplant in Japanese. He got that name because of his long face. Also, interestingly, the show had to cover his nudity with an eggplant graphic on screen. Nasubi was an aspiring comedian who had won a lottery for what he thought was a showbusiness-related job. He thought it would be his big break so he agreed to join a new Japanese reality TV series called Susunu! Denpa Shōnen. But he didn’t know that this decision would trap him in one of the strangest television experiments ever created.

Nasubi was blindfolded and taken to a secret apartment. He was then told to strip down completely. From then on, he had to survive only with the prizes he won. There would be no outside contact whatsoever. No TV or radio connection was provided either. The only thing he got was piles of magazines with sweepstakes entry forms and stacks of postcards to mail them in. He hoped that he’d eventually collect enough winnings to reach one million yen, which was about $8,000 at the time.

Nasubi thought the footage would be edited and shown later. But it was being broadcast live and re-aired weekly to an audience of millions.

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Reality TV gone too far: The Nasubi experiment

In the beginning, Nasubi tried hard to win clothing because being naked felt humiliating. But hunger soon changed his priorities. He realized food had to come first. For the first few days, the producers gave him a handful of crackers so he wouldn’t starve. But once he managed to win sugary drinks, even that safety net disappeared.

His first win came when he won seven pots of fiber jelly, which he devoured. Later, he managed to win a bag of rice so big that he actually knelt down and prayed in front of it. Viewers loved his reactions, but for him it was survival. He even started talking to a stuffed toy he had won, naming it Bi-nasu, because he had no one else to talk to. That’s the kind of loneliness he lived with for over a year as a part of the reality TV show.

The producers of the reality TV show didn’t make things easier. In fact, they messed with him. They prank-called him pretending he had won, only to reveal it was a joke. Once, they even sent a ramen delivery guy to the door. Nasubi believed food had finally arrived. But then the man realized he had the wrong address and left. On top of that, Nasubi sometimes had to survive on dog food for months, which horrified audiences of the reality TV show but kept them watching.

Over time, he did win more. He got a bicycle, a television, a PlayStation, and even a pop idol’s used underwear, which he awkwardly tried to wear. The prizes he received weren’t always helpful. The underwear didn’t fit. He got movie tickets he couldn’t use, and even car tires. He couldn’t use the TV, of course, because there was no antenna in the apartment and also because the producers didn't want him to know that the reality TV show was being aired.

Eventually, he won a VCR and some tapes, which gave him a little more entertainment. A PlayStation game kept him occupied for days, and some fans even say this made him the first-ever game streamer. But everything he did was in isolation, broadcast to millions of people without him knowing. That’s the kind of reality TV show this was.

The producers later moved him into different rooms. And he had to start over more than once. The rules of the reality TV show never changed. He had to keep winning sweepstakes until he reached the million-yen mark. He even ended up in South Korea once, where he was forced to do the challenge all over again. But this time to win enough for a plane ticket home. The producers kept raising the bar from economy to business class, then first class. After several weeks of effort, he met his goal and was blindfolded once again and brought back to Japan. In total, it took him fifteen long months to finally reach the prize goal. He even set a Guinness World Record for “longest time survived on competition winnings.”

When the blindfold finally came off in Japan, he thought he had to take up another challenge and so he instinctively stripped his clothes. But then Nasubi discovered that he had become a national celebrity, with an average of 17 million people watching his ordeal every week, when he saw a live audience cheering for him after he stripped his clothes. And that's when he realized he had been a household name, a reality TV star, the entire time.

Nasubi has looked back on the reality TV experience and called it “cruel.” He told Deadline:

"The only thing I could do is to write and mail in to win the sweepstakes. There is no happiness of my life. There is no freedom… But that was not edited into the program, that was not shown. Maybe three or five minutes a week out of my life [were shown]. And that was edited to highlight my happiness when I won [a prize]. Of course, viewers would say, ‘Oh, see, he’s doing something fun and something that he’s enjoying…’ But the majority of my life was suffering.”

Despite that, he doesn’t seem bitter. In fact, he says he wouldn’t want to do that reality TV show again but also wouldn’t be the person he is without it.

His story has been revisited in the documentary The Contestant, directed by Clair Titley. She was fascinated by the absurdity of the challenge, and by the deeper questions it raised.

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Reality TV star Nasubi reflects: Reddit AMA

In a Reddit AMA, Nasubi shared his side of the story:

"Hello everyone! You may be familiar with my story, which has been shared over the years on Reddit. In 1998 in Japan, I won an audition to take part in a challenge. I was led into a room, ordered to strip naked, and left with a stack of magazines and postcards. My task was to enter contests in order to win food, clothing and prizes to survive, until I reached the prize goal of 1 million yen. This lasted 15 months, all while 15 million people watched me – without my consent. "

He also reflected on his life and outlook:

"Thank you everyone so much for your questions. I really enjoyed reading them and connecting with you all. You might think of me as an unhappy person from the videos of me, but I'm not. I have a team of people and family who support me, and I want to share that even with a little happiness, humans can thrive. Even a little happiness and hope can bring you an abundance of joy in your life."

Fans responded with admiration. Black_Belt_Troy wrote:

"Hi Nasubi! Your outlook on life and the kindness that shapes your thoughts and words is really inspiring. I hope you have a long and peaceful life full of wonderful and satisfying experiences. Thank you for speaking with us today!"

Another Redditor, Aletheia_is_dead asked:

"Did they keep you against your will at some point? How did you go so long? Did you know it was going to be that long? What kept you there?"

Nasubi replied:

"I didn't think that the competition would last that long. The door wasn't locked, but I was determined to stay with it until the end. You could say it was Yamato Spirit, or Japanese spirit, I would not quit."

Fans were also curious about Nasubi’s Mount Everest climb. One Redditor asked if he actually climbed it and if it was the reality TV show that influenced his decision. Nasubi replied:

"The show didn't really influence me to climb Everest, but before I made the summit, I failed three times. During the difficult process of attempting the summit, my experience on Denpa Shōnen may actually have helped prepare me to endure the extreme environment and temperatures on the mountain (it got down to -30-40 C). As far as motivation, in 2011 East Japan earthquake devastated Fukushima, and I wanted to draw awareness on an International stage to the tragedy by climbing Everest."

The fan, Boreol, responded in awe:

"Jesus! Failing the trek 3 times, still persisting and reaching the summit so you could spread awareness about a catastrophe? I have so much respect for you, damn! We need more people like you on this planet. I'm not even exaggerating, we really do."

Fans were left absolutely blown away by Nasubi. Not just for surviving the strangest reality TV show ever, but for the strength and perseverance, he shows in life beyond it. The man found a way to move forward and even use his past to inspire others.

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