12:05 AM
Tonight Glenn told me about Nasubi.

Nasubi was a Japanese man who auditioned for a "show-business related job", and then suddenly found himself stripped nude and thrown into a small apartment. He was told that he would need to win anything he needed to live by entering magazine contests. He was told that he wouldn't be released until he had won more than a million yen in prizes. What he wasn't told is that he would be televised the whole time.

Nasubi was put through the wringer by the Japanese television show Denpa Shonen, where media hijinx bordering on cruelty seem to be the routine. Other series of programs by the show have included a man forced to live in the wilderness for three months posing as the mythical Japanese kappa, two men transported from Tokyo to the southern tip of Africa and then told to hitchhike to northern Norway, and a comedian from whom the show withheld food if he didn't learn to perform his routine in Swahili.

Though I'm horrified by most of what I read about the show, there's enough fascination to drive me on a Googlehunt for more--and to tell you everything I find. Of course, I suppose that's exactly what the producers intend...

(A quote I can't help but reprint that I found on another page while looking for Denpa Shonen links: "The two-hour murder mystery is a genre Japanese TV does exceptionally well. The crime is seldom allowed to overshadow the personalities of a wide array of cheerful sleuths who use their cases as an excuse to check out regional cuisine, crafts and scenery.")