Today in History - March 28: He didn't speak to anyone for 15 months, with no idea he had become Japan's most famous man
A Japanese comedian who spent 15 months living in complete isolation found out he was unwittingly a reality TV star on March 28, 1999.
For more than a year, Tomoaki Hamatsu lived by himself in an apartment without access to food, clothing or any outside communication or broadcasting.
He was given a pile of sweepstakes contests to enter, and told he would have to sustain himself on his winnings.
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Nasubi slowly accumulated a series of mostly useless possessions. Don't Go For It, Electric Boy!
As a result, he had to survive on raw rice, and then dog food.
He also won a bicycle which he had no space to ride in, a Playstation game he couldn't play and tickets to a movie he couldn't watch.
Hamatsu believed the experience would be filmed and broadcast when the challenge was over.
Unbeknownst to him, he was being livestreamed on the internet 24/7 and was star of a weekly reality TV show called Don't Go For It Electric Boy!
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Nasubi had no idea he was famous. Don't Go For It, Electric Boy!
When the show became so popular that the apartment became surrounded by paparazzi, he was blindfolded and relocated.
Then on March 28, 1999, he was relocated a third time.
Believing he was completely alone and unused to the feel of the clothes he had been given for the trip, he stripped down naked again.
Then suddenly the walls dropped away from the apartment and he found himself in a television studio, surrounded by cheering fans.
In his time in isolation he had become one of the biggest celebrities in Japan.
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The only possessions Nasubi had were ones he acquired through contests. Don't Go For It, Electric Boy!
"Do you mean that everyone has been watching my naked body all this time?" he asked the host.
"That's out of order."
The program had used an eggplant logo to cover his genitals during the broadcast.
In the time after his success, Hamatsu reported feeling hot and sweaty while wearing clothes and had difficulty talking to people.
The show marked the pinnacle of his fame, but he found some success as a local actor. In 2016, he climbed Mount Everest.
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