Japanese Reality Star Nasubi Recalls ‘Traumatic’ True Story Behind Hulu’s The Contestant Documentary

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Reality star Nasubi recalls his 'traumatic' experience surviving off magazine sweepstakes prizes on the Japanese TV series 'Denpa Shōnen.'

's most infamous challenge, 1998's"A Life in Prizes," made a star out of Tomoaki Hamatsu, an aspiring comedian nicknamed Nasubi who, for more than a year, lived alone and unclothed in a tiny apartment while surviving off magazine sweepstakes winnings.

"A lot of it was almost derogatory about Japanese culture," she says."It was a bit point-and-laugh at the Japanese, look how crazy they are, and that was it. I had all these questions. I wanted to know more about the human side of Nasubi's story both during and afterproducer Toshiba Tsuchiya, and others close to the story to dig deeper into what Nasubi experienced and how greatly it impacted his life.

He was told there was a camera in the room, but that most of the footage would likely never air—a ploy by producers to get him to act more naturally. Instead, a segment called"A Life in Prizes" began to run weekly on—and quickly skyrocketed in popularity. In the first few weeks, before Nasubi had received any prizes, producers gave him crackers so that he wouldn't starve to death. After he started winning, he survived by eating everything from fiber jelly to rice to dog food.

"In my life, that year and three months was the bottom of hell," Nasubi told TIME."But the worst moment was when I finished the task in Japan, was taken to Korea, and Tsuchiya told me to do it again. In the show, it looked like I just took off my clothes right away. But it was actually a long process to get me to agree. Tsuchiya said that when he asked me to do it again, he saw anger come out of every pore in my skin. That’s how much hatred was inside me at that time.

 

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