What's Hot on Japanese Television
[The highlights of this show were widely viewed during the 1999 New Year holidays.]
In this isolated world, Nasubi apparently has no idea that he has become one of the biggest stars in Japan.
THE HERO IS a 23-year-old comedian called Nasubi (eggplant), who was confined last January to a one-room apartment without food or clothing. His challenge is to eke out an existence in his humble abode until he has won 1 million yen ($8,300) worth of prizes in magazine competitions. Each Sunday night, viewers tune in to "Denpa Shonen" for an update on Nasubi's progress, recorded in a handwritten diary and by two fly-on-the-wall cameras. Over the past 12 months, they have seen Nasubi's hair and beard grow longer while the apartment steadily fills with prizes.
Despite filling in more than 1,000 contest applications a week, the only clothing Nasubi has won is a pair of women's panties, which do not fit. So he continues to loll around naked (the broadcasters, Nihon Television, cover his genitals with an eggplant icon).
The prizes have ranged from such utterly impractical items as a tent to essentials such as rice and dog food. A recent highlight showed a delighted Nasubi heading for the toilet after winning his first rolls of toilet paper in 10 months (until then he had been washing his hands very thoroughly).
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
Women’s magazines have admired how healthy Nasubi has remained despite his cramped conditions and canine diet.
In this isolated world, Nasubi apparently has no idea that he has become one of the biggest stars in Japan. Publicly, the comedian agreed to public indignity in order to gain a shot at fame. But its widely assumed that he is receiving some sort of remuneration. Odd some would say cruel variety programs have a long tradition here, but Nasubi’s cheerful and imaginative response to his hardship appears to have struck a chord with a nation enduring its worst recession in more than 50 years.
Nasubi’s name is now everywhere. Women’s magazines have admired how healthy he has remained despite his cramped conditions and canine diet, while entrepreneurs have made money out of selling Nasubi merchandising.
The ratings for Denpa Shonen, which also includes the efforts of two young comedians to pedal-boat around Japan, and other such challenges, have also skyrocketed. The show has held the top variety spot for 17 consecutive weeks. The programs producer, Toshio Tsuchiya, said the key to success is originality. We started off with a program plan that initially seemed so stupid as to be impossible, but we laughed about it so much that we started thinking about how we could put the idea into practice, he recently told reporters.
Critics complain that shows like Denpa Shonen are degrading, but such voices are in the minority. Some groups in education, such as parent-teacher associations, have expressed their disapproval, but overall the program has been very well received as the ratings show, commented Yoshihiro Oto, a media specialist at Sophia University in Tokyo. NTV has become very sensitive about the intensifying foreign interest in the trials of Nasubi. The broadcaster has decided not to sell Denpa Shonen overseas because it would be bad for the companys image, according to one NTV source.
Judging from his condition at the end of the first year, the question is no longer whether Nasubi can endure his isolation, but how he will adjust to the celebrity lifestyle that awaits him when he eventually is released into the outside world.
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Added January 23, 1999
