Japan reports over 100,000 missing persons cases every year — and not all of them are accidental.
Have you ever felt so overwhelmed by life that you wished you could simply disappear and start over? While most of us only fantasize about it, in Japan there exists a real and surprisingly organized industry that helps people do exactly that — for a price.
It might sound like something straight out of a movie, and in many ways, it mirrors scenes from pop culture. Think of Harvey Keitel’s Winston Wolfe in Pulp Fiction, the calm, professional “fixer.” Or Robert Forster’s Ed in Breaking Bad, the vacuum repairman who secretly specialized in helping people disappear — with nothing more than a discreet request for “a dust filter for a Hoover Max Extract® Pressure Pro™, Model 60.”
That idea isn’t entirely fictional. In Japan, there’s a long-standing practice known as johatsu, which literally translates to “evaporation.” It refers to people who choose to erase their identities and vanish from their lives entirely.
Official statistics show that around 100,000 people are reported missing each year in Japan. While many cases stem from genuine accidents or tragedies, a notable portion are people who deliberately choose to disappear — often with professional assistance.
In Japanese society, quitting a job or facing financial ruin can be seen as deeply shameful. For some, johatsu offers an escape from unbearable workplace pressure. Others turn to it because of depression, addiction, cult involvement, or domestic abuse.
The term johatsu originated in the 1960s but gained widespread attention during Japan’s economic collapse of the 1990s, known as the “Lost Decade.” During that period, countless men who lost their jobs and fell into debt simply vanished, leaving behind their families and identities to escape their circumstances.
The phenomenon was explored in depth in Andreas Hartmann and Arata Mori’s 2024 documentary Johatsu, which followed both those who disappeared and the businesses that assist them.
These businesses are called yonige-ya, which roughly translates to “fly-by-night shops.” They specialize in facilitating disappearances, charging anywhere from ¥50,000 (around $450) to ¥300,000 (around $2,600) depending on the complexity of the escape.
Costs increase when children are involved, when clients own significant possessions, or when they need to evade aggressive debt collectors. Essentially, the more elaborate the disappearance, the higher the price.
However, not everyone seeks professional help. In Japan, detailed guides circulate online, offering instructions on how to become johatsu without hiring a yonige-ya — from erasing digital traces to finding discreet housing and cash-paying jobs.
Japan doesn’t have a centralized missing persons database, but statistics still paint a vivid picture. In 2015, for instance, out of 82,000 people reported missing, 80,000 were located by year’s end.
Police generally do not pursue missing adults unless foul play is suspected. That hands-off approach allows many johatsu to vanish without consequence, often reinventing themselves in new cities under complete anonymity.
Certain neighborhoods in Japan have become known as johatsu sanctuaries. Areas like San’ya in Tokyo and Kamagasaki in Osaka are notorious for sheltering those who’ve disappeared. In these districts, people can live and work without official identification, often under the protection of the yakuza, who provide cash-based employment and untraceable housing.
While johatsu remains a uniquely Japanese term, the desire to disappear and start anew transcends borders. Similar cases have been documented in China, South Korea, Germany, the UK, and the United States, proving that the longing to escape one’s life — to “evaporate” and begin again — is a profoundly human impulse.
