The companies that help people vanish – BBC Worklife

I got fed up with human relationships. I took a small suitcase and disappeared, says 42-year-old Sugimoto, who s just going by his family name for this story. I just kind of escaped. He says that back in his small hometown, everybody knew him because of his family and their prominent local business, which Sugimoto was expected to carry on. But having that role foisted upon him caused him such distress that he abruptly left town forever and told no one where he was going.

From inescapable debt to loveless marriages, the motivations that push jouhatsu to evaporate can vary. Regardless of their reasons, they turn to companies that help them through the process. These operations are called night moving services, a nod to the secretive nature of becoming a jouhatsu. They help people who want to disappear discreetly remove themselves from their lives, and can provide lodging for them in secret whereabouts.

Normally, the reason for moving is something positive, like entering university, getting a new job or a marriage. But there s also sad moving for example, like dropping out of university, losing a job or escaping from a stalker, says Sho Hatori, who founded a night-moving company in the 90s when Japan s economic bubble burst. At first, he thought financial ruin would be the only thing driving people to flee their troubled lives, but he soon found there were social reasons , too. What we did was support people to start a second life, he says.

via www.bbc.com