I just learned that when people wants to disappear (because of shame, debt, escape from family, etc) there’s a company that helps people disappear in Japan. It’s called Johatsu – in English, evaporate. Some change their appearance through plastic surgery along with a name change. Some just a quiet transfer to a different city. So I’m wondering if there is an equivalent in America?
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I want to say there isn’t.
But it wouldn’t surprise me if there is.
America is too large for it to be hard to do that yourself. Also, our individualistic culture makes it so the pressures that may influence someone to do that generally aren’t there
I mean… You can declare bankruptcy, get plastic surgery, change your name, move to a new city, and/or lie to people?
Doing so to dodge debt or child support or stuff like that would definitely be illegal, but if you had an annoying aunt or did something embarrassing in gym class, you could run away from that, I guess.
Give me 3 weeks and johatsu will be a commonly known “English” word for that phenomenon.
Thanks for the new word, Japan!
“I need a new dust filter for my Hoover Max-Extract Pressure-Pro model 60.”
Companies like that do not advertise their presence.
If a company like that existed I have never heard of it.
But I assume its something you could do without going through a company? Seems an odd service to pay a middleman for.
Closest thing to that would be the witness protection program.
American living in Japan rn. Here’s my take: you don’t need a company to do that in the states.
Japan is like the size of California, and most of the population live in a few areas. Harder to really get away from people. Second, people are more trackable — family can inquire about relatives through city hall for family registry purposes. So there is more information stuck to you. There is a government run family registry service. Getting all of that taken care of is a complex legal process, and would take time and lots of paperwork.
In America, if I wanted to do this, I can just move a few states over and be farther away than anyone in Japan could get from their place…new phone, address, and bank should about do it. If I needed to change my name, could do that too.
No.
Nah, in America, we live without shame!
If it doesn’t exist, it is only because it is not needed in America. Changing one’s name and moving to Alaska is a fairly trivial business, nearly as simple as withdrawing your money from the bank (in small, inconspicuous increments), going to the courthouse, and then getting a plane ticket. It still leaves a paper trail, and wouldn’t stop a dedicated investigator for long, but would probably be enough to cut all ties with everybody who knew you.
America is massive and falling into the cracks is not a particularly difficult proposition.
There’s a place in Albuquerque, NM that provides this service. It’s located in a vacuum repair shop.
Rumor has it you go in and order a very specific service to activate it. The owner demands a large amount of cash up front. If it’s provided, he can totally erase your existence and give you a new life.
I’d want to be a lot better looking and a foot taller. 😉
Don’t know about this, but there are many cases of someone stealing another person’s identity.
I just discovered this myself not long ago (quite possibly from the same YouTube rabbit hole) and the differences between the records keeping in the two countries struck me as ironic when looking at it. In the states, you can just pull up roots and run off to another state and mostly accomplish the same thing, but our records keeping is mostly digital and if it matters enough you can probably be found and anything that was recorded is nigh permanently on file somewhere. In Japan there is still a string aversion to digital records and if I understand correctly, those that opt to disappear have ways to make the paper trail vanish as well, so in Japan it’s far harder to vanish from society and start again but it’s infinitely easier to vanish as far as government records go.
The Witness Protection Program?
I have to think this exists on the dark web somewhere.
But unless you’ve done something that rises to the level of an international manhunt, you just leave the US and go to a place where authorities don’t care too much who’s renting a property with cash and laying low for a while.
People are talking about running from the law or legal obligations, but a public-facing, legitimate company wouldn’t help with running from that.
So, this is about running away from acquaintances, stopping employers from tracking you down (you don’t see that here, you can see that in Japan), stuff like that. And yeah, it’s just plain easier to up and move yourself, and there won’t be a bunch of bureaucracy to prevent that.
As far as steps go, the Witness Protection Program is probably the closest. However, that’s to protect people who testify against organized crime from retribution. You can’t become part of it for other reasons.
Well, there is this vacuum cleaner store in Albuquerque, New Mexico …..
I think you can basically just do this. Not sure why help from an outside company is needed.
It really wouldn’t be that hard to do in America by yourself. Could I hide from the law or the IRS? Probably not. Could I hide from my family and friends? Most likely.
It’s more needed in Japan. Japan has a tremendous amount of social pressure and this drives a LOT of people to suicide. Every year about 700,000 people kill themselves in Japan, which is a country of about 120 million. Johatsu is an acceptable way to escape this fate. Johatsu is more than simply disappearing, you essentially become someone entirely new with government support. You disappear entirely even from those you care about and never see them again. It is an extreme measure, but far better than death.
Do people even care about shame and debt anymore (gestures vaguely at Washington)
Witness Protection is the closest formal thing we have, but it’s only for people who are testifying in court against dangerous criminals, typically the Mafia.
But as others have said, it’s not terribly hard to do on your own, especially if the people you’re leaving aren’t actively looking for you.
There isn’t a culture of family shame like there is in Japan. Not even close. But a very, very small amount of people do decide to disappear for whatever reason and they can do it on their own without a company assisting them.
It’s called Alaska
There’s a government program to make people disappear if they have witnessed a crime and might get murdered because of it called Witness Protection. Otherwise, many people will just move to a rural part of the country and use an assumed name. I’ve heard of people doing this for decades. The USA has a large amount of underdeveloped land, especially in the desert area or in farming states like Illinois and Nebraska where it’s pretty easy to disappear if you have the cash to pay for place to live and transportation.
The way folks live around here, I doubt anyone even knows what shame is lmao.
We dont need that because we dont live on an ISLAND
“I need a dust filter for a Hoover Max Extract 60 Pressure Pro.”
No? What? You just move across the country
I don’t need a company to legally change my name and move to another state. That’s not really disappearing though. Not for legal or debt purposes. Can’t hide from debt which is associated with your Social Security Number and you can’t legally change your SSN.
No need to pay anyone, it’s pretty easy to do it yourself
Move to a different state, nobody in Wyoming would know who you are