Hikikomori

In 1948 the Japanese Government, still under firm control by the Allied occupation forces, wrote into law the Eugenic Protection Law. While this law was similar to the myriad of pro-eugenic laws across the world, Japan's eugenics law is notable for having been only repealed in the 90s.

Today's guest is Kieran Bennett! You can follow him via his Twitter profile, or check out his portfolio of video editing work at kgbennett.myportfolio.com.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream the album on Spotify or YouTube Music. Enjoy!

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and Not Another Film on any big podcast app.

Sources:

• Human Rights Watch - Japan: Compelled Sterilization of Transgender People

• Human Rights Watch - Japan Court Rules Against Mandatory Transgender Sterilization

• Japan Times - Some duped into sterilization surgery under eugenics law, parliament report says

• Japan Times - Lawyers set up hotlines for victims of 1948-1996 eugenics law

• AP - Japan’s top court strikes down required sterilization surgery to officially change gender

• Takashi Tsuchiya of Osaka City University - Eugenic Sterilizations in Japan and Recent Demands for Apology: A Report

• Asahi Shimbun - Tokyo court rejects bid for compensation over sterilization

• Asahi Shimbun - Court denies compensation for unconstitutional sterilization

• Guardian - Japan court awards damages to victims of forced sterilisation for first time

• Guardian - Anger in Japan as report reveals children were forcibly sterilised

• Independent - Japan to pay compensation to people sterilised under eugenics law modelled on Nazi programmes

• Independent - Japanese woman forcibly sterilised as teenager suing government for breach of human rights

• BBC News - Japan sterilisation law victims included nine-year-olds

• Huffington Post - Japan Publishes Report Detailing 25,000 Forced Sterilizations On Citizens, Including 9-Year-Olds

• Time - Japan Apologizes To Victims Of Forced Sterilization And Promises Compensation

• Wikipedia - Eugenics in Japan

We made it! The completely arbitrary milestone of 100 that's solely meaningful to humans because of our bias towards base 10! To celebrate, here's a nice story about an island covered in the cutest rabbits you've ever seen, also a poison gas factory.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream the album on Spotify or YouTube Music. Enjoy!

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and Not Another Film on any big podcast app.

Sources:

• The Gateway to Rabbit Island

• Live video feed of Rabbit Island

• Hiroshima for Global Peace - Okunoshima

• Travel Japan - Okunoshima

• Wikipedia - Okunoshima

• Wikipedia - Itsukushima

We continue the most famous and baffling fraud case of modern Japan with the tale of Mamoru Samuragochi. This week we examine exactly how the supposed deaf composer was able to get away with presenting another person's compositions as his own for 18 years.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream the album on Spotify or YouTube Music. Enjoy!

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and Not Another Film on any big podcast app.

Sources:

• The New Republic: Japan's Deaf Composer Wasn't What He Seemed

• Classic FM: The Composer Who Was Once Dubbed "Japan's Beethoven"

• Time Magazine: 2001 Interview with Samuragochi

• Wall Street Journal: Music Critic's Suspicions Led to Composer's Downfall

• Inverse: "Clowns farting": The wild story behind Resident Evil's worst soundtrack

• Independent: Japanese 'Beethoven' Mamoru Samuragochi admits faking deafness

• CNN: Uproar as ‘Japanese Beethoven’ Mamoru Samuragochi exposed as a fraud

• Suzi the Sphere Hunter: Onimusha Samurai Survival Horror

• Wikipedia: Mamoru Samuragochi

Born as a second-generation Hibakusha, that is to say a child of Hiroshima A-bomb survivors, Mamoru Samuragochi faced hardship, prejudice and increasing illness throughout his life. Despite these enormous setbacks, he became one of the most respected and successful musical composers in Japan, despite becoming almost entirely deaf.

He was also a liar.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream the album on Spotify or YouTube Music. Enjoy!

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and Not Another Film on any big podcast app.

Sources:

• The New Republic: Japan's Deaf Composer Wasn't What He Seemed

• Classic FM: The Composer Who Was Once Dubbed "Japan's Beethoven"

• Time Magazine: 2001 Interview with Samuragochi

• Wall Street Journal: Music Critic's Suspicions Led to Composer's Downfall

• Inverse: "Clowns farting": The wild story behind Resident Evil's worst soundtrack

• Independent: Japanese 'Beethoven' Mamoru Samuragochi admits faking deafness

• Wikipedia: Mamoru Samuragochi

Today, the JWs have as many as 250,000 adherents in Japan, despite having an extremely rocky start in the country in the early 1930s. In recent years, the JWs have experienced controversy in the media and courts once again, this time for serious allegations of abuse of its own members and children.  

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream the album on Spotify or YouTube Music. Enjoy!

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and Not Another Film on any big podcast app.

Sources:

• Japan Times: Children of Jehovah’s Witnesses submit report detailing sexual abuse
• Investigator Magazine: JUNZO AKASHI – A Watchtower Victim
• Asahi Shimbun: 159 report being sexually abused as Jehovah’s Witnesses
• Mainichi Shimbun: 3rd-gen Jehovah's Witness in Japan opens up about dark past before opposition parties
• Japan Times: Japan lawyers form group to support children of Jehovah's Witnesses followers
• Metropolis: The Door Knockers - Jehovah’s Witnesses in Japan
• Asahi Shimbun: Ex-Jehovah’s Witness opens up about trauma brought by faith
• JWLeaks.org: Jehovah’s Witnesses face ‘worrying development’ on the treatment of children in Japan
• Yomiuri Shimbun: Japan Lawyers to Report on Religion-Based Refusal of Blood Transfusions for Kids
• EWTN Global Catholic Television: Charles Taze Russell
• YouTube: Senator Mizuho Uehara addressing Parliament over the issue of the JWs and their alleged abuse of children
• Twitter: Kotaro Tanaka’s account
• Wikipedia: History of Jehovah's Witnesses

When the AIDs epidemic began tearing its way through gay communities throughout the world, there was almost no effort made by governments to address the escalating health crisis whatsoever. 

Even when heat-treated blood became available, pharmaceutical companies were strangely reluctant to offer these newer, safer products, particularly in South America and Asia, but no country was quite as ruthlessly self-defeating than in Japan, which created an extraordinary conspiracy to put corporate profits above the lives of their citizens

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream the album on Spotify or YouTube Music. Enjoy!

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and Not Another Film on any big podcast app.

Sources:

• Qanon Anonymous, Episode 221: Plasma Vampires & the Blood Business feat Kathleen McLaughlin 
• New York Times: 2003, Beyer Exposed (paywall) 
• New York Times: Japanese Suits on H.I.V.-Tainted Blood Settled (paywall) 
• LA Times: Japan Official Apologises in AIDS Scandal 
• Nature Medicine: Japanese officials were aware of HIV in blood products 
• Washington Post: Japanese Arrested in Blood Scandal 
• CBS News: Japan - Convictions In Blood Scandal 
• National Library of Medicine: Haemophilia patients launch action against Bayer over contaminated blood products 
• Wikipedia: HIV/AIDs in Japan 
• Wikipedia: Green Cross 
• Wikipedia: Contaminated Haemophilia Blood Products 
• JP Wikipedia: Contaminated Blood Scandal 

Weather News Live is a 24-hour a day stream dedicated to reporting the weather... sort of. It has gained huge popularity on the internet over the last few years with live shows hosted by "Casters", young women who have attracted huge fanbases.

By far the most popular has been Saya Hiyama who, in mid-2023, found herself at the centre of a controversy normally only reserved for those in the Idol industry.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream the album on Spotify or YouTube Music. Enjoy!

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and Not Another Film on any big podcast app.

Sources:

• Japanalysis: Japan’s Ridiculous Weatherwoman Fiasco 
• Saya Hiyama clip 1 
• Saya Hiyama clip 2 
• Japan Times: Weather forecaster Saya Hiyama's viral moments say a lot about fame in Japan 
• Oricon News - Saya announces she’s dating 
• Parental bonding in retrospect and adult attachment style: A comparative study between Spanish, Italian and Japanese cultures. Hoenicka et al. (2022) 
• Japanese national well-being survey shows that living alone results in lower satisfaction and affects other relationships, while social networking service usage is related to life satisfaction: A cross-sectional study. Miyaki et al. (2022) 
• Aini: Parasocial relationships in East Asia: A look into obsession 
• Time: In Defence of Parasocial Relationship 
• Parasocial Interactions and Relationships in Early Adolesence 

We end our series on Miyoko Sumida by looking at possibly her most disturbing family invasion with the Oe household, as well as how this eventually led to her accidental arrest and the fall of the Sumida gang.

We also find out how the Yakuza hides bodies (allegedly).

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream the album on Spotify or YouTube Music. Enjoy!

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and Not Another Film on any big podcast app.

Sources:

• Unknown Misandry
• Japan Times - the Piranha Family
• Rhetorica - the Piranha Family
• Murderpedia - Miyoko Sumida
• JP Wikipedia - The Amagasaki Incident

We continue covering the disturbing crimes of Miyoko Sumida and her family, as she infiltrates and rips apart two more families. Today we look at how she added her loyal enforcer, Masanori Ri, and her presumed heir, Tanimoto Rui, to her organisation.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream the album on Spotify or YouTube Music. Enjoy!

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and Not Another Film on any big podcast app.

Sources:

• Unknown Misandry
• Japan Times - the Piranha Family
• Rhetorica - the Piranha Family
• Murderpedia - Miyoko Sumida
• JP Wikipedia - The Amagasaki Incident

Miyoko Sumida was a psychopath with a disturbing ability to manipulate others for her own ends. She was also seemingly obsessed with keeping other people by making them members of her family though marriage and adoption. In a horrifying 25-year career of criminal gang activity and serial murder, Sumida became more cult leader than yakuza.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream the album on Spotify or YouTube Music. Enjoy!

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and Not Another Film on any big podcast app.

Sources:

• Unknown Misandry 
• Japan Times - the Piranha Family
• Rhetorica - the Piranha Family 
• Murderpedia - Miyoko Sumida
• JP Wikipedia - The Amagasaki Incident