This is an episode of Inside the Tent, a podcast going behind the scenes of Campside’s award winning shows.

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What if someone close to you just… vanished one day?

That happens to tens of thousands of families a year in Japan, and it happened to Jake Adelstein too. In 2017, his friend and accountant disappeared just before tax day.

Adelstein, the author of Tokyo Vice, and co-host Shoko Plambeck go in search of that missing accountant, and take us on a journey into the fascinating and bizarre world of Japan’s jouhatsu, or “evaporated” people.

Campside co-founder Josh Dean asks Jake to take us back to the beginning of the story, when Jake went searching for his accountant. Shoko joined the team and was able to find a service that helps people “disappear,” often leaving their homes in the middle of the night (Night Moving).

Josh wonders why this industry exists in Japan. Why are there guidebooks and companies that help you “evaporate”?

Shoko and Jake discuss how debts, stalking and the Yakuza helped to shape the Night Moving industry in Japan.

They describe the woman behind a Night Mover business featured in Evaporated. And Jake wonders if you can forgive someone who has chosen to disappear rather than face the consequences of bad decisions.

Would you ever choose to run, leaving behind friends and family forever?

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