Killing time while waiting for The Wandering Monk to arrive and begin the foundation project, I found something absolutely fascinating.<\/p>\n
Johatsu<\/em>. A Japanese word meaning “evaporated people.”<\/p>\n Not dead. Not suspiciously missing. But people who’ve chosen to disappear out of their existing identities into new, perhaps off-grid ones. <\/p>\n A French couple have been tracking this phenomenon for years and now have published a book: The Vanished: The “evaporated people” of Japan in Stories and Photographs<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n PRI has done a story on the johatsu<\/a> and the French pair who became obsessed with them, as has Business Insider<\/a>.<\/p>\n Oddly, it turns out that in highly regulated, highly conformist, high-tech Japan, it’s actually easier to step out of an old life and assume a new identity than it is here in the Land of the Free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Killing time while waiting for The Wandering Monk to arrive and begin the foundation project, I found something absolutely fascinating. Johatsu. A Japanese word meaning “evaporated people.” Not dead. Not suspiciously missing. But people who’ve chosen to disappear out of their existing identities into new, perhaps off-grid ones. A French couple have been tracking this phenomenon for years and now have published a book: The Vanished: The “evaporated people” of Japan in Stories and Photographs. PRI has done a story on the johatsu and the French pair who became obsessed with them, as has Business Insider. Oddly, it turns out…<\/p>\n