Johatsu

Johatsu is a photo series set in the Tokyo nights, based on the well-known contemporary issue of "evaporated people" driven underground by the stigma of debt, job loss, divorce, or even just failing an exam.
Since 1990, almost 100,000 Japanese citizens decided to disappear to start a new life, in fact, none of these people physically vanish, per se; the “evaporation” is more of an administrative disappearance. These are people of all age, both men and women, who secretly orchestrate their own vanishing, disappearing from society without a trace, never to be found, leaving behind mystery and concerned families.
Johatsu cases seem to have emerged in the late 1960s, bolstered by a 1967 film called “A Man Vanishes,” in which a man abruptly leaves behind his job and fiancee to disappear. The process of evaporating is not as difficult as it may perhaps seem, and there is a shadow society and economy in place under the surface of Tokyo, waiting to assist these lost souls to organize their disappearance, from moving their things in the darkness of night, to erasing any evidence of their existences.”