Heartbreaking moment man who spent 335 days in a windowless apartment naked realized he was being broadcast live to millions

For 335 days, Tomoaki Hamatsu was left naked in a windowless apartment. He thought he was totally alone - then, months later, he realized he was being broadcast to millions of people.

Who was Tomoaki Hamatsu?

This is a question that millions of people in the late 90s immediately knew the answer to, but decades on Hamatsu has a story that still needs to be told.

Hamatsu was initially just a Japanese man who auditioned for a reality TV show in 1998.

He didn't know any real details about the show, or even whether it would air, but his hopes to achieve fame as a comedian spurred him on, and Hamatsu landed the gig.

He then found himself living alone and naked in a single room for months, all the while thinking he was being filmed for a show that would air at a later date.

What actually happened on the reality show?

After being cast, Hamatsu was blindfolded and taken to a small apartment, where he was ordered to remove his clothes. It was then that his ordeal truly began.

While Hamatsu thought his actions were going unnoticed, only being recorded for potential use at a later date, they were actually being broadcast to millions of viewers the entire time.

Hamatsu had no food and no company, but he did have a small camera that he had to use to record himself every couple of hours.

Inside the room, he had to try and live off whatever he could win by entering magazine and radio station sweepstakes. If he secured one million yen ($6,501), then he'd win the show's prize money.

However, when Hamatsu rapidly began to lose weight due to his lack of food, producers did briefly supply him with bread and water. That 'luxury' stopped when Hamatsu began to win his first edible prizes - though he didn't have anything to cook them with.

Tomoaki Hamatsu had to win his own food (Hulu)

When did Hamatsu learn he was being broadcast?

When Hamatsu finally managed to win one million yen worth of prizes, he was taken out of the room for the first time in 335 days. He was given clothes and handed a blindfold which he had to wear in a car.

He was then driven to Korea, where he was put in another small room and instructed to earn enough money in sweepstakes prizes to pay for his airfare back to Japan.

Hamatsu almost quit, but a producer convinced him to stay.

Four months later, he was back in Japan, but he still had one more blindfolded moment to go.

Hamatsu was taken to yet another small room and ordered to remove his clothes. After doing so, the walls of the room collapsed, and Hamatsu was suddenly confronted - still naked - with a live studio audience.

It was at that point he realized he'd been on TV the entire time.

Hamatsu was suddenly faced with a live studio audience (Hulu)

What did Hamatsu say about the ordeal?

The shocking experience Hamatsu went through later inspired a Hulu documentary titled The Contestant, which features interviews with Hamatsu and his family members.

Looking back, he said: "Initially, of course, I was there as a performer, and I wanted to be a comedian. But somewhere in the middle, the whole business of staying alive became my full-time occupation."

Hamatsu has also compared his experience to Jim Carrey's movie The Truman Show, saying: "The only person who really truly understands the feeling of what Truman went through is me.

"It felt like it was my story. His life was much easier than what I had, but it was a similar situation that everyone was watching both Truman and me, and we had no idea we were being observed."

Where is Hamatsu now?

In 2024, Hamatsu told Decider his stint on the show earned him a payment of about 10 million yen ($65,012 today).

In 2016, he achieved his goal of climbing Mount Everest, and he now spends most of his time working as an activist and advocate to raise awareness for his hometown of Fukushima, which was devastated in 2011 from the now-infamous earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster.