Man May Have Died Under Crushing Weight of His 6-Ton Porn Collection

Alex Eriksen
A 50-year-old Japanese man was found dead in his apartment beneath the weight of six tons of pornography magazines.
A 50-year-old Japanese man was found dead in his apartment beneath the weight of six tons of pornography magazines.

A Japanese man was found dead in his apartment, reportedly beneath the weight of a portion of his six-ton collection of pornography magazines.

The grisly discovery was made by the man’s landlord after the rent had gone unpaid for more than a month. Finding the magazines and assuming the tenant gone, the landlord hired a cleaning service to discreetly remove the magazines, sparing the man’s family the shame and his fellow tenants the embarrassment.

It was the hired cleaners who found the 50-year-old man, known only as Joji, dead beneath a pile of magazines. While details are scarce about Joji’s life and background, it’s being reported he was a former car maker. Japanese tabloid Nikkan SPA was first to report the story, and it has since gone viral.

Nikkan SPA reports the cause of death was a heart attack. It’s unclear if Joji suffered cardiac arrest and fell into the pile of magazines or if the stacks collapsed and suffocated him to death. The unusual situation begs the question why in an era of Internet pornography did he collect paper magazines?

Despite the bizarre circumstances, this is not unusual for Japan. Called hikikomori by the Japanese Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, these are citizens, overwhelmingly men, who live life shut off from society. One man, Hideto Iwai, did not leave his room for four straight years.

A survey by the Japanese government last year found 541,000 men between the ages of 15 and 39 live a reclusive lifestyle.

This may be impacting birthrates in the country, as a recent survey discovered Japanese men and women are not just having less sex but also seem to be losing interest in it. The survey, conducted by the Japan Family Planning Association, found that nearly half of those between the ages of 16 and 49 said they hadn’t had sex in the past month. A total of 1,134 people were surveyed.

This potentially means a demographic time bomb waiting to explode as Japan’s population ages. In 2014 the nation hit a record low with 1 million infants born. Pair that with 1.3 million deaths reported that year and you get a sense of the problem.

According to Japan’s population institute, the numbers could fall to 107 million by 2040 — a loss of 20 million people.

The problems of shut-ins and a graying population also meet in the strange cases of Japanese citizens claiming the pensions of their dead relatives. The government held records listing hundreds of citizens over the age of 100, some 150 and higher, as still alive.

After investigating, it found the oldest man listed in Tokyo, Sogen Kato, who was registered as 111 years old, had died 32 years earlier. His mummified body was found in the family home. His granddaughter was arrested after failing to report the death and suspicion of collecting millions of yen in pension payments.

Related:

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