Hikikomori

We continue covering the environmental disaster that resulted in Minamata Disease, how those responsible knowingly continued to harm all living things around them with mercury, and the legacy that the dozens of mass poisonings by corporations left on Japan

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream...

We start a 2-parter on what might be the most terrifying man-made environmental disaster in Japanese history, namely the purposeful, prolonged and secret dumping of toxic waste into coastal waters by multiple Japanese chemical companies, some of which are still around and thriving.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music...

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream the album on Spotify or YouTube Music. Enjoy!

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and Not Another Film on any big podcast app.

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The continued US military presence in Okinawa has long been a complex and thorny issue, particularly for the locals who frequently suffer the consequences of their occupation in 1945 never quite ending.

We look at the moments over the past 80 years that have proven pivotal to the anti-base movement in Okinawa.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's...

Following from the high-profile case of Mai Watanabe, aka Itadaki-Joshi, we look at the reason why she conned millions of yen - to support her favourite host.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream the album on Spotify or YouTube Music. Enjoy!

You can...

Today we look at the evolution of "compensated dating" into its modern form, "Papa-Katsu", where women seek out sugar daddies as a form of sex work. We also consider the con-artist Mai Watanabe, known more widely as Itadaki Joshi, who made headlines across the world for her merciless acts of fraud.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's...

Content Warning: Mass Murder

It's rough.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream the album on Spotify or YouTube Music. Enjoy!

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and Not A...

Following on from the previous episode's theme of eugenics in Japan, we look at how individuals who express eugenic beliefs can impact the world around them in horrific, horrific ways.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream the album on Spotify or YouTube Music. Enjoy!<...

In 1948 the Japanese Government, still under firm control by the Allied occupation forces, wrote into law the Eugenic Protection Law. While this law was similar to the myriad of pro-eugenic laws across the world, Japan's eugenics law is notable for having been only repealed in the 90s.

Today's guest is Kieran Bennett! You can follow him via his Twitter profile, or check out his portfolio of video editing work at kgbennett.myportfolio.com.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can...

We made it! The completely arbitrary milestone of 100 that's solely meaningful to humans because of our bias towards base 10! To celebrate, here's a nice story about an island covered in the cutest rabbits you've ever seen, also a poison gas factory.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You...

We continue the most famous and baffling fraud case of modern Japan with the tale of Mamoru Samuragochi. This week we examine exactly how the supposed deaf composer was able to get away with presenting another person's compositions as his own for 18 years.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy...

Born as a second-generation Hibakusha, that is to say a child of Hiroshima A-bomb survivors, Mamoru Samuragochi faced hardship, prejudice and increasing illness throughout his life. Despite these enormous setbacks, he became one of the most respected and successful musical composers in Japan, despite becoming almost entirely deaf.

He was also a liar.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for...

Today, the JWs have as many as 250,000 adherents in Japan, despite having an extremely rocky start in the country in the early 1930s. In recent years, the JWs have experienced controversy in the media and courts once again, this time for serious allegations of abuse of its own members and children.  

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's a...

When the AIDs epidemic began tearing its way through gay communities throughout the world, there was almost no effort made by governments to address the escalating health crisis whatsoever. 

Even when heat-treated blood became available, pharmaceutical companies were strangely reluctant to offer these newer, safer products, particularly in South America and Asia, but no country was quite as ruthlessly self-defeating than in Japan, which created an extraordinary conspiracy to put corporate profits above the lives of their citizens

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also t...

Weather News Live is a 24-hour a day stream dedicated to reporting the weather... sort of. It has gained huge popularity on the internet over the last few years with live shows hosted by "Casters", young women who have attracted huge fanbases.

By far the most popular has been Saya Hiyama who, in mid-2023, found herself at the centre of a controversy normally only reserved for those in the Idol industry.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review...

We end our series on Miyoko Sumida by looking at possibly her most disturbing family invasion with the Oe household, as well as how this eventually led to her accidental arrest and the fall of the Sumida gang.

We also find out how the Yakuza hides bodies (allegedly).

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an...

We continue covering the disturbing crimes of Miyoko Sumida and her family, as she infiltrates and rips apart two more families. Today we look at how she added her loyal enforcer, Masanori Ri, and her presumed heir, Tanimoto Rui, to her organisation.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music...

Miyoko Sumida was a psychopath with a disturbing ability to manipulate others for her own ends. She was also seemingly obsessed with keeping other people by making them members of her family though marriage and adoption. In a horrifying 25-year career of criminal gang activity and serial murder, Sumida became more cult leader than yakuza.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for...

Yoshikazu Suzuki was a perennially-failing music shop salesman, and in the early 90s his debt had amounted to an astronomical level. His plan to get himself out of this debt was to rise above this, literally, by following in the footsteps of Lawnchair Larry.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final...

In April of 2018, the writer Elif Batuman had an article published in The New Yorker, titled "Japan's Rent-a-Family Industry". It explored a cultural phenomenon in Japan, that of agencies where one could hire an actor to perform in a social interaction that would be otherwise awkward or impossible.

It became such a popular and celebrated article that it would win the National Magazine Award for that year.

Unfortunately, it was also based entirely on bullshit.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the...

The Glico-Morinaga Case began in 1984, when the CEO of the Glico Corporation was kidnapped, naked from his home during a bath. While that kidnapping resolved itself fairly rapidly, what followed was a campaign of fear across Japan, as a mysterious organisation began threatening to poison the public's food.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of...

Content Warning: Murder.

In the months after the Osaka Dog-Lover Serial Murders ended, but before the perpetrator of that case was caught, a completely separate but weirdly similar case occurred in Saitama. Gen Sekine, a fairly successful dog breeder and utter psychopath, decided that the best way to dig himself out of financial trouble was to kill his way out.

Today's guest is Cassie! You can find her via her Twitter. Also be sure to check out her Vtuber persona, Sleep Panda Mei, who streams on Twitch!

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers...

Content Warning: Murder

We return to murder with the serial murders that took place in Osaka in 1992. Over a period of 4 months, the ultimate fail-son Yoshinori Ueda used a chemical used to euthanise dogs to subdue and murder 5 people. 

Today's guest is Cassie! You can find her via her Twitter. Also be sure to check out her Vtuber persona, Sleep Panda Mei, who streams on Twitch!

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream the album on S...

Today we explore the working class industrial art movement called "Dekotora", where truckers decorated their vehicles in outrageous and totally bitchin' styles. We also visit a modern day comparison to Dekotora, the phenomenon of "Itasha", or "painful cars"...

If you want to see a gallery of the vehicles we're talking about today, check out this unlocked Patreon Post with all the relevent pics.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film...

The last couple of episodes were pretty rough, right? Here's something with relatively few problematic elements, Hatsune Miku, the Vocaloid sensation!

Today's guest is Mike! You can find him on Twitter at his handle @tokkan!

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream the album on Spotify or YouTube Music. Enjoy!

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and Not Another Film on any big podcast...

Content Warning: Sexual Assault, Violence, Necrophilia, Cannibalism.

We continue our exploration of Issei Sagawa's life after his 1981 murder of Renée Hartevelt. While you might think that Sagawa would never see the light of day again for his horrific crimes, he was set free, and he spent the rest of his life being a horrible little shit.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new a...

Content Warning: Sex, Violence, Necrophilia, Cannibalism. 

Issei Sagawa was a highly-educated, intelligent and repressed man. His sexual fetish, unfortunately, was cannibalism, and years of fantasizing and planning led to his 1981 murder of Renée Hartevelt in Paris.

After his arrest, however, the story just gets weirder. 

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an alb...

In the north of Japan's central island there is a small, non-descript place called Shingo Village. The only thing about it that sets it apart from the hundreds of other tiny villages in the area is that it purports to be the true final resting place of Jesus Christ. Tug on this string and a whole bunch of ancient aliens stuff comes tumbling out.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.<...

Content Warning: Natural Disaster and Genocide.

On the 1st September, 1923, a megathrust earthquake hit the Kanto Plain, resulting in a catastrophic loss of life. While one would think that tornados made of fire would offer the most horror from this event, the behaviour of the Kanto populace, police and government in the aftermath would be far more disturbing.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

You can...

Content Warning: Sex Trafficking and Exploitation. 

Even before the end of WWII, the Japanese civilian government were preparing for the arrival of the occupying US troops. First and foremost, before any security of basic needs, they determined that they needed to preserve the purity of the Japanese race. To this end, they created a vast network of patriotic brothels...

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

You c...

When Daisuke was invited to a dinner anonymously, he had little idea that the meeting would result in the most joyous moments of his life... but would flat-out ruin the rest of it. After marrying into a multi-national vinegar-based corporation, he found himself at the center of a sinister plot to wrest control over his own son away from him.

Today's guest is Jon Combey! You can find himon Twitter @JonCombey, and his recent limited series on Japanese culture as understood through film can be found @JapanHistorypod.

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod...

Content Warning: Child Murder, Necrophilia 

We continue with the utterly heinous crimes of Tsutomu Miyazaki. After his first murder of a child, he entered a kind of prolonged berserker mode, increasing the depravity of his actions, harassing the families of his victims and even taunting the public, the press and the police. And, when he was finally caught, he would blame it all on an alternate persona - the "Rat Man".

Today's guest is Nika Howard! You can find her on Twitter @nika_howard, and all of her wonderful content can be found on her L...

Tsutomu Miyazaki was a serial murderer of children, active for about 10 months from August 1988. It's a story that has been heavily misrepresented in western media, particularly in regards to Miyazaki's disability, but the real story alone is enough to chill to the bone.

Today's guest is Nika Howard! You can find her on Twitter @nika_howard, and all of her wonderful content can be found on her Linktree Page.

For more content follow me on @hikikomoripodcast on Instagram where I'll be posting photos relevant to this episode!

You can also find me on...

It's finally here. This is how and why Shinzo Abe was assassinated, and the unexpected failure to deify him after his death.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and Not Another Film on any big podcast app.

Sources:

In this episode we look at the continuing rise of ultranationalist ideology in Japanese politics under Shinzo Abe, including his membership in the secretive and fascistic Nippon Kaigai organisation, his expansion of the JSDF and his fiddling around behind the scenes during the Tokyo Olympics, despite his supposed retirement.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to...

We continue our journey through the life and death of Shinzo Abe. Today we look at his remarkable political comeback in 2011, along with his the incidents that never seemed to tarnish his popularity, particularly his horrific historical revisionism, and the Moritomo Gakuen scandal...

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and...

We embark on a 4-part journey through the life and death of Shinzo Abe, Japan's longest-running Prime Minister, who just so happened to get assassinated in May of 2022. As we shall discover, perhaps the damage had already been done by that point...

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and Not...

This is the tale of the rise of fascism in Japan, from its origins in Mussolini's Italy to the first bumbling attempts at coups by clandestine organisations. One of the most unlikely people who became embroiled in one such coup was the legendary comedic actor Charlie Chaplin.

Today's guest is Cami! You can find her via her Twitter page!

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and Not Another Film on any big podcast app.

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We continue our exploration of Shinzo Abe's greatest influence on his life, the war criminal Nobusuke Kishi. This episode we cover his life after being released from prison, and his highly successful and Machiavellian return to politics. What a piece of shit.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and Not...

To begin a long series on the life and death of Shinzo Abe, we must first look at the most influential person in Abe's life - his maternal grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi. Beginning his career in 1930s Manchuria, Kishi would eventually be one of the central architects of post-war Japan.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to...