An 87-year-old Japanese man who has lived on a remote island for nearly 30 years has fulfilled his desire to see his former home again.
Masafumi Nagasaki worked as a photographer before he was fed up with civilization in his 50s.
He moved to Sotobanari Island in 1989, leaving behind his wife and two rumored children. Sotobanari Island is a 1km small island with no fresh water, densely populated with plants, and a small population several hundred kilometers south of mainland Japan.
After 29 years of lonely life, he was discovered in 2018 by a local fisherman lying almost unconsciously on the beach.
The doctor was brought in with concerns about his health and he realized that he needed hospital treatment.
On his first visit from an outsider in 2012, he said he lived entirely outside the island, except for the weekly donations of water and rice balls paid by his family.
He told reporters at the time: “I don’t do what society tells me, but I obey the rules of nature. I can’t beat nature, so I have to obey it perfectly.”
His health forced him to return to mainland urban life, where the government gave him accommodation and a small amount of money to cover his basic necessities.
However, according to Spanish explorer Alvaro Selezo, who discovered Masafumi a few years ago but decided to keep his life secret, he struggled to make friends and was “slightly disdainful” by his neighbors. Was treated in “Fear of Spain”.
The pensioner, who was accustomed to wearing sandals at a completely naked bar, managed to wear clothes in public.
However, he was very frustrated with the pollution caused by city life and was obsessed with collecting trash wherever he went.
“In a typical society like the Japanese, few could understand his eccentric way of life and his extreme desire to live naked on a deserted island.”
His adaptability was exacerbated by the pandemic, forcing him to spend most of the last four years in isolation.
In a terrible twist of fate, the virus forced him to spend most of his days in a room much smaller than a small island where he would never have been in danger of catching it.
Selezo added:
The 87-year-old woman returned to Sotonavi earlier this month with the help of Mr. Selezo’s company, Docastaway. Docastaway offers tourists a “castaway” experience of spending two to five weeks alone on an uninhabited island.
The video shows Masafumi throwing her hand into the air and laughing happily after arriving at the shore.
He has now returned to the mainland city, but “fortunately I wasn’t sad to leave,” Selezo told the New York Post.
He added: ‘He seemed happy to have had the opportunity to say goodbye to his island.
“Perhaps a few years from now, if he still wants to spend his last days on Sotobarani Island, feels his time is right and he is ready to leave this world, we are wrong. Will be there to help him without. “
Masafumi is considered to be the longest-lasting voluntary drifter in history.
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