蒸発 - Jōhatsu

June 03, 2025

“She is a pretty young woman.” I looked at the photo before asking if I could keep it.

Reluctantly, her parents agreed. I knew by touch it was a copy, so I felt no regret in asking.

Such was my relationship with the family Takahashi. I was their gomi ningen or garbage man. I was the outsider to be hired to clean up messes that would otherwise impede on the family honor. If I failed, I took the money and the subsequent ostracism. If I succeeded, I would only take a larger amount of money. Either way, I went away, so as not to disturbed the family or its honor.

Today, I am looking only for a larger amount of money.

I am also looking for one Takahashi Sakura or Sakura Takahashi, if I am speaking to a westerner. The picture shows her posing in a business office showing a bit more leg (and such) than is traditionally discovered in a traditional business office. She appears to be in her early twenties, thin, happy in the picture, and unmarried from a lack of a wedding ring. Such girls rarely last in this setting, usually becoming attached to a junior (soon to be senior or partner) executive requiring a piece of eye candy for a wife.

Rarely does love evolve into this situation. Sakura’s parents spoke of an arranged marriage with a list of suitable candidates to further their daughter’s chances of success. Unfortunately for them, Sakura had other plans and suddenly disappeared leaving all of her worldly possessions untouched. She pulled no money from her bank. She discarded her ID, credit cards, and clothing for others to discover.

In the blink of an eye, she was gone.

But not really in the blink of an eye, and not really gone.

Within a day, I confirmed my suspicions that Sakura Takahashi became one of thousands of the “evaporated”. These are people who wish to vanish, usually to avoid crushing debt, a bad marriage, a long prison term, or physical/mental abuse. My money is on the latter.

To a westerner, the practice is called jōhatsu. It involves paying a company known as a yonige-ya (a fly-by-night shop) between 50000 and 300000 yen, possibly more, to erase your history from prying eyes. Combined with strict privacy laws, the yonige-ya provide a service that greatly inhibits the looker from seeing the lookee. The authorities rarely intervene unless they suspect foul play of a similar crime.

It is my opinion that Sakura Takahashi left to evade a marriage she did not want and parents who controlled her every move. Some will move to Kamagaski in Osaka to blend in with the thousands of day laborers which drift in and out, never drawing any attention from outsiders. Here, she would receive a new name, possibly plastic surgery, and a new purpose for living.

If I do meet her, I am going to recruit her. The irony of having an evaporated looking for other evaporateds will not be lost on me or anyone who understands irony.

I presented my final report to the Family Takahashi two weeks after accepting the case. I did not lie about their daughter. She did use a yonige-ya before leaving the country under a new identity, on a plane bound for Los Angeles. Since I live in Osaka (central city), I did not have the connections to continue the pursuit stateside.

Reluctantly, Mr. Takahashi paid me and then asked me to leave his house forever. I understood completely. When my new assistant, Akira Fumiko, deposited the money, with a smile exactly like an old photocopy picture I keep in my safe, I, again, understood completely.