Depopulated Village's New Industry "Forced Bedridden Tour" Hits Big with Overworked Generation: 3,000 Squats Upon Arrival Physically Prevents Return Home

Hizaori Village in Nagano Prefecture, a marginal settlement with a population of only 104 and an aging rate of 89%, is achieving a miraculous V-shaped recovery. The driving force behind this is the “Forced Rest / Total Limit Plan,” a 2-night, 3-day experience tour organized by the village revitalization NPO “Ubasute Reverse.” Discarding the traditional idyllic sales pitch of “there is nothing here, but that is something,” the tour has resorted to force with the concept of “robbing you of the strength to go home,” generating such enthusiasm that reservations fill up for six months ahead within just three minutes of opening.

The content of the tour is so harsh yet sweet that the Labor Standards Act would run away barefoot. Upon arrival in the village, participants are taken straight from the bus to the community center square, where they are forced to perform 3,000 squats and an air chair endurance race under the guidance of an 82-year-old “Demon Instructor” who boasts the strongest legs in the village. Dropouts are mercilessly encouraged with bamboo swords (made of newspaper) and pushed until their hamstrings and quadriceps fall into complete dysfunction. Through this “ritual,” participants are rendered physically incapable of walking on their own, and the option of returning home is forcibly stripped away.

Waiting for the participants, who can no longer move a muscle due to severe pain the next morning, is dedicated nursing play by the village’s elderly. Elite businessmen who cannot even stand up to go to the toilet are put in adult diapers and spoon-fed liquid food while being patted on the head by local grandmothers saying, “There, there, it hurts, doesn’t it?” “Good boy/girl.” Robbed of the physical strength to make decisions, they become beings who are simply cared for, completely liberated from the pressures of social responsibility and compliance.

A male participant (34) working at a major advertising agency, interviewed while still wearing a bib, spoke with an ecstatic expression. “Usually, I’m forced to make decisions every second, but here, I don’t have to decide anything other than ‘swallowing.’ I don’t even have the grip strength to hold a smartphone due to muscle pain, so I can physically ignore contact from my boss. This is true digital detox.” For modern people who feel guilty about resting of their own volition, “force majeure rest” due to muscle destruction seems to be the ultimate indulgence.

This bizarre business model is bringing enormous economic effects to the village. The participation fee is high at 500,000 yen per night, but most of it becomes “pocket money” for the elderly who handle the caregiving, and the village’s osteopathic clinic and diaper shop are booming with a bubble economy. On the other hand, the stock of adult diapers in the village is running low, and a reversal phenomenon is occurring where the village’s elderly, who are the original users, are returning to cloth diapers, but the village mayor does not mind, saying, “Changing young people’s diapers is the greatest purpose in life for the elderly.”

“Modern society does not give adults the ‘right to be spoiled.’ That is why we return them to infants with love that borders on violence,” says the old woman who represents the NPO. In the morning mist of Hizaori Village, the screams of urban warriors and the lullabies that gently soothe them echo again today. As a strong antithesis to a society that forces independence, this tour, which borders on a strange festival, is becoming the final sanctuary for exhausted adults.

Stakeholder Comments

• Mayor of Hizaori Village: “I was worried about our lower backs, but the city folk are surprisingly light. Maybe their souls have worn away.”
• Representative of NPO ‘Ubasute Reverse’: “‘The customer isn’t God.’ ‘The customer is a baby.’ We don’t need troublesome things like gods in this village.”
• Participant working at a major trading company (38): “Around the 2000th squat, I stopped caring about stock prices and exchange rates. Now I’m just longing for the sweet potato paste baby food.”
• Demon Instructor (82, female): “Recent young people have weak legs and loins, but their crying voices are loud and cute.”
• Local Drugstore Manager: “Only L-size diapers are disappearing at an abnormal speed. I thought it was a poltergeist.”
• Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare Official: “We are considering whether this falls under the new genre of ‘Nursing Tourism,’ but cases where people voluntarily go to become in need of care are unexpected.”
• Muscle Pain (anthropomorphized): “They sought me. I am commanding them at the cellular level: do not move, rest.”
• Participant’s Wife: “Since my husband came back, he wants to crawl a lot. It’s a little creepy, but his expression is calmer than before.”
• Bus Driver: “The bus ride back is quiet. Everyone is sleeping, trembling like newborn fawns.”
• Village Stray Cat: “Humans are approaching the same lifestyle as us.”

International Expressions

Haiku

• Muscle pain, unable to move, morning porridge
• Squats finished, pure and innocent infant
• Spring mountain, just a diaper, the elites
• Laying down the heavy burden of decision, muscle death
• Bush warbler, hand cannot hold phone, basking in sun
• Knees broken, heart broken too, knowing mother
• Is it a newborn’s cry echoing in the marginal village?
• Abandoning the city, wrapped in swaddling clothes, corporate warrior
• Cared for, shedding tears, board meeting
• Forced peace is painful, spring breeze

Kanji / Chinese Characters

Forced Infantilization Plan Immediate Muscle Collapse Upon Entry Urban Warrior Completely Powerless Old Young Reversal Nursing Heaven

Emoji

🚌💨🏞️🏋️‍♂️🦵📉🚼🍼🛌👵👴🤝💕🏙️🚫

Onomatopoeia

Gaku-gaku, puru-puru… (Trembling, shaking) Babuu, ogyaa. (Baby sounds) Hiku-hiku, zuki-zuki. (Twitching, throbbing pain) Yoshi-yoshi, nade-nade. (There there, pat pat) Toro-toro, gokkun. (Mushy, gulp) Shiiin… (Silence)

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