Commentary
Japanese Man Crushed By Porn Collection
- by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, March 10, 2017
Yet that's the unhappy fate of a 50-year-old Japanese man, identified only as Joji, who was apparently crushed to death by his own collection of pornographic magazines next to his kitchen counter sometime last year. Coroners believe the pile of magazines, weighing over six tons, collapsed on him around six months ago, — but his body was only discovered last week.
His landlord finally forced open the door to his apartment to find out what had happened to him.
Japanese news media got the porn-slay scoop from an employee of a cleaning company hired to cart off the pornos in secret, in order to shield the man’s family from embarrassment. (That ship has sailed).
Various gruesome details, not fit for publication in a family industry newsletter, would suggest the man was indeed crushed to death by the magazines – rather than, say, having a heart attack and pulling the pile down on him.
The anonymous cleaner added that every single surface in the man’s apartment was covered with stacks of porno, which altogether weighed in at 13,228 pounds.
Setting aside all the bad jokes about the wages of sin already inspired by the story, on a serious note, this case is another cautionary tale about the dangers facing hoarders, who suffer a recognized mental illness, or more accurately, one of several diagnosable conditions, with real attendant physical dangers.
(They’re even more likely to meet a grim end because many are socially marginal, with scant contact with the outside world.)
For some reason, print media is a favorite item for hoarding. In some cases, massive piles of newspapers and magazines have actually triggered structural collapses, killing hoarders when the floors of their houses gave way.
Erik Sass is editor of Publishers Daily. You can reach Erik at eriksass@gmail.com.
According to rumors, the same thing is happening now all over the tech world as "data scientists" and "engineers" are being crushed to death by avalanches of data. What they seem to need is reinforced filing systems to prevent tons of discs suddenly cascading down on them. As for actually looking at the "data"----forget it.
It's ESPN and other cable channels that are getting crushed by cord cutters and unbundling. Less is more.
A little time spent on research goes a long way. This story has been debunked for quite a while now: https://gizmodo.com/that-viral-story-about-a-japanese-man-crushed-to-death-1792986533
I guess the moral here is; ... Only view your porn online. The life you save may be your own.
Good catch Keith. However this storyline does have great potential as a satire on porn addiction. Americanize it and cast Steve Carrell in the lead.
Damn it, Keith! Why couldn't you have posted that an hour ago, before I tossed my, uh, "collected works" into the trash bin?!
Wow, a new idea for a hording TV show! Porn.