Over the years, viewers have become accustomed to watching reality television that exceed limits.
However, when the genre was in its infancy, a man signed up to star in a series that would see him spend an entire year naked in a locked room.
In 1998, aspiring comedian Tomoaki Hamatsu auditioned for the Japanese reality show called Susunu!Denpa Shonen or, No Going Further, Crazy Youth.
The task seemed simple enough.
All he had to do was live in an apartment, temporarily isolate himself from the outside world, and spend his time entering mail-in prize draws until he won 1 million yen (about £6,000).
Although he could leave at any time, he stayed for months and was determined to complete the task at hand.
Although he believed his efforts were being filmed for a program that would air later, cameras captured his every move and broadcast the images live to millions of people.
He quickly became Japan's most famous television personality.
Starting the challenge with nothing, including no clothes or even items to keep him busy, all his time was spent filling out entry forms and testing his luck.
For almost a year, Hamatsu lived off his winnings from magazine competitions, including food and other essential items he needed to survive.
At first, he did not receive any sustenance, drank only water and lost weight.
His first food prize was some sugary drinks.
He later managed to catch a bag of rice in a competition, but was forced to eat it raw as he had no pans or containers to heat and cook it.
After his staple foods ran out, Hamatsu lived on canned dog food and kibble.
At one point, he was given a stuffed toy, using it as his sensei and turning to the inanimate object for advice.
Throughout the year-long ordeal, Hamatsu was never able to win any clothing he could wear (one of the few items of clothing he was given was women's underwear), while also winning prizes he could not even wear, such as movie tickets and a bicycle.
Even after receiving a TV set, he had to wait to watch anything, as there was no cable or antenna in the apartment, a deliberate move by the producers who feared he would discover it was already on TV.
Your ability to maintain your health or physical appearance has also fallen by the wayside, with hair and nails becoming long and out of control.
It took months before he got a toothbrush and toothpaste to clean his teeth.
At the time, he also earned the nickname Nasubi – which means eggplant – because of the icon used to cover his genitals on screen.
Viewers also commented that her 12-inch-long face looked like a vegetable.
After spending 335 days to reach his goal, Hamatsu broke the Guinness World Record for “longest competition winning survival time” with the show he unwittingly starred in titled Denpa Shonen: A Life in Prizes.
Despite having achieved the initial objective, a trip to South Korea prolonged the experience.
After producers tricked him into traveling abroad, he was trapped in an apartment for weeks until he won enough prizes to cover the cost of his plane ticket back to Japan.
Finally arriving home, he was taken to another apartment.
Believing his ordeal was not yet over, he instinctively took off his clothes, but at that moment the walls of the apartment collapsed and he found himself in a studio surrounded by an audience.
When they started clapping, he was clearly confused, believing that the program had not yet been broadcast and was therefore unsure of what was happening.
Audiences were completely fascinated by what he did, with Hamatsu's diaries about his experience becoming a bestseller in Japan, while the show broke several records during its run after 17 million viewers tuned in every Sunday night. .
Unsurprisingly, his reintegration into society was complicated, with the now public figure once explaining how he struggled to wear clothes for months afterwards and found it difficult to hold conversations.
He told Style Koriyama in 2020: 'My mental condition was at its worst.
'I was like, 'Why just me? Why do I have to do all these things? I’d rather die than feel like this.”
'Every day I did the same thing: I wrote hundreds of postcards, which depressed me more mentally than physically.'
He added: “Although it seemed like I was having fun most of the time on the edited show, for me it was very painful.”
Although he achieved his initial goal of finding fame, Hamatsu was unsuccessful in making a career out of his reality television experience and instead became a theater actor.
His unbelievable story is the focus of the documentary The Contestant, released last year.
Speaking with Deadline before its release, he said that most of his time competing on the show involved 'suffering'.
'In the beginning, the people working on the television show really created all the loneliness for me.
'I really felt trapped. And then I felt like it was really scary how humans could do this to other people.
Do you have a story?
If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or visiting us Send stuff – we love hearing from you.
MORE: Japan is restricting viewing of this famous attraction due to overtourism
MORE: Inside mysterious abandoned nuclear control room 'frozen in time' since disaster
MORE: Shōgun TV Series' Last Episode Had 'False' Alternate Ending Cut From Finale
