Cave Man Returns to Society after 43 Years in Japan

It's a long and queer story - about a man who deserted society in youth and spent his 43 years in a cave way up in the mountainï¼›his years of life in seclusion was made into a TV drama.

Now, this episode presents two elements in a nutshell: why he had to lead such a life in the first place and what motivated to make that into a TV drama.

The latter is, of course, obvious: people are funny and inquisitive, simply curious to know "all about it". The former has a social undertone and points to a rather serious problem of how a family should be and how the cave man's own family was like.

This "cave man", Kazuma Kamura by name, had left his home to get rid of himself from his parents' intolerable abuse. He took a dog with him and ran into a mountain near the Ashio Copper Mine. He was 13.

He found for himself a cave to live in. He caught snakes, trapped a boar, and caught fish to survive and made little contact with the villagers. Kamura kept on living that way for 43 long years - that's what 's amazing.

When he was discovered 11 years ago, he was prying open a dispenser along the road to steal a bottle of drink. He was arrested, and his astonishing life in seclusion came to light.

He was eventually granted a stay of execution. A social welfare corporation "Sanwakai" in Gunma accommodated him, but he had the hard time adjusting himself to live on in the welfare home. He escaped several times and was each time brought back for rehabilitation.
A decade passed and Kamura is settled in the welfare home and even manages a blueberry orchard of his own.

A 2-hour abridged version of "Cave Man" was shown over NHK on July 20 and received enquiries requesting for a rerun. The abridged version is shown at 16:00 September 21 and its full version starting October 1 in four installments one hour each.