TOKYO (TR) – He sits on prime real estate worth an estimated 300 million yen, but a 78-year-old man known online as the “Natto Hermit” has revealed a history of arrests for shoplifting, dining-and-dashing, and political vandalism, reports News Post Seven (Sep. 21).
Yoshihisa Maeda lives in a trash-filled, overgrown home in the upscale Yoyogi neighborhood. The property, measuring roughly 200 square meters, has no gas. Despite sitting on a fortune, Maeda has been unemployed for nearly half a century—having worked for only two and a half years in his entire life—and survives on a strict diet of natto (fermented soybeans) and 31-yen bags of bean sprouts.
While his squalid lifestyle has garnered him internet fame, Maeda recently admitted to a string of run-ins with the law.
“I’ve been arrested for shoplifting. I’ve also been caught for dining-and-dashing,” Maeda casually revealed.
Stealing bananas
About a decade ago, Maeda was apprehended for stealing bananas from a supermarket. He was taken into custody by officers from the Harajuku Police Station and detained for up to two weeks before prosecutors ultimately dropped the charges.
His petty crime spree didn’t stop there. He admitted to executing a dine-and-dash at a high-end soba restaurant located in the gardens of the luxury Hotel Chinzanso Tokyo. While police were called to the scene, he avoided detention in that incident.
More recently, Maeda found himself behind bars in 2023 after being arrested in Nagoya for property damage.
“I tore down a Japanese Communist Party poster,” he said. “I was arrested and held in a cell for about five days, but the bath in the Nagoya detention center was dirty.”
“Too much trouble”
Maeda refuses to sell his highly coveted Yoyogi land, simply stating that the process would be “too much trouble.”
Instead, he funds his frugal lifestyle and occasional highway-bus trips across the country through an allowance provided by a nephew, who sends him 50,000 yen a month alongside two annual “bonuses” of 200,000 yen.
Despite a diet of cheap groceries and a history of heavy drinking that led to a bout of pancreatitis in 1985, Maeda claims he has not visited a doctor or hospital in nearly 40 years. He credits his robust health to walking and climbing the seven flights of stairs at the Shinjuku library.
Now living alone with only a black rotary phone connecting him to the outside world, the eccentric millionaire-on-paper maintains a bleak outlook on his future.
“I don’t want to live a long life,” Maeda muttered. “Once the war in Russia ends, I’m ready to die anytime.”
