Ōkawa Tatsuya: Japan’s Best-Known Unknown Face (Nippon)

Nippon: Ōkawa Tatsuya: Japan’s Best-Known Unknown Face. “Looking for a different kind of job, Ōkawa was surfing the Internet when he happened to come across Pakutaso, which was recruiting models. He got in touch and was soon hired, although this was a job with no pay. Pakutaso is an outfit run on a shoestring by a handful of people who draw no salaries themselves and who provide stock photos to anyone free of charge. No matter how many times Ōkawa’s photo was uploaded to the Internet, he stood to receive not a single yen. Despite that, Ōkawa felt that the Internet’s time had come. He innocently believed that the more he got his face out there, the better his job prospects would be.” This is one of those stories that leaves me fascinated and full of questions and melancholic and bone-aware of how many people there are in the world and how different they all are.