Nagurareya, the human punchbag
Had a rough day? Head down to the Kabukicho district of Tokyo, where Nagurareya, the human punchbag, is more than happy to take a beating. A big hit on the streets of Shinjuku, the 37-year-old ex-boxer charges passers-by ¥1000 for one minute of uninterrupted fist exercise, during which he will not retaliate.
His real name is Akira Hareruya, and he doesn’t do this for fun. When his professional boxing career finished, Hareruya used his earnings to set up his own electrical contracting company. However, he was much worse at business than at boxing. Japan’s economic problems hit him hard, leaving him with personal debts of more than ¥200 million (roughly £1m or $2m). Rather than beat himself up about it, a friend gave him the novel idea of letting others do it.
Hareruya’s odd job briefly made him a bit of a Tokyo tourist attraction, and he even published an autobiography, ‘Nagurareya’, which sold 10,000 copies. Unfortunately, this didn’t raise enough money to clear his debts (which had inexplicably risen), and even caused problems at home. Hareruya had somehow managed to conceal his side-job from his family until they saw a feature about him on TV. This caused some surprise and distress, understandably.
- Week in the life: Hi, I’m Akira and I’ll be your human punchbag today (The Independent, 1999)
- Big in Japan: Nagurareya (Metropolis)
- Tokyo Talk: Knock out (Metropolis)
19 Comments, Comment or Ping
Alison
i can’t do that!
Mar 12th, 2008
Avinash
Holy crap. On my to-do list.
May 12th, 2008
Hannah
omg! that’s so depressing and sad…
May 21st, 2008
SWEDISH
Haha. NO. It’s not depressing nor sad. It’s fucking genious! Loves it, +1 on my to-do list.
Jun 1st, 2008
anon
this didn’t raise enough money to clear his debts (which had inexplicably risen)
It’s called “interest”.
Jun 6th, 2008
baffmagnet
It’s better than sucking dick.
Jul 4th, 2008
Luzbe
Oh la la! capitalism!
Jul 4th, 2008
Jay
Wow. This sounds like one of the Simpson’s episodes where Homer did exactly the same thing
Jul 8th, 2008
bastard family
he has a bastard excuse for a a family then in my perception. or at least the ones that turned on him for it. A man is LITERALLY willing to take a beating to make ends meet for his family.. *Literally* and some of them turn on him for it.. yea.. that’s family for you. It’s not like these street guys and girls are going to hit him anywhere near as hard as the professionals did in the ring when he was still a boxer.. .c`mon. geez
Dec 4th, 2008
Max
I’ve seen this guy. It’s not as bad a job as you might think, and here’s why: This article leaves out that he is allowed to dodge punches by his own rules. And he’s rather good at it by now as you might imagine.
Jan 7th, 2009
TaylorBombx
omg i feel so bad for him !
all of you people are saying “no no dont
be sad for the guy”
OF COURSE YOU SHOULD BE.
he’s getting eaten up by debt and
he can’t pay it off even by having that job !
that is really sad.
people should just be kind hearted enough
and stop wasteing their damn money
on drugs or some shit like that she just
give the guy some donation money. -.-
yes i know our world isn’t perfect,
but seriously.
that’s sad.
Jan 18th, 2009
eldritch
I’d like to beat the shit out of this guy 😉
Feb 18th, 2009
cara
oh MAN this guys life just keeps getting worse and worse
Apr 15th, 2009
Japanese words
No matter how upset I was, I don’t think I could bring myself to hit this guy.
Apr 27th, 2009
Sam
wow..i hope he gets his debts cleared soon…poor guy
Jun 24th, 2009
isoge
omg what a genius his friend was 🙂
next time I want to beat myself up for doing something incredibly stupid, I’ll just let other’s do it and charge them ten bucks for it.
Oct 25th, 2010
Jack
i believe there was a movie about a guy like him except it was for his girl
Oct 29th, 2010
anon
haha this is taken from crying fist, a korean movie
Jan 10th, 2011
Eden
While our intrepid reporters were scouting the Golden Gai’s nomiya for Tokyo’s intelligentsia and a good scotch, they literally stumbled across another of Shinjuku’s infamous personalities, Nagurareya, the human punching bag. Every night this former boxer does his rendition of
Apr 1st, 2019
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