Life Subscription: A Subscription to Experience Other People's Lives - "Life Subscription"

Deletion requests arrive on Monday morning. Mizuho receives a list of reviews that were flagged the previous week. Defamation, personal information, suspected spam. Each has a reason for the judgment attached. Check them, delete them, mark them complete. That was part of Mizuho's job. The service is called "LifeSwitch." For 980 yen a month, you can experience someone else's life for twenty-four hours. Registered users currently exceed four million nationwide. --- The first time Mizuho saw that review was at the end of October. It had been flagged for suspected spam. The content was this: *I feel like I can't return to my own life* Just one line. No star rating. The username was a random string of alphanumeric characters. Mizuho read it for a while. "Meaningless" couldn't be used as a deletion reason. It didn't qualify as spam either. No terms of service violation. Mizuho set it to pending and moved on. --- The following week, there were three similar posts. *Before I knew it, I was thinking in that person's voice* *I can't remember myself properly anymore* *Something is growing thin* Each was one or two lines. The usernames were all different. The flag reason was "suspicious review." Mizuho reported it to their supervisor, Yasuda. "It's not a terms violation, is it?" "No." "Then keep it pending." That was all. --- When November came, the number grew. Ten a week, twenty a week. The content was similar, but the words were different each time. *I've stopped thinking about which one is real* *I'm looking for the way back* *The scenery I saw through someone else's eyes is mixing into my memories* Mizuho started logging them in a spreadsheet. Date, user ID, text. Maybe if they lined them up, something would become visible. Nothing became visible. The numbers just increased. --- One morning, Haru climbed onto Mizuho's lap. A three-year-old light gray cat, picked up the year Mizuho started living alone. Haru always came when Mizuho stared at the screen for too long. Whether it meant stop looking at the screen, or something else entirely, Mizuho couldn't tell. On Mizuho's lap, Haru narrowed their eyes. Mizuho closed the spreadsheet. --- In mid-November, there was a meeting with the operations team. The topic of how to handle the "can't return" reviews was raised. Engineer Nakamura said: "No functional issues. Brain waves are within normal range during the experience. All biometric sensors are green." Marketing's Ishida said: "Actually, this is trending, isn't it? People are screenshotting it on social media. It's getting attention as creepy content. I'd say it's not bad." Yasuda said: "So we don't need to delete them. Leave the weird ones alone. If it gets attention, let's use it." The meeting ended in fifteen minutes. On the way out, Yasuda said: "By the way, I used it again last week. That makes over thirty times now. It's really a great service, really." Mizuho noticed that "really" had been said twice, but didn't mention it. Yasuda walked down the hallway and turned in the opposite direction from his desk. He came back three seconds later. He said nothing. Mizuho's hand paused slightly while taking notes. Mizuho noticed the pause but couldn't quite put the reason into words. --- That night, Mizuho used LifeSwitch. For operational verification, employees can use it for free. Today was the fourth time. Mizuho chose the life of a man in his forties. No reason. Just pressed random. When it started, there was an unfamiliar ceiling. The sound of a ventilation fan. A faint smell of oil. Somewhere's kitchen. Twenty-four hours flowed by. When it ended, Mizuho opened their eyes. It was their own room. White ceiling. Haru was by the pillow. Mizuho didn't move for a while. This was their own room, Mizuho knew. Knew it, but just slightly, a procedure was needed. A small procedure to return here. It didn't take even a minute. But that minute hadn't existed before. For the next few days, at odd moments, the sound of the ventilation fan and the smell of oil came back. The damp air of that kitchen. The word "nostalgic" surfaced, and Mizuho pushed it away. --- In the first week of December, the number of reviews exceeded one hundred. The content had changed. *The song that person loved won't leave my head. I don't know what I used to like anymore* *Each time I use it, it takes longer to come back. Is this normal?* *Last week I looked in the mirror and for one second thought it was someone else's face* Mizuho added them to the spreadsheet. A new column was added. A column for "number of experiences." Mizuho collected usage counts where they could be confirmed. The average number of experiences for users who wrote "can't return" reviews was seventeen. The overall user average was 4.3. Mizuho looked at the numbers. Looked for a while. Then checked their own usage count. It was four. --- Mizuho reported to Yasuda. "There's a correlation between usage count and the 'can't return' reviews." Yasuda looked at Mizuho's face for a moment. There was a pause, as if recalling something, and then he said: "I see." "Shouldn't we verify something?" "I asked Nakamura. The biometric data is fine. He says it's probably just a matter of psychological habituation." "Habituation?" "Like after coming home from a trip. It goes back to normal after a while, he says." Mizuho heard the phrase "after a while." "Are there reviews from people who came back?" Yasuda paused slightly. The pause was a little long. "...I haven't looked into that." --- Mizuho looked into it. Cross-referenced the user IDs of those who wrote "can't return" reviews with their subsequent usage history. Of 103 cases, 91 had continued using the service after writing the review. Twelve users had quit. What happened to those twelve afterward, there was no way for the service side to know. Mizuho stopped there for a while. Haru came to their feet. Didn't meow. Just came. Mizuho didn't close the screen. --- In late December, there was another thing that bothered Mizuho. The language in the reviews was becoming similar. At first they were scattered. The lives experienced, the things felt, the ways of saying things—all different. But from December onward, little by little, the same phrasing kept appearing. *This is the real one* That one sentence appeared four times. The posting dates were all different. The user IDs were different. The lives experienced were probably different too. And yet, it was the same sentence. Mizuho lined up those four. Tried to write something, and stopped. --- At year's end, one more arrived. Five stars. The text was this: *This is the real one* It was the fifth. Mizuho checked the user ID. The experience count was forty-three. Looking at the usage log for the most recent thirty days, this user had never once ended the service. It had been running for thirty days straight. In the profile field, there was just one line. Occupation: unemployed. Previously: office worker. Looking at the experience history, all forty-three sessions were the life of the same ID. Mizuho set that review to pending. Didn't delete it. Couldn't write a reason. --- The new year came. Mizuho's usage count had somehow become eight. Four times had been enough for operational verification. After the fifth, Mizuho stopped bothering to come up with reasons. How many days had passed between the seventh and eighth—Mizuho couldn't remember. Haru climbed onto Mizuho's lap. Heavy. Warm. A weight Mizuho knew. Mizuho looked at Haru. A face Mizuho knew. A little confirmation was needed. Just a little.

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