After winning the 5.6 billion won lottery, he hid it from his wife and secretly bought and traveled a car, eventually...
Nov 24, 2025
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According to the Hong Kong media South China Morning Post, a 66-year-old retiree living in Tokyo, Japan, has been living on a monthly pension of 300,000 yen (about 2.8 million won) with his wife. Although he worked for a large company, he has only raised about 27 million yen (about 250 million won) due to the education costs of his two children and the high cost of living in Tokyo.
He used to spend time in coffee shops after reading newspapers, and he used to buy a few 300-yen lottery tickets every morning.
In the meantime, he only found out that he was the top winner of the 600 million yen (about 5.6 billion won) lottery after receiving a call to visit the bank.
He said "There's no sense of reality. I'm afraid that the amount is too large"I couldn't hide my surprise.
However, he lied to his wife that he won only 5 million yen (about 47 million won) and said he would use the prize money for home repairs. However, he bought a luxury car, traveled to luxury hot spring resorts across the country, and spent 18 million yen (about 170 million won) in six months. Every day he took the subway and drove a new car secretly stored in the parking lot, dressed in old clothes and distanced himself from his acquaintances to avoid doubt.
But this hidden life soon led to guilt and loneliness. During the trip, I looked back on my life when I saw other couples with my family, and I also remembered my father, who died alone after bankruptcy and divorce.
He would have been proud of the money he had earned from his efforts. But wealth without effort evokes unpleasant memories and shakes life," he confessed.
In the end, after consulting with a financial counselor, he invested about 500 million yen (about 4.7 billion won) of the winning money in insurance and designated his wife and children as beneficiaries. It was to ensure a stable life for the family after his death.
This story drew great attention in Japanese society. One netizen pointed out that `Sudden wealth to an ordinary person leads to conflicts of values and identity confusion rather than giving happiness.'
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
