Small town in Shizuoka Prefecture hopes to bring in tourists and keep away pests by turning its residents into the walking dead.

An unsettling YouTube video was recently uploaded that appeared to show a small Japanese coastal town overrun with the undead.

The chilling footage shows a man, called Kanemasu, documenting his encounter with the zombie horde after he moved to Matsuzaki, Shizuoka Prefecture. Kanemasu appears to be a man who loves living off the land, as he claims to have spent his days in Matsuzaki hunting, bike riding and picking oranges. But no amount of time spent in the great outdoors could have prepared him for what else awaited him in Matsuzaki — a whole bunch of zombies.

Desperate to escape the horde, Kanemasu found the roads all blocked by the undead, so he fled into the mountains where he uploaded this footage. In the video, he explains how to keep safe around the zombies (“Try to hold your breath. They react to exhaling. They’re also weak to mulberry leaves. I’m not sure why.”) Kanemasu also claims “There’s probably no one here left alive… apart from him.” The him in question is a mysterious figure we see in the footage, who the zombies seem to ignore completely.

▼ In the end, Kanemasu slowly succumbs to the zombie infection after a nasty bite to the shoulder.

Matsuzaki is a small, rural town on the southwest coast of the Izu Peninsula and has a population of around 6,000 residents, although it is unclear how many of those people are still actual people and not members of the undead.

▼ For example, this man is clearly not part of the 6,000.

…and while we could continue playing along that a rural town in Matsuzaki has been taken over by a zombie infection, the video is actually part of a promotional campaign for the town’s annual ‘Zombie Camp’.

▼ Mercifully, infants seem immune to the zombie curse.

Zombie Camp has been running since 2014, and guests can enjoy a unique camping experience whilst staving off a swarm of rabid zombies, all of whom are played by local residents, most of whom are elderly. Guests can also enjoy a range of outdoor activities including hunting (for wildlife, not zombies.)

Unfortunately, the pandemic means the number of tourists coming to the area has dropped, and with less people hunting, the number of deer and wild boar has increased, in turn causing damage to the area’s biggest export — sakura mochi leaves.

The Matsuzaki Town Pest Control and Outdoors Residents Council hopes that tourists will come back to the town not just for the zombies, but also to keep the deer and wild boar populations in control with this unique rural staycation experience.

They aim to appeal to younger people who may not have previously had any interest in rural staycations, but families with children or groups of friends are also welcome to try and solve the mystery in Kanemasu’s last video — who is the mysterious man impervious to the zombie swarm? Why are the zombies weak against mulberry leaves? Will the infection spread or will you be able to stop it in time?

Details on how to stay at the Zombie Camp are not confirmed quite yet, but the organisers hope to host the event in autumn, with prices at around 25,000 yen (US$217). In the meantime, start gathering your camping set ready and practice holding your breath.

Source, images: PR Times
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