Despite being on mind-altering substances at the time, Manabu Yusa recalled the sharpness of his senses while alone in his apartment one day when he was 29 years old.

The summer heat was intense, the chirping of cicadas dominated all sounds, and the smell from a nearby barbecue restaurant filled his nose.

To his eyes, the surrounding buildings seemed to be shaking.

A yakuza member and drug addict, Yusa felt totally alone in the world and was stricken by feelings of fear and solitude.

He later found himself in a hospital’s intensive care unit.

Retracing his memory of what had happened, Yusa remembered having an aerial view of himself falling from a building.

The fact was that Yusa, high on drugs, had jumped from the fifth floor of the apartment building. The multiple fractures in his right leg were so severe that a doctor told him he “may never be able to walk on his own again.”

Yusa’s life up to that point had been devoted to taking stimulants. He did not know the meaning of life and did not care if he died at any time.

And even the near-death experience would not open Yusa’s eyes to reality.

It was a book that finally prompted Yusa to turn his life around.

Now 49 and clean for years, Yusa has started a crowdfunding campaign to establish a specialized facility to support those with no place to go after being released from juvenile reform centers and prisons.

The facility is expected to temporarily accommodate residents to help them readjust to society.

Yusa recounted the long path he has taken up to today.

DOWN WRONG PATH

During his childhood, Yusa felt alienated because he could not laugh at ease with his family and friends. He never viewed himself as part of any group.

Desperate for a place of comfort, he always tried to read others’ faces. Just as his friends did, Yusa smoked cigarettes and shoplifted in the upper grades of elementary school.

After turning 13, Yusa started sniffing glue.

He joined a motorcycle gang following his graduation from junior high and failure to pass his high school entrance exam.

One day when he was 18 years old, Yusa was asked to give a stimulant drug a try at an older friend’s home.

Yusa was initially hesitant, knowing that type of chemical could have irreversible effects on his health.

An anti-drug slogan also crossed his mind: “Will you quit stimulants, or will you quit being human?”

However, he decided to sample the drug “only once.” He felt like he was floating in air and had a sense of elation he had not experienced before.

Yusa was later sent to a juvenile training school because of fight between motorcycle gang members.

Upon his return to society, Yusa resumed his stimulant use when he turned 20. He was soon addicted to drugs.

HEARING VOICES, CARRYING KNIVES

At age 24, Yusa joined a crime syndicate based in the Kabukicho entertainment district of Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Yusa could buy illegal substances at cheaper rates in Kabukicho, so he began using stimulants almost every day.

While high, he heard voices telling him, “You cannot be helped” and “you should die.”

The negative voices followed him while he took strolls in town or visited a pachinko parlor.

Paranoid, he carried around a kitchen blade and a knife in a bag, aiming to “kill anyone who badmouths me.”

It was then that he received an unexpected invitation from a fellow gangster. The Christian yakuza member asked Yusa if he “would like to go to church together.”

Yusa was happy that the colleague cared about him. Gazing at the cross at the church, tears came to his eyes.

“I don’t want to be like this anymore,” Yusa recalled thinking. “I want to change myself.”

ENCOUNTER WITH BOOK

Yusa stopped using stimulants for a week. But he kept hearing the hallucinatory voices.

Concluding that abandoning the habit made no difference, Yusa resumed his narcotics use, and any goal he had in life disappeared again.

The descent led to his leap from the apartment building.

He was hospitalized for an entire year before he could walk with crutches.

Even after his hospitalization, Yusa sold illicit drugs to friends while continuing to get high himself.

He was arrested for stimulant usage two or three years afterward and was sentenced to one and a half years in prison.

The time behind bars did not set him straight.

Yusa was later found guilty of possessing stimulants and imprisoned for two years. He thought he would never be able to change.

The turning point came, when Yusa encountered a book during this stint in prison.

“A Born-Again Christian,” published by Kodansha Ltd., was written by a pastor who started his life afresh after his dependence on stimulants as a yakuza.

Yusa could not ignore the similarities with his own life.

He hit upon the notion on why he didn’t die in the fall from the building. “I was saved by God because He still wants me to do something.”

Yusa started reading the Bible to change himself. As soon as he was released from prison in 2013, he was baptized for initiation into the Christian Church.

His reliance on stimulants ceased around that time.

PLACE TO RETURN TO

Those developments gave Yusa the confidence to believe that anyone addicted to illegal substances could get their lives back on track.

He volunteered for a year at a private facility designed to deal with addiction-related issues in Okinawa Prefecture. Spending time with patients recently released from reform centers or prisons, Yusa found it rewarding to see “unmotivated” people slowly become more positive in life.

Despite the chaos in his earlier days, Yusa said he was lucky. His family and friends did not forsake him, and he had a place to return to after incarceration.

Yusa decided to create a “place of comfort” for troubled individuals who were trying their best to transition back into society.

Although he did not like public speaking, he began delivering speeches and lectures seven years ago at retraining centers for youngsters and elsewhere.

After learning about facilities that accept ex-cons with no homes to go to, Yusa decided to introduce the same type of establishment.

COZIEST SHELTER NATIONWIDE

Yusa founded the group Kibo eno Michi (Road to hope) in 2022, which is involved in supporting young people with criminal or troubled pasts if they show an intention of adapting to society.

He worked part time at a group home to raise money to introduce his rehabilitation center for offenders in his native prefecture of Tochigi.

In June this year, Yusa embarked on a crowdfunding drive on the Campfire website to make the facility a reality.

His initial goal of 1 million yen ($6,800) was achieved in two days, so he raised the target to 3 million yen. The revised value was reached before the extended deadline of Aug. 10.

In addition, Yusa is seeking donations through the Japan Post Bank account number 2011374 at branch number 098.

He plans to buy a detached house for the welfare center, which will open around October.

Yusa wants to make the facility the “coziest” rehabilitation center in Japan.

His dream is providing residents with not only a comfortable living environment but also opportunities to share meals and casual conversations with others.

He said he will closely listen to residents’ problems and is determined to respond sternly to prevent recidivism.

“Our belief is that young people can make a fresh start in life if we share experiences and move forward together with them,” Yusa said.