‘Terrace House: Tokyo 2019-2020’ Leaving Netflix in August 2020

The now-tragic latest season of Terrace House is currently due to expire from Netflix in Japan on August 10th, 2020. Removal of the show could likely follow around the world shortly too. 

Just to catch anyone up unfamiliar with the series, Terrace House is a Japanese reality series that sees six guests live among each other in a house. The series has run since 2012 in Japan and has become a worldwide hit thanks to its distribution on Netflix.

In Japan, the series got new episodes on a weekly basis whereas Netflix outside of Japan got the series in batches of 12 episodes.

The most recent batch (part three) of the 2019-2020 spin-off arrived on Netflix internationally (outside of Japan) in April 2020.

Part four was suspended initially due to COVID-19 production issues. However, the recent tragic news (that we’ll get to in a second) means that part 4 will unlikely hit Netflix outside of Japan.

The removal date was spotted by Terrace House English Couch, an excellent fan account for the reality series. Although the August 10th, 2020 removal date is currently only for Netflix in Japan, it’s highly likely other regions will follow.

Terrace House Tokyo 2019 – 2020 parts 3 and 4 will be leaving Netflix on August 10.

Screenshot is from episode 1 of Part 3 from Japanese Netflix. pic.twitter.com/Vj03UFM8iZ

— Terrace House English Couch (@TerraceHouseEC) August 9, 2020

Why is Terrace House: Tokyo 2019-2020 leaving Netflix?

The answer should be painfully obvious for anyone who follows the series or even keeps up with pop culture news.

Earlier in the year, for those unaware, the series was canceled after the tragic and sudden passing of one of the show’s contestants, Hana Kimura, who committed suicide at the age of 22.

Subsequent to the death of Kimura, allegations were made against the producers of the series including staged drama and even sexual assault.

As Terrace House English Couch says: “It’s not reported why this happening (and it’s very uncommon for a Netflix produced series to leave the service), but we can all assume why.”

The removal is most likely out of respect for those concerned. We’ve reached out to Netflix for an official statement regarding the removal.

It’s worth noting that all social media references to TOKYO 2019-2020 have been scrubbed too.

The official Japanese #TerraceHouse YouTube and Instagram pages have removed all references to TOKYO 2019 – 2020. pic.twitter.com/5WbpvtRSYM

— Terrace House English Couch (@TerraceHouseEC) May 28, 2020

What does this mean for Terrace House as a whole? The future is unclear. Terrace House English Couch believes it could be gone for good saying: “I don’t know, they’ve destroyed the trust of their audience and would have to rebuild a lot of that – if they could.”

We’ll keep this story up-to-date as we learn more.