Farewell Shimada Shinsuke!

I'm not a huge Japanese entertainment/celebrity buff as I live a typical Salaryman family life here in Japan, watching the Japanese news, morning shows and occasionally, when I'm too tired to check out a real TV channel, bits and pieces of a Japanese Variety Show. So, after more than ten years here I know my way around the basic celebrities.

Wada Akiko and Shimada enjoying the spotlight!



In the Japanese world of so celebrities, there are a few chosen ones that have achieved almost God-like status in the Japanese world of TV. A few that comes to mind are singer/actress/whatever/tv host Wada Akiko, Tamori, Beat Takeshi, Sanma Akashiya and Shimada Shinsuke (I just noticed I wrote the names Japanese style - family name first, can't be bothered to link information about them, if you want to know more you can just google the names). There are probably a few more that could be added to that list of the "elite" and grand-old-men/woman of the Japanese TV entertainment industry, people that up-and-coming celebrities are expected to pay proper respect to.

Of the people above, I've always strongly disliked Shimada, he seemed like an arrogant asshole that got off on making fun of people, using his status as celebrity to put other people down while trying to uphold an image of a upstanding man who places importance on proper manners and respect, if a little mischievous. However, a few years back, the first cracks in the facade started to show when he physically abused a female staff during the shooting of one of his shows (if I remember correctly, it involved slaps in the face, pulling of hair, general shouting and face-spitting, all generously handed out by Shimada). He got a slap on the wrist with a few months of being quarantined from his shows, but the Japanese people seemed to forgive him as he made a comeback and reclaimed his fame. 

However, this morning, I awoke to the pleasant news of an urgent press conference (those urgent ones always signal that something entertaining has happened) where Shimada announced his retirement from the entertainment industry due to connections with the Yakuza. From the official story, it doesn't sound particularly exciting, apparently an old friend of his joined the Japanese mob (after they had become friends) and through the friend, Shimada had occasional contacts with a high ranking Yakuza and after this coming to the knowledge of the agency he works for (the power of these "agencies" is another completely different story, but there most be real and researched articles about it out there) they came to the agreement that it's not suitable for him to have those type of contacts and therefore they came to the "agreement" that he should retire from the entertainment industry. As I strongly dislike him, I'm all for that and never again having to worry about turning the TV on and be met by his arrogant looking mug.

But... there must be much more to this than the official story and it's getting me really curious. I have severe trouble imagining that only this would cause the agency to take such drastic measures, particularly as he's such a heavyweight and moneymaker for them. During the press conference there came some vague hints from Shimada that at one point the Yakuza had "helped him" solve a problem that he had. Maybe it's only me, but I'm getting quite curious on the nature of this "problem" and exactly how the Yakuza could "solve" it for him... I also suspect that there was some blackmailing involved in some form...

Well, post the Noripi deal followed by the Kabuki Actor turned-violent-ashtray-drinking-beat-up-victim deal it's been quite dull on the celebrity scandal front, but this has potential to become more amusing. I'm just a little worried that the press has too much respect for Shimada to dig deeper in it (the Yakuza friends probably doesn't encourage it either...). Well, in any case, good riddance and you will not be missed by me Shimada!