<figure id="attachment_270864" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-270864" style="width: 460px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="522b8cf3"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/10/8d2374245421b246807f089a018ab0ca.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-270864" class="wp-caption-text">Three days before the accident, Mr. Nakamoto came to a friend&#8217;s house to drop off his dog; he was scheduled to pick it up on October 18, but on that day he had an accident. &#8230;&#8230;</figcaption></figure>
 Mr. Ken Nakamoto, a member of the nationally popular comedy group &#8220;The Drifters,&#8221; passed away at 10:22 p.m. on October 19 at a hospital in Yokohama City, where he had been hospitalized. 81-year-old Mr. Nakamoto was hit on the head by a wagon while crossing a street in Yokohama City on the morning of October 18, and was transported to the hospital by ambulance for emergency surgery.
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 He was conscious immediately after the accident, but later became unconscious. I was told that because of his advanced age, the night he underwent surgery was the peak of his life. &#8230;&#8230; Anyway, I am shocked.&#8221; (A woman who is a close friend of Mr. and Mrs. Nakamoto)
 Mr. Nakamoto had been married three times, and his &#8220;last wife&#8221; was Junka Mida, 54, a former enka singer who married him in 2012. Their &#8220;marriage at 27 years of age&#8221; attracted a lot of media attention at the time.
 In the fall of 2003, they opened the izakaya &#8220;Nakamoto Family JUNKA&#8217;s Kitchen&#8221; in Meguro-ku, where Nakamoto&#8217;s home is located. A reporter from this magazine came to the opening celebration, and found Junka in charge of serving customers behind the counter, while Mr. Nakamoto, who cannot drink alcohol, helped with the cooking of yakitori and other dishes. The couple seemed to get along well with each other as they chatted with customers in the restaurant.
 Junka is a very service oriented woman with a great attention to detail. She was cheerful and easy to talk to, so I think there were many customers who came for a chat with her,&#8221; said a regular customer of the restaurant.
 Although Mr. Nakamoto was enjoying life with his loving wife, the October 13 issue of Shukan Shincho this year reported that he and Junka had separated. Junka left Ms. Nakamoto&#8217;s house last July and began working as the manager of a curry restaurant and karaoke bar near Yokohama Station. Junka&#8217;s absence from Nakamoto&#8217;s home is said to have turned it into a &#8220;trash house&#8221; filled with the smell of pet cats and dogs, and it attracted a great deal of attention.
 It is true that they have separated, but it does not mean that they are no longer in love. In fact, they have been seeing each other every day recently. After the article was published, Junka was furious, saying, &#8220;The article was malicious and full of lies. After the article came out, Junka was furious, saying, &#8216;The article was malicious and full of lies.
 On Saturday, October 15, three days before the accident, the couple came to the friend&#8217;s house to drop off their pet dog. The photo in the article is one of the photos taken at that time.
 She said, &#8220;She asked us to take care of the dog because she was going to be away from home. I was supposed to return it on Tuesday (18th) evening, but Mr. Nakamoto was involved in a traffic accident that day. &#8230;&#8230; It seems that Mr. Nakamoto parked his car in a coin-operated parking lot near the apartment where Junka lives and was walking to the apartment when he was involved in the accident. We can only pray for her soul now.
 Mr. Nakamoto passed away as Junka and her daughter looked on.
<figure id="attachment_270866" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-270866" style="width: 480px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="ca23222f"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/10/DVC00108.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-270866" class="wp-caption-text"> Junka serves customers at an izakaya. She and Mr. Nakamoto had been meeting often recently (photo taken by a regular customer).</figcaption></figure>

 Mr. Ken Nakamoto, a member of the nationally popular comedy group "The Drifters," passed away at 10:22 p.m. on October 19 at a hospital in Yokohama City, Japan.

Nakamoto left his dog with a friend… Exclusive access to “the last photo before his death” of Mr. Nakamoto.

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