The Unexpected Reactions to Noriyuki Higashiyama’s Retirement Piece “Hissatsu Shigotonin”

Noriyuki Higashiyama (57), president of SMILE-UP. (formerly Johnny’s Office), retired as a celebrity at the end of last year. His retirement work, the popular TV drama series “Hissatsu Shigotonin” was broadcast on December 29 at 9:00 pm.

The drama was a commemorative work to mark the 50th anniversary of the Bessatsu Series. In addition to this drama, two historical dramas starring Higashiyama, “Ooka Echizen Special” on NHK BS Premium, were aired on the day of the broadcast, and Hissatsu Shigotonin became a trending topic on the Internet. The average household viewer rating was 9.0% (Video Research, Kanto region), the highest among private key stations in the same time slot.

In the previous film, Kenichi Endo (62) played Jinhachiro, a kawaraya (roof tile store), and now Nao Matsushita (38), a hairdresser named Natsume, has joined the cast.

Mr. Higashiyama commented to the media, “This is a work that enters a new phase. The end of the film seemed to indicate that a sequel might be in the works, but Mr. Higashiyama’s retirement came as a surprise. It is unthinkable that Higashiyama, who inherited ‘Hissatsu’ from the late Makoto Fujita, would be replaced by a replacement, so the future of the series is probably a blank slate,” said a source close to TV Asahi.

The reason that a sequel seemed to be in the cards was that there was too much time between the end of filming and the broadcast of the series. The production side, the co-stars, and even Higashiyama himself did not expect that he would retire before the end of the year.

When Ryouji, a sutra shop owner played by his fellow worker Masahiro Matsuoka (46), finishes off a target with a preparation needle, x-ray photographs of the target are familiarly shown, but the dates are January 24 and February 3 of last year.

In fact, the filming had been completed by the end of last February. It was in mid-March that the BBC in the UK broadcast a special program on the issue of Johnny Kitagawa’s sexual assault. At that point, no one could have imagined that Higashiyama-san would become the president of Johnny’s and take on the task of compensating the victims of sexual assault.

The highlight of the drama series is that each time, current events are rearranged into an Edo period episode and the workmen vent the resentment of the weak. This time there were two episodes, which in modern terms were the suicide by slander of an idol who accused him of sexual assault and the suspicious death of a man who tried to accuse someone of faking an earthquake-proof building.

In the first of these episodes, a member of a group of dancers was sexually assaulted at the behest of the producer and others, and she accused the tile shop of the sexual assault. Although the article was published, the dancer was slandered by the producer’s crew and the townspeople, and the dancer ended up choosing her own death. The synopsis of the story is that The associates of the dance group, grieving the tragedy, request the professionals to take care of the wrongdoers.

The story is exactly the same as Mr. Johnny’s sexual assault, only the victim is a woman instead of a man. In addition, some of the victims chose to commit suicide after being slandered for accusing Mr. Johnny is victimizing them. It was too delicately written for a work starring Higashiyama.

Since the broadcast of the drama, the Internet has been buzzing,

“The content reminded me of Johnny’s sexual harassment issue.”

“I thought it was amazing that it dealt with the issue of sexual assault of idols.” (playhouse dancers).

“I wonder what Higashiyama is trying to do.”

“Higashiyama making too much nonsense just because it’s his last performance.”

 

The film was shot too early, so the contents were not taken into consideration.

It is understandable that the film was shot too early to take into account the content and that it would have been difficult to reshoot the film, which is not entirely Higashiyama’s fault. However, it is regrettable that this film cannot be said to be his “crowning achievement” as a TV personality.

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