<figure id="attachment_352573" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1002px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-352573"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="0f8425aa"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/01/b40c4abb510a818081bbfc0aa05ec214.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-352573" class="wp-caption-text">On <span style="font-weight: 400;">location for Seven Detectives. Under the scorching sun, he was smiling without showing any signs of fatigue. Will we no longer see this sight? (June 2021)</span></figcaption></figure>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Noriyuki Higashiyama (57), president of SMILE-UP. (formerly Johnny&#8217;s Office), retired as a celebrity at the end of last year. His retirement work, the popular TV drama series &#8220;Hissatsu Shigotonin&#8221; was broadcast on December 29 at 9:00 pm.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">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, &#8220;Ooka Echizen Special&#8221; 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.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">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.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mr. Higashiyama commented to the media, &#8220;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&#8217;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,&#8221; said a source close to TV Asahi.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">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.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">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.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">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&#8217;s sexual assault. At that point, no one could have imagined that Higashiyama-san would become the president of Johnny&#8217;s and take on the task of compensating the victims of sexual assault.</span></p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead="The drama received an unexpected response: ..."></div>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">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.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">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&#8217;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.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">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.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Since the broadcast of the drama, the Internet has been buzzing,</span></p>
<p><b>&#8220;The content reminded me of Johnny&#8217;s sexual harassment issue.”</b></p>
<p><b>&#8220;I thought it was amazing that it dealt with the issue of sexual assault of idols.” (playhouse dancers).</b></p>
<p><b>“I wonder what Higashiyama is trying to do.”</b></p>
<p><b>“Higashiyama making too much nonsense just because it&#8217;s his last performance.”</b></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The film was shot too early, so the contents were not taken into consideration.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">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&#8217;s fault. However, it is regrettable that this film cannot be said to be his &#8220;crowning achievement&#8221; as a TV personality.</span></p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead="Higashiyama and Sekzo Nakajima appeared in Hiroo at night."></div>
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<figure id="attachment_352574" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1000px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-352574"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="e6eba0a7"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/01/2dd95a8341aa0fbea6b903bebc893a4a.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-352574" class="wp-caption-text"><span style="font-weight: 400;">One night in mid-April 2019, &#8220;Sexy Zone&#8221; members Nakajima Kento and Higashiyama emerged from a high-class Chinese restaurant in Hiroo, having appeared together in the drama &#8220;Suna no Kiki&#8221; (Fuji TV) broadcast the previous month.</span></figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_352576" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1000px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-352576"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="51668652"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/01/1446682569cb8b5c18818d44227fc9fd.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-352576" class="wp-caption-text"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Although he is a senior member of the group, Nakajima was the first to get in a cab with Higashiyama, who is also a junior member of the group (April 2019).</span></figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_352577" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1660px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-352577"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="564ba556"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/01/62fb3475acf7ee479421fa149af621f3.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-352577" class="wp-caption-text">In late October &#8217;23, Higashiyama was talking with a victim at a certain place in Tokyo</figcaption></figure>
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 Yuri Adachi (1st and 4th), Yasuko Sakaguchi (2nd and 3rd)

 On December 29, 2011, "Hisshikatsu Shigotojin," the last work in Higashiyama Noriyuki's career as an entertainer, was broadcast. The film recorded high viewer ratings due to its high-profile nature, but the content of the story is said to have drawn an unexpected response from the viewers. ......

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

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