Playback ’94: Holding Hands. The Backstage Story of the Legendary Shot of Honami Suzuki & Yosuke Eguchi

Honami got her big break in 1991 when she played the heroine Rika Akana in the hit drama “Tokyo Love Story,” and later became a popular actress with her hit roles in “In the Name of Love” and “The End of the World” (both Fuji TV series). On the other hand, Eguchi also got her breakthrough role in “Tokyo Love Story,” even though it was only a semi-leading role, and her first leading role in “Under One Roof” (Fuji TV) is still the highest-rated Fuji TV drama of all time at 37.8%. They were truly a big couple of popular actors.

Their relationship was “questioned” by some because rumors of an affair between Honami and a drama producer had been reported for some time, and that was considered the real deal. However, on April 24, immediately after the issue of this magazine went to press, the two were directly interviewed by a wide TV show while on a “movie theater date,” and their conversation with an entertainment reporter was broadcast on TV.

The fact that they were dating became widely known, and it was reported many times that they were “close to getting married,” but the couple broke up a few months later. In January 1995, Honami married a motorsports journalist and divorced, and in November 1998, she married Takaaki Ishibashi of Tunnels fame. Eguchi, on the other hand, married singer Chisato Moritaka in June 1999.

After her marriage, Honami retired from show business, but gradually resumed her activities from 2008, and returned to acting in earnest in 2008 with the historical drama “E: Princesses of the Warring States. She announced her divorce from Ishibashi in July 2009, but her acting career is going well. And Eguchi, too, has been as active as ever in dramas that aired this year alone, including “Mars – Zero no Kakumei -” (TV Asahi) and “Karakajite no Takagi-san” (TBS).

Looking back on their relationship, it is almost as if we were watching a drama.