<figure id="attachment_382116" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-382116" style="width: 576px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="6ad011cb"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/07/211b0ef43d757e7e86537b0ca8a99e94.png" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-382116" class="wp-caption-text">Downtown&#8221; Hitoshi Matsumoto has been out of the public eye for about six months now. Yet, Yoshimoto Kogyo is still not fazed. &#8230;&#8230;</figcaption></figure>
 It has been six months since the &#8220;King of Comedy&#8221; disappeared from the stage. Is the absence of &#8220;Downtown&#8221; Hitoshi Matsumoto having any impact?
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 Late last year, Matsumoto was reported in the &#8220;Weekly Bunshun&#8221; magazine for alleged sexual assault, and on January 9 of this year, he suspended his entertainment activities to concentrate on his trial with Bunshun. Both sides&#8217; claims were in direct conflict during the trial. Eventually, Matsumoto himself is expected to appear in court.
 Yoshimoto Kogyo, the company to which Matsumoto belongs, has maintained a certain distance from Matsumoto. One reason for this is compliance, but another is that the court&#8217;s ruling will create a &#8220;conflict of interest&#8221; with Matsumoto.
 I have the impression that even within Yoshimoto, there is a division between Matsumoto&#8217;s faction and others. While Yoshimoto&#8217;s leading figures such as Kausu Nakata and Norio Nishikawa openly criticize Matsumoto in the media, there is still a long-held opinion among comedians of Matsumoto&#8217;s generation. Matsumoto-san has not made any public assertions on SNS,&#8221; said a reporter from a sports newspaper.
 In the meantime, some have come to view Matsumoto&#8217;s absence in a positive light. A manager of a young comedian said in a hushed voice, &#8220;Everyone recognizes Matsumoto-san.
 Matsumoto-san is the undisputed leader of the comedy world, and he is above the clouds. Even though Mr. Matsumoto is gone, Chidori, Kamaitachi, and others have risen to prominence in Yoshimoto. Other young comedians are emerging one after another. In a positive sense, it seems as if the &#8220;top pig&#8221; has been removed.
 This is due in large part to the diversification of how comedians earn their money, regardless of whether they are related to Matsumoto or not.
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 Comedians now have their own YouTube channels, and they are able to make a living outside of performing on stage and television.
 The best example is SHIMOFURI MYOJO, whose personal channel has 2.07 million subscribers. Although he caused a controversy with his comments about former &#8220;Ameagari Kesshitai&#8221; member Hiroyuki Miyasako and former &#8220;SMAP&#8221; member Takuya Kimura, he has not dried up and is still going strong today.
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He has been making so much money that he recently made headlines for having repaid the full 50 million yen he owed to &#8216;Yoshimoto Finance,&#8217; as he is commonly known. It is unimaginable in the days when television was the main source of income,&#8221; said a person involved in the comedy industry.
 Last year&#8217;s M-1 winning duo, &#8220;Reiwa Roman,&#8221; has publicly stated that they &#8220;do not appear on TV&#8221; except for comedy shows.
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 They have a fixed fan base. When they hold a one-man show, the tickets sell out immediately. If they have a solid foundation, they can make as much money as they want.
 An increasing number of comedians have left Japan to challenge the world.
 Female comedians Naomi Watanabe and Yuriyan Retriever have entered the U.S. market, and recently &#8220;Chocolate Planet&#8221; (Shohei Osada and Shun Matsuo) appeared as the &#8220;TT Brothers&#8221; on the U.S. audition program &#8220;America&#8217;s Got Talent. They have been receiving positive reviews in the U.S. as well.
 Mr. Matsumoto also tried to enter the U.S. in the field of comedy, but he did not make it to fame. It must be a trend of the times. Comedians have different personalities and different ways of earning money.
 There was a time when the absence of Mr. Matsumoto left a somber atmosphere in the company, but now the younger comedians are becoming more and more assertive. Yoshimoto is also a company that fully supports any challenge related to laughter,&#8221; said a director of a comedy show.
 Speaking of Yoshimoto, in 2011, Shinsuke Shimada retired from the entertainment industry due to his association with a gang.
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 At the time, Shinsuke had six regular programs. The TV stations were in a state of flux for a while, but Yoshimoto was undeterred.
 A sports newspaper reporter said
 Yoshimoto is a strange company. Even when a big-name comedian disappears, it enters a new period of growth. Seeing Matsumoto&#8217;s uproar, some of the old Yoshimoto employees said, &#8216;Things are going to change again.
 He revealed, &#8220;The absence of Matsumoto led to the downfall of Yoshimoto.
 Some predicted the downfall of Yoshimoto due to Matsumoto&#8217;s absence, but that does not seem to be the case. The &#8220;empire of laughter&#8221; is still expanding its power.

 Ippei Hara

 Downtown's Hitoshi Matsumoto is currently on hiatus from TV and other entertainment activities to focus on his trial following a report by the Weekly Bunshun (a weekly magazine) on allegations of indecency. The absence of the "king" of the comedy world was expected to have a profound impact on Yoshimoto Kogyo. ......

Six months after the disappearance of Hitoshi Matsumoto, the &#8220;king of comedy,&#8221; Yoshimoto Kogyo is not fazed by the &#8220;ongoing diversification&#8221; of its comedians.

Six months after the disappearance of Hitoshi Matsumoto, the “king of comedy,” Yoshimoto Kogyo is not fazed by the “ongoing diversification” of its comedians.

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