Equating homosexuals and criminals… What Masayoshi Yamazaki said at the press conference about BL drama production

I don’t really want to sing today.”

Last October, singer Masayoshi Yamazaki, 52, unexpectedly refused to sing during a live concert in Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture. The audience was in an uproar, and his office was forced to apologize and refund the money. Now Yamazaki has “done it again” on stage at the production announcement conference for a TV drama. An entertainment reporter who attended the press conference confided, “The problematic remarks came out of the press conference.

The problematic comment was made at the production announcement conference for the MBS drama “Mitsuya Sensei’s Systematic Feeding,” which was held in July. Yamazaki is a young actor in this drama. Yamazaki stars in this drama with young actor Taisei Sakai (26), and it is a so-called BL drama. It is a love story centered on a gourmet meal between Ayumi Mitsuya, a good looking guy cookery researcher played by Yamazaki, and Tomoya Ishida, a magazine editor played by Sakai.

It has been 26 years since Yamazaki starred in a drama series. Perhaps deeply moved by his long absence, Yamazaki is said to have made a ton of comments.

Yamazaki introduced the character he plays as “a cookery researcher and a homosexual. When asked how he got the offer, he replied, “I’ve played a lot of weird roles, like criminals and stuff like that. So I thought it would be interesting to try my hand at it,” he said. It is unforgivable to equate homosexuals with criminals and “strange roles. Everyone involved turned blue. After the press conference, the reporters were puzzled, saying, ‘What should we do about that comment?

In fact, several sports newspapers that reported the press conference did not include his statement about how he received the offer, and even those media that did report his statement omitted the “criminals and such” part of the first sentence, indicating that they were having a hard time handling it.

As is clear from the case of Huwa-chan’s “X,” we live in an era where compliance is so strict that a single gaffe can result in suspension of activities, and yet we are afraid to use a celebrity who would go out of his way to make a problematic comment at a drama press conference where many members of the press gather. It would not be surprising if some stations avoid using Yamazaki in the future. There is even a possibility that the film will be put on hold.

When we sent a letter of inquiry to Yamazaki’s office regarding the facts and intentions behind the statement, we received the following response

We sent a letter of inquiry to Yamazaki’s agency regarding the facts of his statement and his intentions, and received a reply from them. I accepted the offer because I wanted to try a new role different from the roles I have played in movies and TV dramas, and that is the true meaning of my statement.

Yamazaki replied. Yamazaki is free and unpretentious, but if he loses his place to express himself, it would be a complete disaster.