<figure id="attachment_353886" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-353886" style="width: 4277px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="36f3924c"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/01/81db42fb7c55ca1c8155369c6bd13033.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-353886" class="wp-caption-text">Shoji Koganezawa, who recreated the commercial (December 19, &#8217;08 issue)</figcaption></figure>
<p> In 2012, many famous people sadly passed away. We look back on the activities of the past and remember the deceased, based on the articles and other articles we have published in the past.</p>
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<h2> Takeshi&#8217;s words triggered his breakthrough</h2>
<p> On January 11, enka singer Shoji Koganezawa died of respiratory failure at a hospital in Kanagawa Prefecture. His death came amidst a string of deaths in the enka world since the end of 2011, including those of Aki Yashiro (73) and Jiro Kappa (79).</p>
<p> In 1984, Koganezawa became an apprentice of enka master Saburo Kitajima (88), and after working as a chauffeur for four years, made his debut in 1988. It was a 1992 commercial for the throat spray &#8220;Finish Kowa&#8221; (Kowa) that made Koganezawa&#8217;s name famous throughout Japan.</p>
<p> In the commercial, <span class="strongInContent">Koganezawa</span> did not say a single word and did not play any of his own songs. Since his face was not yet well-known, people <span class="strongInContent">asked, &#8220;Who is that guy?&#8221; Is she really a singer?</span> The same year, the &#8220;new word&#8221; and &#8220;trendy word&#8221; were used to describe the new language. Koganezawa even won the silver prize in the popular category of the &#8220;New Words and Trendy Words Awards&#8221; of the same year. Koganezawa spoke about the fever at the time in the December 19, 2008 issue of this magazine as follows.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> I think it all started when Beat Takeshi said on some TV program, &#8216;Who is that Koganezawa-kun?</span><span class="strongInContent"> I think it was when Beat Takeshi said, &#8216;Who is that Koganezawa-kun? Although the commercial was aired for only two months, it attracted a lot of attention, probably because of its high on-air rate. Thanks to this, sales of &#8220;Finisiyu Kowa&#8221; were several dozen times higher than before, and my CD &#8220;Only You,&#8221; released in May of that year, became a big hit, selling more than 300,000 copies. I heard that many people came to the pharmacy asking for &#8220;Koganezawa-kun.</span></p>
<p> In an interview at that time, Koganezawa also mentioned his dream of <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;putting his own color on the enka world.</span></p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" During the period of self-restraint from activities due to drunken driving..."></div>
<h2>Rehabilitation efforts to get back on the road to success were in vain&#8230;</h2>
<p> Even after she was no longer the &#8220;man of the hour,&#8221; her singing career continued to go well. Her songs increased, and &#8220;Arigatou (Thank you)&#8221; released in 2003 won the Longest Hits Award at the 6th Japan Society of Composers Music Festival in 2001, 10 years after its release.</p>
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<p> Koganezawa&#8217;s singing career, which had seemed to be going well, began to darken around the time he became independent from Kitajima Music Office and started his own entertainment agency in &#8217;14. In addition to the debts he had created through gambling and other activities since his younger days, he was also saddled with a large debt because he had several acquaintances provide the funds for the establishment of the office.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> He was also involved in a real estate scam involving several million yen and a failed cosmetics business, and his debts amounted to several tens of millions of yen. He had been steadily repaying his debts by doing local business, but the COVID-19 crisis changed his life completely. Sales were almost completely suspended, and his income dropped by 80%. Life was tough because of the debt repayment,&#8221; said an acquaintance of Koganezawa.</span></p>
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<p> To add insult to injury, in November 2008, Mr. Koganezawa was arrested after causing an accident while driving under the influence of alcohol (charges were later dropped). The incident caused Mr. Koganezawa to refrain from performing. Since then, she has not sung on stage. Although she refrained from singing in public during her self-restraint, she sang karaoke frequently <span class="strongInContent">, saying, &#8220;If I don&#8217;t sing, I lose my voice.</span></p>
<p> In the summer of 2010, she contracted a new type of corona. Even after recovering, she developed aspiration pneumonia several times, and in &#8217;23 she was in and out of the hospital repeatedly due to her poor health. In &#8217;23, which was the 35th anniversary of his debut, he had been working hard on his rehabilitation to return to the stage, but it was finally a dream that could not be fulfilled.</p>
<p> We pray for his repose&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;..</p>

<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Koganezawa in his old days, as photographed by this magazine."></div>
<figure id="attachment_405581" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-405581" style="width: 4082px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="6a8f9d51"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/12/0a9f16cfee6469355af4ed86de047b6e.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-405581" class="wp-caption-text">Mr. Koganezawa walking with a beautiful woman in Kabukicho (September 15, &#8217;06)</figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_353888" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-353888" style="width: 2784px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="3e2a9fdb"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/01/0872345c0f7060fc688021fcccf85a52.jpeg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-353888" class="wp-caption-text"> Koganezawa bowing to the media after being arrested for drunken driving and released (November &#8217;20).</figcaption></figure>
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 Hiroyuki Komatsu (1st), Junpei Kota (2nd), Shinji Hasuo (3rd)

 In this issue of "In Memoriam '24," we look back at the memories of celebrities who died in the year '24. Mr. Koganezawa, who got his big break in 1992 with a commercial, had been under self-imposed suspension since his drunken driving accident in 2008. What was the "dream" that Koganezawa could not fulfill?

In Memoriam &#8217;24] Shoji Koganezawa, the &#8220;Singer Koganezawa-kun,&#8221; became a person of the moment&#8230; The &#8220;Dream of Return&#8221; that he could not achieve.

In Memoriam ’24] Shoji Koganezawa, the “Singer Koganezawa-kun,” became a person of the moment… The “Dream of Return” that he could not achieve.

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