<figure id="attachment_258171" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1132px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-258171"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="b956fd3f"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/08/aflo_71834839.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-258171" class="wp-caption-text">TKO&#8221; Kimoto promised to hold a press conference. Earlier, he gave an interview to a women&#8217;s magazine&#8230;</figcaption></figure>
Takehiro Kimoto of the comedy duo TKO gave an exclusive interview to &#8220;Josei Seven&#8221; that lasted over five hours.
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It was the first time he told the media about the &#8220;truth&#8221; of the fiasco, but we will have to hear what the victims have to say to find out if Kimoto&#8217;s words are really all that true.
According to Kimoto, the total amount collected was &#8220;over 600 million yen. Although some of the money has been refunded, more than 300 million yen still remains &#8220;unaccounted for.
According to the article, Kimoto has been &#8220;in the wrong&#8221; twice.
The first time was when he trusted the skills of Mr. A, a self-proclaimed FX trader in his 20s. He, himself, collected more than 100 million yen from 10 people.
 When he lost contact with Mr. A, Kimoto became impatient and asked an acquaintance to put on a show, and was able to meet with him in a &#8220;tricked-out&#8221; state. When we got to the bottom of the matter, Mr. A confessed that he had never actually traded, but rather had made it look like he had made money on a demo screen, and Kimoto had been fooled by that. In other words, Kimoto was deceived by a &#8220;scam&#8221; under the guise of investment,&#8221; said a sports newspaper reporter.
Kimoto was also deceived by Mr. B in real estate investment.
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It seems that Mr. B approached Kimoto about real estate investment after he found out that Kimoto had been cheated by Mr. A. Kimoto was impatient and asked Mr. B if he could invest in real estate. To an impatient Kimoto, Mr. B said.
 He told Kimoto, &#8220;I have a piece of land that only the chairman of my acquaintance has access to.
In an attempt to recover the money, he again collected money from his acquaintances and deposited nearly 500 million yen. As expected, Mr. B was also unable to pay the money, and he went bankrupt.
Mr. B refunded 160 million yen in several installments. Kimoto now believes in the &#8220;repayment plan&#8221; proposed by Mr. B through his lawyer.
While some may find Kimoto&#8217;s honesty in telling the whole truth to be manly, the media industry seems to be complaining.
 Kimoto announced on Twitter that he would surely explain the circumstances of the incident in the near future. This means a &#8220;press conference,&#8221; according to the common sense of the industry. However, according to the article, Kimoto asked an old acquaintance of his to give an interview because of the &#8220;spread of the new coronas&#8221; and &#8220;lack of help.
 He was probably afraid that if he held a press conference, he would be asked about something inconvenient, and he would be &#8220;full of shit. He did not want to be surrounded by reporters like Ken Watabe of Un-jash. It could also be said that he was &#8220;venting&#8221; by releasing so much information before the press conference.
In the article, Kimoto defends himself as follows.
 I was just a friend who was interested in investing. I have never forcibly solicited anyone, nor have I ever tapped on the shoulder of someone who was not interested and said, &#8216;Won&#8217;t you do this? I have never tapped on the shoulder of a person who was not interested and asked him, &#8220;Would you like to do this?
However, in an interview with Friday magazine, Kimoto told a junior colleague
 I&#8217;m sure you don&#8217;t know what you&#8217;re talking about, so leave it with me. I won&#8217;t give you a loss.
He also said to his juniors, &#8220;Even if you say you don&#8217;t have any money, you can probably come up with 300,000 yen. He would also look for juniors who were working part-time jobs or who had money, and would sometimes let them talk about investments until the morning.
This may contradict Kimoto&#8217;s statements in the interview&#8230;.
On the evening of January 1, Kimoto issued a statement titled &#8220;Apology&#8221; through his personal office. There it reads
 《If we hold a press conference immediately, there are many matters that we are unable to answer, and we assume that people may wonder what the press conference is for. In addition, even if we were to hold a press conference, we are unable to do so immediately due to the fact that we have left Shochiku Entertainments and do not have the staff to do so, as well as due to measures to prevent corona infection.
He also stated that he would not be able to hold a press conference immediately due to the lack of staff and the need to take countermeasures against coronary infections.
Senior comedians such as Akashiya Sanma and Matsumoto Hitoshi were quick to defend Kimoto, saying, &#8220;He is not like that. However, as the saying goes, &#8220;poverty dulls the wit,&#8221; and in his desperation to get back the money he was cheated out of, he may have been unaware of the fact that he had further dragged his fellow comedians into his scheme.
Anyway, I wonder if the day will come when he will answer all the questions and clarify the facts at a press conference, instead of just giving interviews to a few weekly magazines.

 Yoshio Tsunoda/Afro

 Takehiro Kimoto of "TKO" left his office due to investment troubles. His regular programs have been dropped or terminated one after another, but still no detailed facts have been revealed...

Takehiro Kimoto, TKO: Avoiding an Explanatory Interview “Gaslighting” – A Sense of Betrayal in an Interview

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