Osaka Comedian Don Nakata Kaus Addresses Matsumoto Hitoshi Problem and Criticisms

He said, “I came into the world as an idol comedian, and I can’t tell you how many girls supported me. My partner was also a playboy, but we never touched the audience. That was my mentor’s teaching. Matsumoto was out. If he really had his hands on a customer, an amateur, then he was out.

This is the complaint of Hitoshi Matsumoto, 60, who is in the middle of a sex-abuse scandal. He is Kausu Nakata, 74, who once served as a special advisor to Yoshimoto Kogyo and was also known as “Yoshimoto’s fixer. He debuted in 1967 as a duo with his partner Nakata Buttons (75), and has been involved in manzai for 57 years at Yoshimoto, becoming president of the Kamigata Manzai Association in 2002. He became president of the Kamigata Manzai Association in 2002, and at times “put his body on the line to protect Yoshimoto,” he opened up to FRIDAY about the ongoing turmoil at the office and Matsumoto.

If a comedian had the mindset that he must take care of his customers, he would not be in that kind of mood. If Matsumoto had a mentor, I think he would have been excommunicated before the company took action. If you are a comedian, it is important to be considerate of others. But he got into a dispute with an amateur girl. This is just disgusting.”

Kaus says that his fans are his customers, and that it is outrageous to touch them. When he was just starting out, when the seats were filled with older men and women, he would talk to young women around the theater and “show them his material” to get their reactions, in pursuit of the kind of manzai that would be popular with young women. Later, when he made his breakthrough wearing jeans and a T-shirt, a style that was revolutionary at the time, he was chased around by female fans, but he says that this did not change his thinking.

I was being chased by girls all over the place, and even when I went home, girls would come up to me. I’m sorry to say it, but if I was in the mood for it, I was in a feeding frenzy. But I didn’t do anything. I was being nurtured by those girls.

Despite Kaus’s philosophy, “fan-eating” by comedians has become a common occurrence. Kaus raises an eyebrow at this trend.

He says, “There are no longer any masters who condemn this kind of thing. I thought, ‘That’s not good,’ so 14 or 15 years ago I started going to NSC as a special instructor. There, I told him, ‘You have to take good care of your customers, especially girls. Especially comedians who are disliked by girls will never sell, because they are 100% unsuccessful.
Try going to the Yoshimoto Manzai Theater in Osaka. You should go to the “Yoshimoto Manzai Theater” in Osaka, and you will see that all the customers are young women. That’s why I tell young comedians, ‘The fans are pseudo-lovers. The fan girls are having a pseudo-love affair with you. You can’t betray them. A comedian who doesn’t have that kind of awareness is not a professional, but an amateur. They gather girls as attendants and put their hands on them. Did that really happen?　I didn’t even know the word “attendants. I had no idea that Matsumoto’s group had girls prepared for them.

Kaus kicked out the “attendant culture” that was reportedly pervasive in Matsumoto’s neighborhood. Matsumoto was discovered by former Yoshimoto chairman Hiroshi Osaki (70). Kaus has harsh words for Osaki, who once wielded a shrewd hand as the most powerful man in Yoshimoto.

He said, “In the case of Matsumoto, Osaki said, ‘We have no choice but to stand by him from afar. He says things like, ‘I’m the one who raised Downtown,’ but it’s not a parent who stands by from afar. Parents are supposed to be there for their children even if they can’t do anything for them. That’s why Osaki was probably manipulating him rather than raising him. He once said in the newspaper, “My 45 years at Yoshimoto were only possible because Downtown was there. While Osaki was saying to the Downtown generation, ‘Manzai doesn’t have to be done,’ the comedians who worked hard to put on manzai at the theater are the ones supporting Yoshimoto today.

In July 2007, President Akihiko Okamoto (57) held a press conference to answer questions from the press for five and a half hours regarding the black market problem. Kaus said he was angry with Osaki about this press conference as well.

He said, “When the black market incident happened, Matsumoto suddenly showed up at the company’s management meeting with Higashino (Koji) in tow. Then Matsumoto said, ‘I want you to hold a press conference. It was strange for a comedian to come in while the management was having a meeting. Perhaps Osaki had invited him. If Matsumoto had started it, President Okamoto would have been forced to hold the press conference. In fact, at the meeting, Osaki said to President Okamoto, “You can do the press conference, right? President Okamoto couldn’t refuse. He just became president and has no experience with press conferences.
However, President Okamoto must have prepared himself for the press conference because he knew he had to go through with it. In fact, at that press conference, Osaki was right behind the partition in the hall. He was giving orders from behind me. He called me and said, “Mr. Kaus, please be patient. I’ll turn everything around. I got two calls from Osaki that day, and he thought I was going to tell him that he’d run away from the press conference. President Okamoto was exposed at that press conference. I think he endured it well.

Making Osaki as president was a mistake.

Kaus said, “President Okamoto was exposed” at the conference on the issue of black market business. It was Matsumoto and Osaki who were behind the scenes demanding it.

I don’t know if President Okamoto and Osaki parted company at that press conference, but it is a fact that Osaki made President Okamoto a “stone thrown away. It is only natural that either the top management should take the heat for this or that Osaki should go to the press conference with him. It is not right that only President Okamoto, who has no experience in this area, should be brought out. When Yoshimoto Kogyo’s 110th anniversary party was held in Osaka, the host, a comedian, broached the subject of black market sales to President Okamoto. I said on President Okamoto’s behalf, “President Okamoto did an excellent job at that press conference. I said on behalf of President Okamoto, “President Okamoto was brilliant at that press conference, and that press conference had to be done by Osaki. The audience responded, “Yes, yes, yes! They said, ‘Yes, yes, yes!

Kaus continues to criticize Osaki. In an interview, he said, “Gentleman Shimada was also crushed by Osaki. On the other hand, he also said that there were times when he cooperated with him.’ The story goes back to 2007, when the “family feud” broke out between Yoshimoto’s founding family and its management team.

He said, “Around that time, Osaki and I had dinner together. He asked me, ‘Do you think I can be president? I said, ‘If you want to be president, I want you to do your best, and I will help you. At that time, the first candidate was a gentle man named Isao Yoshino. I thought, ‘I hope Mr. Yoshino becomes president first, and then Osaki. After Mr. Yoshino was named president, Osaki was the most likely candidate for the vice presidency. On the day they decided on the vice president, Osaki called me all morning, asking me how I was doing. How did it go? In the end, Osaki was named vice president and then president. In my 57 years as a Yoshimoto comedian, the biggest mistake I made was making Osaki president.

Kaus declared that his decision to support Osaki’s appointment as president was his “biggest mistake. At the same time, he also revealed his expectations for President Okamoto.

President Okamoto was so humiliated at the time of the black market. President Okamoto is such a disciplined person that he is willing to take responsibility and quit. So I once told him, ‘If you are ready to take responsibility and quit, please use that determination to carry on as president for the future of Yoshimoto Kogyo. I hope that you will protect the company from now on with that kind of mindset, and I have high expectations for President Okamoto.

Another theme that Kaus discussed with FRIDAY was the “Yoshimoto seclusion racket. It all started in January of this year, when several comedians belonging to Yoshimoto Kogyo posted on SNS that they could no longer invite comedians from other companies to Yoshimoto-sponsored live shows. This led to a situation in which “Yoshimoto seclusion” became a trending topic. We learned that Kaus was actually involved in this series of disturbances, and we questioned him about it.

I was allowed to create the Yoshimoto Manzai Theater, which is dedicated to young comedians, 10 years ago, and young kids compete with each other to get a spot in the theater. Without competition, comedians would not grow. You can’t do anything crude, so I told them not to play around with kids from other offices. You are allowed to play with them outside of work. But the younger comedians are fighting desperately to get on the stage of the manzai theater. If comedians from other offices come to the theater for a short visit, the theater will lose its shape as a place where young Yoshimoto comedians can compete in earnest.

Young comedians have changed.

In order to preserve a place where young Yoshimoto comedians can engage in friendly competition, Kaus dares to believe that they should sever all ties with other companies. This series of stories offers a glimpse into Kaus’s philosophy as a comedian, who considers the theater to be more important than anything else.

The theater and the audience are the most important things for Yoshimoto,” he said. Without the audience, virtuoso performances would not be born. A comedian who stays away from the theater and appears only on TV is too busy to create and refine his material, and he becomes afraid to appear in the theater. Such comedians cannot come back to the theater even if their TV work disappears. Even if they did, they would not be popular because the theater is ahead of television.
It is true that there was a time when television was at its peak, but it is different now. That is why there are no young people who want to be a Downtown comedian these days. They all say they want to win the top prize at the theater, win all the awards, get results, and tour the country.

As if in response to Kaus, Reiwa Roman, winner of last year’s “M-1 Grand Prix,” has declared, “Basically, I will not appear on TV. When Matsumoto asked about Yoshimoto Kogyo during its hiatus, he said, “There are any number of comedians who have been held back by Osaki and any number of young comedians who will emerge in the future,” and then summed up Yoshimoto as follows.

Yoshimoto is a treasure of Japan. Yoshimoto is a treasure of Japan, because it regularly causes such a stir in the world, and everyone enjoys writing criticisms about it on the Internet. In the sense that it relieves stress, there is no other company that helps people so much. Our scandals are easy to understand. Matsumoto’s is easy to understand, and so is the dark business. These simple scandals make everyone feel like a reporter. That’s why everyone actually likes Yoshimoto.”

How will Matsumoto and Yoshimoto Kogyo take the words of a major figure?

From the April 19, 2024 issue of FRIDAY