UNSTOPPABLE UCHIMURA

TV veteran reveals how he became a household name

The comment seemed to slip from Teruyoshi Uchimura’s lips — “Somehow, I just feel happy,” he said. He was referring to his appearance as the main host of the 2018 Kohaku Uta Gassen (Red & White Year-end Song Festival), the New Year’s Eve singing contest broadcast on NHK. As the Southern All Stars wrapped up the evening’s performances by belting out their huge hit “Katte ni Sinbad,” lead singer Keisuke Kuwata was joined on stage by Yumi Matsutoya. Right in front of Uchimura, Kuwata and Matsutoya started singing a duet.

These two giants of Japanese pop music danced, gyrating their hips in time with the samba rhythm. Matsutoya, known affectionately among her fans as “Yuming,” even kissed Kuwata on the cheek. Other legends of the music world, including Saburo Kitajima and Seiko Matsuda, also assembled on stage for the finale.

Even Uchimura had not seen this performance before, despite being the show’s host.

“That part wasn’t planned in advance. It was entertainment like something out of a dream,” Uchimura recalled. “I thought, now I’m standing right in the middle of an amazing Japanese music scene.”

This was the second straight year Uchimura had hosted this extravaganza. He also hosts many variety programs such as “Sekai no Hate Made Itte Q!” (broadcast on the Nippon TV network) and “Skatto Japan: The Greatest Collection of Feel-good Stories” (aired on the Fuji TV network), but Kohaku holds a special place in his heart.

In addition to his central role of introducing the Kohaku singers, Uchimura also added some of his own touches to the program. He dressed up as Kanji Mitsuya, a popular character on NHK’s skit program “Life!” and roasted some of the other people appearing, including actor Shinji Takeda. He joined idol group Da Pump in doing some dance moves, such as jumping on one foot and kicking out the other while doing a vigorous thumbs-up motion.

Uchimura also quickly changed into a cow costume and painted his face white to transform into Mirune-san, a character he played in a popular skit on another TV station, and then suddenly popped up among the audience.

“The general director told me the theme for this year’s program was to sweat, so that’s why I did those things,” Uchimura said.

He got through the 4½-hour program with a remarkably physical and energetic performance that makes it hard to believe he’s 54. Uchimura’s wife, freelance announcer Yumi Tokunaga, and their two children were watching at home. When Uchimura returned after the show, they praised his “awesome” performance. Uchimura said he took on the job of main Kohaku host for his family. “I thought it might make them happy,” he said.

This Kohaku also was special to Uchimura for another reason — among the guest judges was comedian Tetsuro Degawa, a close friend for more than 30 years.

“Degawa and I first became friends” at the Yokohama Broadcasting Technical School (now the Japan Institute of the Moving Image), Uchimura said. “It was a curious twist of fate that I got to introduce him on the program.”

Uchimura could not suppress a wry smile when Degawa called him “Chen” (“Chan”), his nickname from their school days. The program even aired the reason behind this nickname — “It’s because he looks like Jackie Chan,” Degawa said.

“I was a little embarrassed, and it surprised me,” Uchimura admitted.

When Uchimura was a boy, he dreamed of becoming a movie director.

His family operated a liquor shop. Influenced by his movie buff father, he frequently went to movie theaters from around his junior high school days. At a school cultural festival, Uchimura directed and starred in a stage version of Charlie Chaplin’s film “The Kid,” and he made independent films with an 8mm camera. “I had every intention of becoming a movie director,” he said.

After graduating from high school, Uchimura attended the broadcasting school, where he met Degawa and Kiyotaka Nanbara, a student from Kagawa Prefecture with whom he would later form a comedy duo. The students had to practice stand-up comedy dialogue between two people in class. “We were both pretty boisterous,” Uchimura said of himself and Nanbara. Their decision to become a comedy duo was a major turning point in their lives.

Uchimura had always been a comedy fan. Since he was a child, he had sent material to Kinichi Hagimoto’s programs and was an avid fan of “It’s 8 o’clock! Assemble, everyone,” a program on the Tokyo Broadcasting System network starring comedy group The Drifters. “I was happy when my stage performances at the school cultural festival and my independent films made people laugh,” Uchimura said.

The humorous material he delivered in class had everybody in stitches. At the urging of their lecturer, Yoshie Utsumi, Uchimura and Nanbara appeared as a duo on the audition program “Owarai suta tanjo!” that aired on the Nippon TV network. They instantly became a hit.

Their personification of the Hibiya and Ginza subway lines in Tokyo and comic portrayals of interactions at a family-style restaurant and video rental store earned the nickname “city-style skits,” as they made viewers feel like they were watching the lives of young people living in a big city.

“Yet we’re actually from rural parts of Kyushu and Shikoku,” Uchimura said with a sheepish smile.

In 1988, just before the Showa era drew to a close, he was captivated by skits produced in a TV studio — the industry that would become his career. This was the year when the legendary late-night program “A Sweet Nightmare,” in which he starred with the Downtown comedy duo, Naoko Nozawa and Michiko Shimizu, arrived on TV screens through the Fuji TV network. Uchimura intended to be a movie director, but instead he ended up in the world of comedy.

Yomiuri Shimbun photos