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Masashi Tashiro

Encyclopedia : M : MA : MAS : Masashi Tashiro

This article is a rough translation of an article in Japanese.
It may have been generated by a computer or by a translator with limited proficiency in English or the original language. Feel free to enhance the translation. For reference, the original article may appear under "" in the "other languages" list. 

is a former Japanese television performer and former member of the band Rats & Star who was born on August 31, 1956 in Saga Prefecture, Japan. He sang as a tenor vocalist in Rats & Star, appeared as an entertainer on many television programs and directed a movie after his band broke up.
An arrest for peeping up a woman's skirt in September 2000 marked the beginning of Tashiro's problems with the law. As of June, 2006 he is a convict.

Contents

Early life

Masashi Tashiro was born in Saga Prefecture on August 31, 1956. His parents divorced soon after his birth when his father, a manager of a cabaret chain, ran away with another woman. He was then raised by his mother. In 1961, he and his mother moved to Tokyo and he was put through missionary kindergarten. In 1963, he entered Toyama elementary school in Shinjuku. His mother remarried in April 1969, when he was thirteen year old, at which time he entered Okubo junior high school. However, he decided to enroll in a higher grade at private high school and live with his father in order not to rely financially on his mother's new husband.

His father also remarried but Tashiro never bonded well with his father's second wife. While he loved going to watch the movies and often frequented a movie theather in Shinjuku, it was just then that he started drinking alcohol, and became addicted to paint thinner. He was transferred to a junior high school in Suginami Ward because of his poor conduct.

In 1972, he entered machine studies at Shibaura Institute of Technology Senior High School after graduating from Nakase junior high school in March of the same year. That is where he met Masayuki Suzuki, with whom Tashiro later formed the band Chanels. Tashiro as well as Suzuki were considered delinquent in those days.

He was allegedly involved in fights, motorcycle gang problems, going to a disco and going girl-hunting every day during his time at high school. He has been detained in the police station because he caused a case of bodily injury. He met his present wife at the end of his first year at high school. (However, he and his wife are now separated because of his several scandals and imprisonment) [link]

Success

Tashiro with Ken Shimura from Bakatono-sama
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Tashiro with Ken Shimura from Bakatono-sama

After graduating from Shibaura Institute of Technology Senior High School in March, 1975, centering Masayuki Suzuki, the Japanese doo-wop band the Chanels was formed with Tashiro, Nobuyoshi Kuwano and others in the same year. Tashiro made his debut as a member of its group in 1980 and they came to be widely known for adopting rhythm and blues style. He involved as a baritone. Their first single, "Runaway" sold more than 1 million copies. In 1983, on the occasion of broadcasting a cosmetic commercial message, the group changed its name to Rats & Star because of its similarity with the French brand Chanel. After the band was practically dissolved in 1986 because the leader Suzuki launched a solo single "Passed summer over the glasses" (ガラス越しに消えた夏 Garasu goshi ni kieta natsu), Tashiro, also thanks to his appearances on TV music shows like "The Best Ten" (ザ・ベストテン) and his work as a lyricist for singer and actress Kyoko Koizumi, gained enough popularity in Japan that he released an LP, "The legend of Niijima" (新島の伝説 Nījima no densetsu) as a solo artist. [link]

After Rats & Star broke up, his comedic talent was discovered by Ken Shimura, a member of Japanese comedic group The Drifters, and he became a television comedian. Here he gained the nicknames "King of pun" (ダジャレの帝王 Dajare no Teiō) and "Genius of props" (小道具の天才 Kodōgu no Tensai). On July 10, 1988, he opened a tarento shop, called "Marcy's" (マーシーズ) after his nickname, in Takeshita Street, Shibuya, Tokyo. He appeared in many television commercials, wrote an autobiography and a book on puns, directed a movie and starred as the main character in the Famicom action game "The many princesses of Masashi Tashiro" (田代まさしのプリンセスがいっぱい Tashiro Masashi no purinsesu ga ippai), released in Japan on October 27, 1989.

Criminal charges

Japanese news program on Tashiro's car accident.
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Japanese news program on Tashiro's car accident.
Tashiro in Tokyo District Court.
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Tashiro in Tokyo District Court.

On September 24, 2000, he was sent to the prosecutor's office for filming up a woman's skirt with a camcorder in Tokyu Toyoko Line Toritsudaigaku Station in Meguro, Tokyo; he was later fined 50,000 yen (430 USD) for this incident. When he was asked why he had done it at a news conference on October 4 of the same year, he claimed that he had been producing a comic film called "Mini ni tako ga dekiru" (ミニにタコができる, lit: an octopus appears in a miniskirt).

"Jibaku"'s book cover
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"Jibaku"'s book cover
This is a pun on the similar-sounding of "mini" (ミニ, miniskirt) and "mimi" (耳, ear) and the two meanings of "tako" (callus and octopus) based on the Japanese saying "mimi ni tako ga dekiru" (耳にタコができる, lit: I have a callus in my ear, meaning "I've heard this often enough"). The "mini ni tako" remark became infamous in the Japanese news media.
He was barred from working in the entertainment industry temporarily by his entertainment agency, MTM Productions, and his comment was "I wish miniskirts were obliterated from Earth". At a conference for a comeback to the entertainment world on June 28, 2001, he said "Please remember Masashi Tashiro once again" (もう1度だけ田代まさしを、よろしくお願い致します) [link]

On July 2001 he started coming back to the entertainment world with guest appearances in television programs such as "Downtown DX", "Guruguru Ninety-Nine" (ぐるぐるナインティナイン guruguru naintinain) and "It's so cool!" (めちゃ2イケてるッ! mecha-mecha iketeru!). He also returned as part of the regular cast in "Ken Shimura's idiotic feudal lord" (志村けんのバカ殿様 Shimura Ken no baka tonosama). In order to become a regular in another program, "Hamada Company's bullet heroes" (HAMADA COMPANY 弾丸ヒーローズ Hamada Company dangan hīrōzu), he was challenged to travel from Tokyo to Okinawa without being discovered by anyone. He lost the contest when he was found out in Kyoto and 100 pictures of him were taken, but the public liked his stunt and his popularity soared back.

On December 9, 2001, however, he was arrested for peeping in a male white-collar worker's bath-house near his home in Kita-senzoku, Ōta, Tokyo by Dennen Chōfu police. According to the police station, the 32-year-old man he was spying on spotted Tashiro and ran after him for 300 meters wearing only a bath towel around his midriff, eventually catching him and delivering him to the station. An eyewitness of this told that Tashiro put on a cap like a ski cap, spoke loudly "Forgive me" (許してくれ yurushitekure), "It was a misunderstanding" (勘違いだ kanchigai da) when he was caught and there was a camcorder in the vicinity of the scene. However, the reservation of punishment for him was determined and he was released. [link]

On December 12 2001, he was rearrested for possession and use of amphetamines. The seven police detectives carried out a domiciliary visit in Tashiro's house for a corroborative investigation into his peep incident and discovered a bag containing 0.4 ~ 0.9g of speed. As a result, he was dismissed by MTM Production on the same day because of repeated scandals. His trial was opened in Tokyo District Court on February 18, 2002, where he was found guilty and sentenced to 2 years in prison.

In spring 2002, after his imprisonment sentence was commuted to a 3 years' probation, he returned to the entertainment world as director of V-Cinema series such as "The Way of the Whales" (鯨道 kujira-michi). In July he published a book, "Self-destruction -THE JUDGEMENT DAY-" (自爆 -THE JUDGEMENT DAY- Jibaku -THE JUDGEMENT DAY-), in which he talks about the scandal, his family, life in jail and his comeback to the entertainment world.

In 2003 he made a recorded guest appearance in TBS's "Sunday Japon" (サンデージャポン sandē japon) on New Year's Eve. This is his last public appearance in a television program as of the time of writing.

There was a rumor that he would be coming back to the public screens in spring 2004. However, he once again found himself in legal trouble on June 17, 2004 for causing a car accident on the Oume road in Suginami. According to news reports, he crashed into a man on a motorcycle after making an illegal U-turn. In the night of September 20 of the same year, he was once again arrested in a street in Nakano for using amphetamines. He was also charged with violation of the Firearms and Swords Control Law because he had a butterfly knife with a blade 8 centimeters long. After this incident, former Rats & Star member Masayuki Suzuki apologized for Tashiro's crimes in his place. [link] Tashiro stated that the pressure of stardom contributed to his addiction to drugs.

Following this arrest, Tashiro was harshly criticized by many of his former co-workers, who said: "I want him to disappear from the entertainment world because what he did was despicable" (Ken Shimura), "The damned fool! I'd like to slap him!" (Kenichi Mikawa), "I don't want to be associated with such a guy" (Takeshi Kitano).

After he was arrested for amphetamines in 2004, he was sentenced to a 3 years and 6 months imprisonment because he was on probation. He virtually retired from the entertainment world. From here on, the media would refer to him as the "former talent", and all the recordings and pictures taken when he was a Chanels/Rats & Star member were almost never broadcasted anymore, and if they were, Tashiro's voice would be lowered to a hush or removed entirely, and no part of his body would show. Newspapers and magazines tacitly agreed not to talk about him at all. In an episode of a comedic duo Bakusho Mondai (爆笑問題 Bakushō Mondai), host Hikari Ota accidentally said his full name. In The God of Entertainment (エンタの神様 enta no kami-sama), Sayaka Aoki, while displaying only part of his name, said "I put a camera in the chest drawer", which caused a general laugh. On the other hand, the part of Ken Shimura's commemorative speech held for the release of his program on DVD where he said "Have you disappeared like Takafumi Horie when you were knocked-out? I wanted to release this five years ago" was not broadcasted.

Other suspicions of illegal video recording

Tashiro once hosted a combative sport program, Fuji Television's [SRS], with actress Norika Fujiwara. It was later found out that he was warned many times by the staff, who became irritated with his habit of sneaking into the ladies' bathroom (possibly with camera equipment) and not emerging again for hours afterwards.

Additionally, it was revealed that Fujiwara and other female television stars changed their clothes in the ladies' toilet during the time Tashiro was hiding inside. The staff associated with the show were suspicious that Tashiro did set a small, transmitting camera in the toilet room. [link]

This incident was reported on both Japanese and Chinese websites. [link]

Trivia

On December 21, 2001, Tashiro in the top position in Time Magazine's Person of the Year Internet poll.
On December 21, 2001, Tashiro in the top position in ''Time Magazine's Person of the Year Internet poll.

Past main programs

Television

Radio

Musical works

See Rats & Star for works as Chanels and Rats & Star.

Books

See also

Members of Rats & Star era
  • Masayuki Suzuki
  • Nobuyoshi Kuwano

    • External links

     

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