Masashi Tashiro

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Masashi Tashiro
Born August 31, 1956 (1956-08-31) (age 51)
Karatsu, Saga
Occupation Television personality, singer, actor, film director
Known for Member of Rats & Star

Masashi "Marcy" Tashiro (田代 まさし Tashiro Masashi?, real name is the same, but written 田代 政) is a former Japanese television performer and the founding member of the band Rats & Star who was born on August 31, 1956 in Karatsu, Saga Prefecture, Japan. Tashiro was a tenor vocalist in the rock band Rats & Star, and later on made himself a name as a TV entertainer in Japan. He also directed a movie after his band broke up.

His arrest for looking up a woman's skirt in September 2000 marked the beginning of Tashiro's problems with the law.

Contents

[edit] 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 years old, at which time he entered Okubo junior high school. However, he decided to enroll in a higher grade at a private high school and live with his father in order not to rely financially on his mother's new husband.

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. It was here he met Masayuki Suzuki, with whom Tashiro later formed the band The Chanels. Tashiro as well as Suzuki were considered juvenile delinquents in those days.

He was allegedly involved in fights, motorcycle gang problems, going to party at a disco and going girl-hunting every day during his time at high school. He has been detained by the police because of assault. 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)

In March, 1975, he graduated from Shibaura Institute of Technology Senior High School. It was around this time he started driving. His first car was a Sunny. His subsequent cars were a Gloria, a Camaro, a Ford, a Prelude, and a Mercedes-Benz. It had grown into an obsession of his.

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. Suzuki was the lead singer, Kuwano was the trumpeter, and he sang baritone.

In June of the same year, he ran away from home after getting into a big row with his father. Later, he was taken in by Chanels member Hiroyuki Kuboki and worked as a clerk for the same filling station. He had lived in the company's dormitory for two years. Afterwards, he became a trucker after he was hired by the president of a truck company, who came as a customer in Tashiro's filling station in 1978. Although he already formed the band, he allegedly kept on working as a trucker because he thought that "The entertainment world is scary".

[edit] Success

[edit] The Chanels

The Chanels were formed in 1975, and began performing as an amateur band in 1976 . They were chosen as a No. 1 band on a Japanese television program called "Ginza Now" (ギンザNOW?) and won a prize in a music contest under the sponsorship of Yamaha.

Tashiro made his debut as a member of the group in 1980 and they came to be widely known for adopting rhythm and blues style. 4 members of the front singers including Tashiro wore blackface using shoe polish and they became famous and popular. Their first single, "Runaway" sold more than 1 million copies. Their May, 1981's single "Hurricane" was covered by Puffy AmiYumi in 2001. In 1983, 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 "The Summer Disappeared Over the Glass" (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 Niijima no densetsu?) as a solo artist. [1]

In March 1996, Rats & Star's members got together for six months and covered a member of band Happy End Eiichi Otaki's song "If I Could Meet You in a Dream" (夢で逢えたら Yume de Aetara?) in April of the same year. This song recorded a big hit. They also appeared in NHK's Kōhaku Uta Gassen at New Year’s Eve of the year.

[edit] Comedian

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, hosted in many television programs, wrote an autobiography and a book on puns, directed a movie and starred as the main character in the Famicom action game "Masashi Tashiro Has So Many Princesses" (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.

This video game was not successful at the time it was published. However, after his later scandals and arrests, it started to fetch very high prices on Internet auctions like Yahoo!.

He also appeared as a film actor in a Shizuka Ijuin's original work film "Crêpe" in October, 1993. He co-starred with an actress Kaho Minami (Ken Watanabe's present wife).

[edit] Criminal charges

[edit] Sneak shot

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). 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?)

When he was stopped working, he did volunteer work such as carrying the wash and serving meals in a nursing home 3 days a week.

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.

[edit] Peeping in a bath-house

On December 9, 2001, he was arrested for peeping in a male white-collar worker's bath-house near his home in Kita-senzoku, Ōta, Tokyo by Den-en-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 waist, 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 recording. However, he was released without punishment.[1]

[edit] First arrest for drug use

On December 12, 2001, he was rearrested for possession and use of amphetamines by Den-en-chōfu police. The seven police detectives carried out a home search in Tashiro's house as a corroborative investigation into his Peeping Tom incident and discovered a bag containing 0.4 ~ 0.9g of speed. Tashiro stated that "I bought it" but the how he used it was unknown because a syringe used to inject drugs was not discovered in the home search. He was detained as a suspect by the police station from aftermath of his arrest until February 1 of the next year. As a result, he was dismissed by MTM Production on the same day because of repeated scandals.

On December 28 of the same year, he was prosecuted for the violation of Stimulant Drugs Control Law. He testified about it that "I used drugs to get rid of stress and tension before appearing on a TV program" for the investigation by Tokyo District Prosecution Office. He also talked that "I lived confined to the house and I began to worry. From about this April, I used it once every few days". According to an indictment, he warmed amphetamine over a fire and absorbed it in his home's video room.

[edit] Result of trials

[edit] First trial

His first trial for this incident was in Tokyo District Court on February 1, 2002.

[edit] Judgement

Judgement was given on the case in the same court on February 8, 2002, where he was found guilty and sentenced to 2 years in prison.

Tashiro on the cover of his book, Jibaku
Tashiro on the cover of his book, Jibaku

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.

[edit] Cause of car accident

There was a rumor that Tashiro would be coming back to the public screens in spring 2004. However, he once again found himself in legal trouble for causing a car accident on the Ōme road in Suginami. According to news reports, at about 1 AM on June 16, 2004, he crashed into a vocational school boy on a 250cc motorcycle after making an illegal U-turn. The victim had his left thigh broken and suffered an injury that would take 2 weeks to heal completely.

[edit] Second arrest for drug use and other charges

On about half past 10 p.m. of September 20 of the same year, he was charged with violation of the Firearms and Swords Control Law in a street in Nakano because he had a butterfly knife with a blade 8 centimeters long. He shared his car on the street with a woman of an acquaintance then and the police questioned 2 people. After the investigation, it was also found out that he had about 2g of amphetamines and about 4g of marijuana in a rucksack. As a result, he was once again arrested for it on the evening of the next day because a woman with him said "This rucksack is his" and he admitted it, too. After this incident, former Rats & Star member Masayuki Suzuki apologized for Tashiro's crimes in his place.[2] 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 man.

– Takeshi Kitano

He was virtually retired from the entertainment world and was treated like he never existed. From here on, the media would refer to him as the "former entertainer", and all the recordings and pictures taken when he was a Chanels/Rats & Star member were almost never broadcast 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 broadcast.

[edit] Result of trials

[edit] First trial

After he was arrested for possession of amphetamines on September 21, 2004, the first trial was opened in Tokyo District Court on November 12 of the same year.

[edit] Second trial

His second trial started on December 17, 2004.

[edit] Third trial

His third trial was started on January 27, 2005.

[edit] Judgement

Sentenced to 3 years and 6 months imprisonment, as he had violated his probation.

[edit] Confession in his book and a trial after the arrest

 Please help improve this section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

He confessed the process of using amphetamines etc in his book "Jibaku". According to the book, his first drug use was in Hawaii in April 1998. However, he contradicted this statement when he said that "I used amphetamines and marijuana first in Hawaii in May, 1991" in a second trial on December 17, 2004. He also said that his first amphetamine use in Japan was in April, 2001.

[edit] 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 up a small, transmitting camera in the toilet room.[3]

This incident was reported on both Japanese and Chinese websites. [2]

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

[edit] Past main programs

[edit] Television

  • Monomane Ōza Ketteisen (ものまね王座決定戦 The Mimic Champion Contest?) (Fuji Television)
  • Star Dokkiri Daisakusen (スターどっきり大作戦 Star candid great Strategy?) (Fuji Television)
  • Yūyake Nyan-Nyan (夕やけニャンニャン Sunset Nyan Nyan?) (Fuji Television)
  • Shūkan Stamina Tengoku (週刊スタミナ天国 Weekly Stamina Heaven?) (Fuji Television)
  • Takeshi, Itsumi no Heisei Kyōiku Iinkai (たけし・逸見の平成教育委員会 Takeshi and Itsumi's Heisei Board of Education?) (Fuji Television)
  • Naruhodo! The World (なるほど!ザ・ワールド Indeed! The World?) (Fuji Television)
  • Ken Shimura's idiotic feudal lord (志村けんのバカ殿様 Shimura Ken no baka tonosama?) (Fuji Television)
  • TV Crews Tonari no Papaya (TVクルーズ となりのパパイヤ TV Crew next-door Papaya?) (Fuji Television)
  • Tokoro-san no Tadamono Dewa nai! (所さんのただものではない! Mr. Tokoro's You are not ordinary!?) (Fuji Television)
  • Quiz Derby (クイズダービー?) (TBS)
  • Tokusō TV Gaburincho (特捜TVガブリンチョ Special Investigation TV Chomp?) (TV Asahi)
  • Downtown DX (ダウンタウンDX?) (NTV)
  • Super J Channel ANN (スーパーJチャンネル ANN?) (Friday, TV Asahi)
  • Soreyuke! Marcy (それゆけ!マーシー Let's go! Marcy, A program sponsored by a business enterprise?) (MBS)
  • Guruguru Ninety-Nine (ぐるぐるナインティナイン guruguru naintinain?)
  • It's so cool! (めちゃ2イケてるッ! mecha-mecha iketeruu!?)

[edit] Radio

  • Tashiro Masashi no Super Gang (田代まさしのスーパーギャング Masashi Tashiro's Super Gang?) (Thurdsday, TBS Radio) - October, 1986 ~ March, 1987
  • Tashiro Masashi no Say! Young (田代まさしのセイ!ヤング Masashi Tashiro's Say! Young?) (QR)
  • Tashiro Masashi no All Night Nippon (田代まさしのオールナイトニッポン Masashi Tashiro's All Night Nippon?) (LF)

[edit] Musical works

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

  • Nījima no Densetsu (新島の伝説 The legend of Nījima?) (August 27, 1986)
  • Paradis Latin no Yoru wa Fukete (パラディラタンの夜は更けて Late in the night of Paradis Latin?) (September 21, 1987 as "Shinnosuke & Marcy")
  • Unjarage (ウンジャラゲ?) (November 2, 1988 as Ken Shimura & Masashi Tashiro and Daijōbudā family)
  • Nettaiya (熱帯夜 Sultry night?) (July 1, 1994 as Marcy & Izumi)
  • Bāsama to Jīsama no Serenade (婆様と爺様のセレナーデ Serenade for an old man and woman?) (December 17, 1993 as Ken & Marcy)
  • Ai ga Natsukashii (愛が懐かしい Nostalgia for love?) (March 8, 1995 as Masashi Tashiro & Kuniko Asagi)

[edit] Books

  • Tashiro Masashi no Dōtoku Yomihon (田代まさしの道徳読本 , Masashi Tashiro's moral handbook?) (May 1988, Kōdansha) - ISBN 4-06-103101-5
  • Marcy no Chōhōsoku (マーシーの超法則 , Marcy's super law?) (April 1994, Magazine house) - ISBN 4-8387-0534-4
  • Cinema de Aishite -Eiga no Kazu hodo, Koishitai- (シネマで愛して―映画の数ほど、恋したい , Love me in the cinema―I want to be in love almost as same as the number of films?) (October 1993, Japan literary arts company) - ISBN 4-537-02384-8
  • Jibaku -The Judgement Day- (自爆―THE JUDGEMENT DAY , Self-destruction or suicidal bombing?) (July 2002 K2 publishing sale) - ISBN 4-434-02252-0

[edit] References

  1. ^ 田代まさし：カルト事件簿 (Japanese)
  2. ^ 田代まさし逮捕、車に同乗女は覚せい剤＆大麻 Zakzak (Japanese)
  3. ^ 藤原紀香：カルト事件簿 (Japanese)
  4. ^ News：速報：1位はなんと？TIME「PERSON OF THE YEAR」投票にネットの"力" (Japanese)

[edit] See also

[edit] Members of Rats & Star era

Persondata
NAME Tashiro, Masashi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION comedian
DATE OF BIRTH August 31, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Saga Prefecture, Japan
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH