When Ken Shimura passed away earlier this year from complications due to the coronavirus, many groped for ways to described the death of such a major figure in popular culture. "The Japanese Robin Williams" was about the best anyone could come up with. Some platitudes aside, we also remember how risqué Shimura's comedy shows were. Feminists are (rightly) shocked when they look at clips that are not from the distant past, but just a few years ago. Nude or scantily clad women appear on the show for the sole purpose of gags. We wanted to share one particular highlight from his show in which ...

So far, the highest-profile victim of COVID-19 in Japan has been the comedian Ken Shimura. His death happened fairly early in the pandemic in Japan and since then infection numbers have risen quite a lot as the second wave hits, though deaths have not climbed to a scary rate (yet - touch wood). As entertainers are continuing to work, filming things and so on, and coming into contact with a lot of people in the process, coronavirus infections are also disproportionately affecting the industry. In recent days, several high-profile cases have appeared. In early August, the busty gravure idol ...

Well, as we know from recent weekly magazine content ranking which college girls are easiest, MeToo in Japan has yet to arrive fully. Now here's another example to add to the litany of shame, at least in the eyes of feminists. The most recent episode of Ken Shimura's comedy TV show, Shimura Ken no Bakatono-sama, on Fuji TV that was broadcast on January 9th included a sketch involving a "flesh futon" (niku-futon, literally "meat futon"). Inevitably this meant scantily-clad ladies. During the course of the sketch, Shimura was squeezed snugly between four pairs of women in bikinis and ...