misono scores major interview with retired comedian, Shimada Shinsuke

Singer misono has scored her largest interview yet and it’s with retired comedian and TV presenter Shimada Shinsuke.

The interview, which has surpassed over 4.2 million views is significant because Shimada has been retired since 2011 after admitting to having ties with organized crime.

Shimada was at the peak of his career, one of Japan’s most well-known celebrities but when it was reported that he had links with the yakuza, Shimada would eventually admit that he exchanged texts with the leader of the Osaka-based gang affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan’s largest underworld organization.

Shimada said that the gangster helped him with a personal problem in the early 2000’s and felt indebted to him and felt he did nothing wrong and felt their friendship was safe, until he learned that it wasn’t.

His former management agency, Yoshimoto Kogyo, came out and said that it wasn’t permissible for a performer who has a strong influence on mainstream TV to have these ties.

As for the reason why he did the interview with misono, Shimada eats and drinks with juniors in the entertainment industry and at a bar, Yamada Shintaro of the HEXAGON family (and leader of the Quiz! Hexagon II singing group, Sata Andagi) happened to be in Osaka and decided to drink at Shimada’s favorite bar. Misono happened to be there and she asked Shintaro if he and Shimada could join her and her husband Nosuke. And they all got together.

When he heard about Nosuke’s fight with testicular cancer and how they are trying to raise money due to the high treatment costs, Shimada wondered if he could do anything to help and thus wanted to appear on misono’s YouTube channel.

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