Yoshimoto Kogyo - History

History

Yoshimoto is said to be almost single-handedly responsible for the development of Japanese manzai after World War II and, in fact, the kanji that are now used for the word manzai were introduced by Yoshimoto in 1933, spelling a new era for the comedy style. Although pure manzai is no longer the dominant form of entertainment in Japan, Yoshimoto's influence remains and the spirit of manzai lives on in modern Japanese comedy, as can be seen by the prevalence of the Kansai dialect in many owarai productions.

The current director of Yoshimoto is Isao Yoshino, who replaced the long-standing ex-senior director Masao Kimura in January 2005. Kimura had been part of the company since entering in 1969, and in the 35 plus years that Kimura worked with Yoshimoto, it expanded greatly and its reputation as a successful company grew enormously. Fresh out of university, Yoshimoto is still the goal for many young comedians, and many of them hope to be accepted into the 'New Star Creation' school in Osaka, or one of others across Japan.

Yoshimoto now boasts more than 650 entertainers, possibly the most famous being the owarai kombi (duo) Downtown, successors of the manzai duo Yasu-Kiyo in the 1980s. As in much of Japanese culture, there exists a strong bond between sempai (senior) and kōhai (junior) members of the entertainment industry. Many lower level employees of Yoshimoto do not receive full salaries but rather benefit from the advice and guidance of senior members of the company.