Yoshimoto Kogyo is a Japanese entertainment conglomerate which employs most of Japan’s comedians. If you’re a famous comedian in Japan, it’s likely you’ve been trained at one of the many comedy schools Yoshimoto sponsors. The training is intense and competitive, but the successful graduates can look forward to a profitable career on TV. 

“In Japan, Yoshimoto equals comedy,” Hiroshi Osaki, president of Yoshimoto Kogyo, once said. “All you have to do is drop our name and someone might laugh.” 

Yoshimoto has achieved its high-standing reputation in the comedy world thanks to its large amount of high caliber alumni and through its teaching of traditional forms of Japanese comedy. One style it specializes in is called ‘manzai’ and this involves two performers – a tsukkomi (straight man) and a boke (funny man) – as they exchange jokes at great speed. As with many manzai comics, their comedy takes on elements of slapstick and physical humor. 

Yoshimoto was formed in 1912 as a traditional theatre in Osaka and has grown to become one of the most influential companies in the entertainment world.

Initially, if you wanted to become a comedian you had to become a live-in apprentice to an experienced comedian but over time this seemed old-fashioned and restricted talent to blossom. Consequently, Yoshimoto established the New Star Creation (NSC) program in 1982. The program consists of different types of classes which are taught by seasoned comedians: manzai training (learning the Japanese style double-act routine); acting; voice projection; music and dance. There is also an emphasis on students to create their own material in order to find their unique brand of comedy. 

Every year around 1,000 students are accepted onto the one year course which takes place at various schools throughout Japan and costs around 400,000 yen (nearly $4,000). However, only 3% of graduates manage to make a career out of comedy, but those that do can earn a decent amount of money performing stand-up in theatres and on TV, while Yoshimoto will take a cut of their earnings. 

“It’s like the old studio system,” says Aki Yorihiro, of Yoshimoto Entertainment USA. “We take care of people throughout their careers and throughout their lives.”
He claims that some of the best known Japanese comics earn as much as top Hollywood stars. No wonder people work hard to win a place on the Yoshimoto program. 

Graduates can also expect to perform at big venues such as Namba Grand Kagestu Theatre which is the headquarters of Yoshimoto in Osaka. 

People all over Japan come to this theatre to see their favorite comics on stage. To understand their popularity, you only have to see the merchandise on offer at the box office. Not only do famous comedians adorn T-shirts, sweaters and pens. But they also have their features slapped on toilet rolls and bottles of water.  

The names of some of these comedy pairings are as eclectic as they are random. Bananaman, Black Mayonaise, King Kong, Punk Boo Boo and Slim Club are just some of the manzai pairings, with each duo having their own unique feature. Many comics wish to transfer their skills from the stage to the screen, and seek careers on TV. Being Yoshimoto trained goes a long way to seeing this wish fulfilled. 

Comedians are very much in demand on Japanese TV especially on variety shows, where they usually sit on panels to discuss the day’s news, perform live sketches and take part in filmed segments from around the country. And because these variety shows are seemingly always on throughout the day in Japan, there is no shortage of work and they often appear on several shows in a day. 

Yoshimoto understands that Japanese variety shows, which pack their shows with crazy pranks (called “batsu”,) have a certain appeal abroad and are seeking ways to promote this brand of comedy in other countries. They have already built up a relationship with Hollywood talent agency Creative Artists Agency and various US reality TV show production companies, with the aim of producing Japanese “batsu” games shot entirely in Japan and with a Japanese audience, but the show will be aimed at an American and Japanese audience. And because the humor comes from the spectacle of the stunt rather than the spoken-word, any language barrier will be broken. 

To expand its operations further, in 2009, inspired by the Cannes film festival, Yoshimoto started the annual Okinawa International Movie Festival, which focuses on comedy films. This provides another avenue for famous comics to introduce films and for recent graduates to get noticed by talent scouts. Yoshimoto also sponsors the Kyoto Film Festival which showcases the latest in comedy talent. 

Japanese comedy is now finding a new audience – both domestically and internationally - via online video streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, with locally made content being produced on these platforms. 

Netflix and Yoshimoto Kogyo have teamed up to produce ‘Hibana’ (‘Spark’) a 10-episode comedy-drama show based on an award-winning novel by comedian and Yoshimoto alumni, Naoki Matayoshi, which has sold more than 2.5 million copies. The story centers around two comedians as they make their way through the world of manzai comedy performance. It is has received rave reviews in notable publications like Variety. 

At present, the show is available in 190 countries and territories and subtitled in 19 languages, making this a major export for Japan. 

“Just as there are fans of Hollywood in Japan, there are die-hard anime fans in France, Brazil, the U.S. and all over the world,” said Greg Peters, president of Netflix Japan, in a recent interview with The Japan Times. “There’s this tremendous potential in Japan; so many stories — the manga, the novels — and now we have the opportunity to unlock this potential in a way that hasn’t been able to be done before.” 

Yoshimoto has also been working with Amazon Japan to nurture local comedy talent via user-generated content. Yoshimoto will hold competitions to pick the best user content from Amazon’s Kindle Digital Publishing site which will host stories and illustrations. Winning participants can then expect to see their work physically published or to be made into a TV show and announced at Yoshimoto’s Okinawa International Film Festival. 

With so many new platforms to showcase your comedy talent, there’s never been a better time to be a comedian in Japan.