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The story
On the August 30 broadcast of “24-Hour Television 49,” general host Michihiro Uchimura sent a live on-air cheer to Sandwichman’s Mikio Date, who is on hiatus due to a stroke, shouting “Go, go, Date! Everyone’s waiting for you!” Date has appeared alongside Uchimura on Nippon TV’s “THE Toppa File,” and was reportedly scheduled to take part in this segment as a member of the “Toppa Cheer Squad.” Reactions on 5ch were divided — some welcomed the shoutout, while others asked “Is it really appropriate to give a personal show of support on an unrelated program?” and “Shouldn’t disaster relief support come first?”
August 30, 2026, 6:34 PM
Nippon TV’s annual summer charity program “24-Hour Television 49 — Love Saves the Earth —” was broadcast live on the 30th from Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo. General host Michihiro Uchimura of “Uchan Nanchan,” who has appeared alongside Sandwichman’s Mikio Date on the network’s “THE Toppa File,” sent a cheer to Date, who is currently on hiatus due to a stroke.
Backed by the “Toppa Cheer Squad,” Uchimura pumped his right fist and shouted, “Go, go, Hoshino! Fight, fight, Japan! Go, go, Date! Everyone’s waiting for you!”
Source: hochi.news / Original article here
What people said
Well, Date isn't the only person out there who's had a stroke — doing a personal shoutout on an unrelated show just because he's a celebrity feels off.
Maybe his condition is worse than what's been publicly announced. Bananaman's Himura still hasn't come back either.
Himura's thing is probably mental health, so shoutouts wouldn't help — best to just leave him be. But hyping up Date this hard on TV right now makes me think it must be pretty serious.
I like the guy, so I just hope he makes a full comeback.
He's a beloved national celebrity
so everyone feels the same way
It's really sad, but
I hope he comes back healthy.
Go donate instead.
They said on air that they already donated.
Recovery is basically down to the medical staff, isn't it?
There's rehab involved.
Some people end up bedridden.
Some end up with speech or walking impairments too.
And honestly, they don't tend to live that long afterward.
Why bring it up mid-broadcast?
Don't just sit on it and then spring it on us.
are in the quietly-watch-from-the-sidelines phase.
When an old friend of mine passed away, the people who were actually close to him stayed quiet in their grief, while a bunch of people who weren't even that close flooded social media with "I'll never forget you!"-style poems. Made me angry.
This wasn't a stroke where he suddenly collapsed, lost consciousness, and got rushed off in an ambulance —
it's the kind where he went to the hospital for some vague feeling of being unwell, they ran tests, and that's how they found it.
So it's probably not that severe.
Shows a real lack of imagination about how it'd feel to be in his shoes —
looking at you, Uchimura.
If you were in his shoes, wouldn't you be happy to hear that said on national TV?
When you're sick and hospitalized, you mostly feel physically awful, so it's natural for your thinking to turn negative — hospital life isn't exactly fun.
That's just because you're an ordinary little nobody.
Seriously, that's so true.
The longer a hospital stay drags on, the harder it gets to find meaning in being alive.
The Sama's are doing fine. (comedy duo Sandwichman-adjacent act "Sama's")
One's got Alzheimer's from brain atrophy caused by glaucoma,
the other's got acid reflux from an aortic aneurysm.
On the "Uchi-P to Uchi-sama World" full-checkup segment,
Uchimura, the doctor, and the narrator kept telling them to quit smoking from start to finish,
and they just ignored it completely.
This is way overblown.
But the guy who reportedly couldn't even speak when they found him seems way too laid-back about it — did they really get him treated within 24 hours?
Well, that's true for mild cases.
When I was hospitalized for a vascular bypass surgery, a stroke patient who got rushed in late at night was actually pretty mild on the case scale. But there was another patient in the ICU whose relatives
kept showing up in droves to cheer him on
and overhearing that from the next bed, I remember thinking, "yeah, this one's not gonna make it."
Background and Points of Debate
Sandwichman’s Mikio Date has appeared alongside Michihiro Uchimura on Nippon TV’s “THE Toppa File,” but officially, no detailed information has been released about the severity of the condition behind his stroke-related hiatus. On the thread, posters traded guesses about whether it’s the type that leaves lasting after-effects or whether it was caught at a mild stage — but these remain baseless speculation either way. Opinions were also split over whether it’s appropriate to offer a personal well-wishing gesture within a charity fundraising program like 24-Hour Television, and over how that should be weighed against other causes like disaster relief support. Worth noting: this shoutout was an extension of a segment Uchimura and Date have long appeared in together, not a spur-of-the-moment idea.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geisports Sokuho+) thread “[24-Hour Television] Michihiro Uchimura sends live cheer to Sandwichman’s Mikio Date, on hiatus due to stroke, pumping his fist: “Go, go, Date! Everyone’s waiting for you!” [Ailuropoda melanoleuca★].”
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