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The story
Veteran manzai comedian Nishikawa Norio (75) revealed on an ABC Radio program aired on the 10th that, according to what he heard from a promoter, former Tokyo Governor Yoichi Masuzoe “gets paid 1.2 million yen for a single hour” in speaking fees. Masuda, who was interviewing him, questioned the claim’s accuracy, saying “Isn’t that just a rumor?” — but Norio stood by it, insisting, “I heard it from a promoter.” On 5ch, opinion split over whether the figure was a TV appearance fee or a lecture fee, and the discussion also spread to why cultural pundits like Miyazaki Tetsuya, once TV regulars, are rarely seen on television these days.
Nishikawa Norio Names Names on High-Paid Pundits — Co-Star Skeptical: “I Heard It From a Promoter”
Veteran manzai duo Nishikawa Norio and Kamigata Yoshio’s Nishikawa Norio (75) appeared on ABC Radio’s “Masuda Okada Masuda no Radio Hunter” (Thursdays at noon) on the 10th. The conversation turned to the pay of past cultural pundits, and he revealed who topped the list.
On pundit pay, Norio revealed, “There’s (former Tokyo Governor) Yoichi Masuzoe, right? This is for real. He was pulling in 1.2 million yen an hour.” Masuda reacted with “Huh?!” and questioned its credibility, saying, “Isn’t that just a rumor?” Norio insisted, “It’s true, it’s true. I heard it from a promoter.”
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
It's a completely different pay structure from what actual talent get
They only use the people who won't settle for 30,000 yen
To begin with, the media side has this above-it-all attitude of 'we're the ones letting you appear,'
and assumes performers should be grateful enough to say 'please let me appear for free,'
and come groveling to them
That's just the custom — it's common sense in the industry
So only the people who won't accept it end up appearing anyway — guess that makes it ¥1.7 million, huh
These days there's hardly any real 'pundits' left
Ex-politicians, athletes, scholars — they're all
signed with talent agencies now and get paid properly
Hayashi Osamu even ranks in the top 10 on talent earnings rankings
What you're talking about is the TV fee. What Nishikawa Norio is talking about is the lecture fee
He shows up occasionally as a kind of host on Bunshun's YouTube channel though
Saw him for the first time in a while on the memorial special for Miwa-san
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HP7C0lGacAADjm_.jpg
Now that you mention it, yeah, don't see him
He faded from view right along with people like Ogiwara and Katsuma, who you used to see a lot during the DPJ government era
Did he screw something up?
He kept criticizing the Ministry of Finance, so the media didn't want him around anymore
At one point people called him the heir apparent to Tahara Soichiro, and he even hosted Asa made Nama Terebi (a late-night political debate show), but he wasn't great at moderating
Maybe it's coming back to bite him that he helped bring the DPJ to power
The timing of Miyazaki disappearing and Kaneko-san starting as a commentator doesn't really overlap that much
At Yoichi Masuzoe's level, lecture fees of over a million yen are pretty much a given
Now that you put it that way, yeah, that's true
Lecture fees, that's just a normal single booking rate
Not Masuzoe specifically — just an ordinary lecture fee
It's from the 80s but it nails what Japan is like today spot on
Norio was probably still watching Obake no Q-Taro back then lol
A while back I thought 'haven't seen him lately' and looked it up — turns out he'd left shows like Seigi no Mikata and Soko Made Itte Iinkai
He's openly joked about it himself, like 'you think I'd work for a few tens of thousands? lol'
Not TV
Probably
And even if it were TV, Tokyo rates and Kansai rates are different anyway
Kind of like Bando Eiji
When I read it, it was just page after page about how to pinch pennies
On the last page it said 'If you're the type who falls for a book title like this, you'll never save money' — I nearly fell over
Read it too lol threw it out right away lol
Or the Kantele news program?
I barely watch TV these days so I have no idea
He was definitely still on the TV Tokyo one a few months ago
No idea about the Kansai show
Stuff like 'Whether it's Takeshi or Chinsuke,
they both ditched their partners and went solo —
what heartless guys.' I think this was right after Hyokinzoku ended
But Norio himself had half-abandoned his own partner too
though maybe because he sensed he'd be useless in Tokyo once Hyokinzoku ended, he kept manzai as an escape route
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
TV commentator fees are generally said to be low, and the claim in the thread that “the pundit-slot rate is a flat 30,000 yen” is a figure that often gets cited as the going rate. Lecture fees for politicians and celebrities, on the other hand, are a completely different matter — for someone at the level of a former governor, fees of over a million yen per appearance are said to be far from unusual within the industry. The reason opinion in the thread split over whether Nishikawa Norio was talking about a TV appearance fee or a lecture fee comes down to this difference between the two separate pay structures. It’s also worth noting that Norio’s own claim is only secondhand — something he says he “heard from a promoter” — and the figure hasn’t actually been confirmed by either him or Masuzoe’s camp. The conversation also branched into why pundits who used to be TV regulars, like Miyazaki Tetsuya, have largely disappeared from television — but the proposed reasons (such as the theory that criticizing the Ministry of Finance was the cause) remain speculation, not established fact.
※This article is compiled as an excerpt/summary from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “[Entertainment] Nishikawa Norio Names Names on High-Paid Pundits — Co-Star Skeptical: “I Heard It From a Promoter”.”
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