From our other sites
The story
NHK’s “Videos of the Century: Butterfly Effect” aired footage on the 14th of the 1993 press conference where newscaster Masataka Itsumi (who died at 48) announced his cancer diagnosis. The segment frames the conference as having “greatly shaken public consciousness.” On 5ch’s Entertainment/Sports News Flash+ thread, the discussion went well beyond a simple obituary, covering shock at how young 48 was to die, debate over why his cancer-ravaged appearance looked older than his real age, and anecdotes about Fuji TV’s momentum at the time and its stars.
NHK’s “Videos of the Century” Revisits Masataka Itsumi’s “Cancer Announcement” Press Conference From 33 Years Ago — Showed a Fighting Spirit That “Greatly Shook Public Consciousness”
The July 14 broadcast of NHK’s “Videos of the Century: Butterfly Effect” (airing 10:00 PM) delivered a feature titled “Cancer: The Fight Against Humanity’s Greatest Enemy.”
It included footage from September 1993 of Masataka Itsumi (who died at 48) saying, “The name of the disease I’m currently afflicted with is cancer” — a press conference that shocked the entire nation.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
I always pictured them way older than that.
Yujiro Ishihara and Hibari Misora also died younger than Kimutaku (Takuya Kimura) is now.
When I looked into my family's history of illness, I figured — unless you go through an agent to get covered, your time's probably up before it'd even pay out.
The day he died was actually the recording day for that legendary golf match, wasn't it.
Well, Itsumi, probably. But among today's active announcers, Azumi's the only one who's on Itsumi's level. Hatori and Miyane don't come close.
Well, the number of people watching TV at all has cratered, so an announcer's value has cratered right along with it.
He looked like he was well into his 50s.
'Now then, everyone, let's think it over~' (his famous quiz-show catchphrase)
TV had real power back in the Showa era. And this was Fuji TV in its most full-of-itself period, too.
Re: #36
>black-and-white photo
What are you even talking about.
It's a mystery why a serious, straight-laced guy like Itsumi ended up at Fuji TV of all places. Maybe he got rejected elsewhere and Fuji was the fallback? He was so into it on variety shows — maybe he wasn't as stiff as he looked, or maybe Fuji just rubbed off on him.
Just so you know, 1993, the year Itsumi died, was Heisei 5.
Takeshi and Tsugawa were always needling each other — so that's why.
The generation that actually fought in the war has basically died out. They'd be pushing 100 now, so almost none are left. Even people who just remember the air raids would be around 85.
Fuji TV was originally a network big on educational programming — Hirake! Ponkikki, Pinpon Pan, World Masterpiece Theater, all that. Beat Takeshi and Akashiya Sanma's 'Oretachi Hyokinzoku' might be the biggest cancer that tore all that down.
'Heisei Education Committee' was Fuji too. Takeshi and Itsumi made a great duo.
Well, H. pylori spreads through a mother's saliva, so…
If Itsumi had taken down News Station, maybe Japan wouldn't have spiraled into that recession mindset driven by Hiroshi Kume's nasty remarks and doom-laden production choices.
He was ridiculously good at it, lol.
Doesn't the loan get wiped out when you die?
But given that it ended up greatly shaking public awareness and triggered a surge in people getting cancer screenings, you could say that even though it was one individual's personal announcement, it carried real public value.
Isn't it just that the at-risk age bracket is peaking right now? The baby boomers are in their mid-70s.
It's not actually increasing. It just looks that way because of the aging population.
Background and Key Points of This Topic
Masataka Itsumi’s 1993 press conference is remembered as a trailblazing moment when a public figure disclosed his own diagnosis on camera, and it’s also credited with later boosting cancer-screening rates. The thread split over whether it was appropriate to use public airwaves for a personal medical announcement, with critical voices (post 78) pitted against those defending it as ultimately serving a social purpose (post 108). There was also surprise that he “looked older than 48,” which posters in the thread clarified was mainly down to him being gaunt from illness rather than the photo being black-and-white (posts 36→40). Anecdotes about Fuji TV’s momentum at the time, plus its relationships with contemporaries like Takeshi and Sanma, also came up — making this more than just an obituary, but a look back at late-Showa TV culture that a straightforward segment recap alone wouldn’t convey.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Entertainment/Sports News Flash+) thread “[TV] NHK’s ‘Videos of the Century’ Revisits Masataka Itsumi’s “Cancer Announcement” Press Conference From 33 Years Ago — Showed a Fighting Spirit That “Greatly Shook Public Consciousness”.”
Leave a Reply