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The story
In the women’s 100m hurdles final at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, Mako Fukube (30) won gold with a time of 12.74 seconds, sealing a Japanese one-two finish alongside Hitomi Nakashima. During the TBS network broadcast, a female announcer repeatedly mispronounced Fukube’s name as “Ms. Kikuchi,” which online commenters noted matches the name of a real medical condition, “Kikuchi disease,” sparking a stir online. The thread split between those who found it troubling to be called by a disease’s name and those saying “let it slide, it’s a minor thing,” with frustration over TBS’s commentary in general also boiling over.
Mon, 9/28, 1:01 PM
Chunichi Sports
The women’s 100m hurdles final at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games was held on the 27th at Paloma Mizuho Stadium, where former national record holder Mako Fukube (30, Nihon Kensetsu Kogyo) won gold with a time of 12.74 seconds. Hitomi Nakashima (31, Hasegawa Taiiku Shisetsu) took silver, completing a Japanese one-two finish. Meanwhile, a commentary mistake by a female announcer during the same-day TBS broadcast has been causing a stir online.
Source: topics.smt.docomo.ne.jp / Original article here
What people said
No, she got turned into a disease's name. Imagine if you had syphilis and got called "Mr./Ms. Syphilis So-and-so" over and over on national TV — could you forgive that?
"Syphilis athlete" would be rough, lol
But "Kikuchi" is a person's surname before it's a disease name — isn't it kind of messed up to treat Kikuchi as just a disease in the first place?
When Japan was leading North Korea in a soccer match, they put up a caption asking "Can they catch up?" — that was absolutely awful
Hakketsu Rikako (mixing "leukemia" with swimmer Rikako Ikee, who battled the disease)
Spelunker Tamura (the fragile video-game character "Spelunker," applied to injury-prone ex-baseball player Kazuhiro Tamura)
Rolling Neymar (a jab at Neymar's habit of flopping/rolling around on the pitch)
Side note, female announcers' commentary is really hard to follow, isn't it? Wonder why that is
Because we're just not used to hearing it
【Verdict】Not guilty
Sorry for getting it wrong again and again~
The announcer… was totally flustered~ (parody of an old idol-song lyric)
That reference is way too old, I don't get it
For TBS, this level of mess-up is pretty much expected
(・∀・)
There's no way anyone would mix it up like that, lol
That's some reputational fallout, about on par with "Aho no Sakata" (comedian Toshio Sakata's "the fool" stage persona)
Re: #134
Though it's somewhat unavoidable — the disease was discovered by Dr. Masahiro Kikuchi and colleagues, hence the name
Background and Key Points of This Story
Kikuchi disease (Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease) is a real lymph-node condition first reported in 1972 by pathologist Masahiro Kikuchi and colleagues — it just happens to share its name with the surname “Kikuchi.” In this case, it appears the announcer meant to say Fukube’s name, but the more familiar term “Kikuchi disease” slipped out instead. Opinions in the thread were split between those brushing it off as a simple slip of the tongue and those voicing discomfort at an athlete being called by a disease’s name. There’s also a history of complaints about TBS’s commentary style — loud shouting and awkwardly staged broadcast moments — and this mistake is being discussed as part of that pattern. It should be noted that how Fukube herself reacted, and whether TBS offered any explanation or apology, are not covered in the source material and remain unknown.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (Entertainment/Sports News+) thread “[Asian Games] ‘Mixing up a disease name and a person’s name…’ TBS announcer’s huge blunder over Mako Fukube — “Isn’t that bad?” “That was rough…” — Online stir.”
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