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The story
It’s been revealed that Gokuraku Tonbo’s Koji Kato has cut the hair he’d grown out to ear-length, switching to a short style. The news broke not through Kato himself but via his radio co-star — Sakanaction’s Ichiro Yamaguchi — who posted Kato’s new look on his own X account. On 5ch, many welcomed the haircut, given how unpopular Kato’s long hair had been in earlier threads, while others brought up celebrities like Kimutaku, Yosuke Eguchi, and Joe Odagiri — all of whom have sparked debate over long hair in the past — turning the thread into a broader discussion of ‘what kind of face can actually pull off long hair.’
10/6 (Tue) 15:43
Ichiro Yamaguchi of the rock band Sakanaction updated his official X account on October 6, sharing a recent photo of Koji Kato of the comedy duo Gokuraku Tonbo, his co-star on the STV radio show ‘Kato-san to Yamaguchi-kun.’
Yamaguchi posted, ‘Koji Kato got his hair cut,’ along with a photo of Kato sitting across from him. Where the show’s official Instagram last week showed Kato’s hair reaching down to his ears, it’s now been changed to a clean, short style.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Took him way too long to notice.
The long-hair phase was the weird part.
It was huge from Takuro and Nagabuchi all the way through Eguchi Yosuke and Kimutaku.
Maybe global warming just makes it look too hot and sweaty now?
I think it's because fashion in general keeps drifting toward whatever's easiest.
Long hair's a hassle.
Nobody does that host-club hairstyle anymore either.
Even Masahiro Motoki would struggle to pull off long hair these days.
Good, about time.
It's public airwaves, Kato — pay attention to how you look.
Long hair suits people with narrower faces.
Guys with strong, solid features don't pull it off.
Same reason skinny-faced Kimutaku could rock it back in the day but Eguchi Yosuke couldn't.
Kato's in the Eguchi camp.
No, Eguchi Yosuke pulled it off just fine.
Even Kimutaku was copying Eguchi's look back then.
Regular guys too — the wild ones you'd call 'hangure' (semi-gangster punks) nowadays were copying Eguchi's style.
Slam Dunk's Mitsui is an Eguchi copy as well.
As someone who first knew Javier Bardem from No Country for Old Men, I didn't even recognize him in the movie F1 — he looked like a completely different person.
https://media.gqjapan.jp/photos/685bc166afaf62a99cfb6a60/master/w_1280,c_limit/f1-movie-09.jpg
Eguchi Yosuke didn't pull it off either.
He looks better with short hair.
Come to think of it, Kimutaku actually looked best with short hair too.
That's just recent.
Don't forget this is the same Kimutaku who did a Kanebo women's cosmetics poster with long hair.
Exactly.
It was his role as 'Toride-kun' (one of his drama characters) that first made me realize Kimutaku was actually good-looking.
Though let's be real, he's an old man now.
I'd guess Kato was basically cosplaying as that brand's designer.
Anyway, that's pretty much the standard look for the simple-minimalist-brand crowd you see around Minami-Aoyama and Daikanyama.
I was really into antiques about 15 years ago. Looked it up again recently after a long gap, and since the scene back then was mostly bubble-era types anyway, the crowd's thinned out in more ways than one — and prices have dropped too.
That gross long hair reminded me more of Travolta in Pulp Fiction.
Background and Key Points of Discussion
Koji Kato had reportedly been growing out his hair for several years, with some in the thread claiming it was part of ‘doing something he’d always wanted to try in life.’ But once it reached ear-length, the hair proved hard to maintain, and plenty of commenters weren’t fans. This latest haircut was reported not by Kato himself but by his radio co-star Ichiro Yamaguchi on X (formerly Twitter), which is part of what made it notable. The thread went beyond just judging Kato, bringing up a string of other celebrities whose long hair has sparked debate over the years — Kimutaku, Yosuke Eguchi, Joe Odagiri — and evolving into a broader theory that ‘only certain face shapes can really pull off long hair.’ Commenters also noted how many middle-aged comedians have gone through a long-hair phase lately, and discussed why long hair in general has fallen out of fashion (the hassle of upkeep, for one). What started as a simple haircut story ended up spiraling into a full-blown debate on celebrity hairstyle culture.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt/summary of the 5ch (Geisoku Sokuho+) thread ‘Koji Kato ‘Got My Hair Cut’ — Long Hair Chopped Off in a Major Transformation: ‘He’s a Silver Fox Now,’ ‘This Is Way Better,’ ‘So Refreshing’ — Fans Buzzing.’
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