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The story
Comedian Yasuko has opened up about “Yasu Mattari,” the free cafeteria for children she launched in August. Drawing on her own childhood struggles and time spent in a children’s care facility, she decided that “someone who’s actually been through it should be the one doing this,” and now provides free meals once a week to 40–60 people. She revealed that the most popular dish isn’t the regional specialty hoto noodles, but fried chicken. On 5ch, reactions split over whether this kind of activity even deserves the label “fake do-gooder” in the first place, with some questioning the funding and management behind it, and others simply praising her for keeping it up.
Comedian Yasuko (28) appeared as a guest on TOKYO FM’s “Bar Sunday STORIES” (Sundays, 6:30 PM), airing on the 1st, where she talked about “Yasu Mattari,” the children’s cafeteria she opened in August.
Since September, she has been providing free meals to children once a week. Having grown up in financial hardship herself and spent her high school years in a children’s care facility, she said she decided to start the cafeteria because “someone who’s actually experienced it should be the one doing this.”
Each session involves cooking enough food for 40 to 60 people. The most popular dish with the kids, she said, is “fried chicken — pretty basic, I know,” explaining: “I made hoto, which seemed like something adults would like, and it is popular, but in the end nothing beats fried chicken or curry. Something with a strong, rich flavor.”
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Anyone who calls this 'fake virtue' is scum.
She'll probably end up like that raspy-voiced lady politician with glasses — what was her name again, I forget.
Probably won't happen. If your family background isn't 'clean,' tabloids will dig up dirt and sell stories about your relatives. She'd have to publicly reveal all sorts of things about her parents she'd rather not — so I doubt she's even considering it.
Only rich people can even afford to pay out of pocket for this kind of thing. And it's exactly the rich who ought to be doing stuff like this — but there's nobody like that among Japanese people these days.
Fair enough.
Fake virtue that actually does something beats fake virtue that does nothing.
But the question is how long she can keep it up.
She was neglected as a kid, after all.
But that probably means she understands what kids in that situation are feeling, so I think she can genuinely connect with them.
So where's the money actually coming from? If it's a corporation, it's a for-profit business, so… Nippon TV, maybe?
Yeah, exactly.
The kids just show up hungry right on schedule.
Yeah, the property reportedly got scouted for a Nippon TV home-renovation show. And if kids can't get there by bike, like with after-school childcare, parents are gonna have a hard time.
Some people act like they've struck gold the second they spot a tiny mistake. Read it in context, would you.
What context? I can't even tell if you're agreeing or disagreeing.
Of course — kids who are being neglected at home wouldn't even hear about something like this in the first place.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Children’s cafeterias (kodomo shokudo) have spread nationwide in Japan, and whether one qualifies for government subsidies depends on how it’s run. As pointed out in the thread, when a cafeteria is operated by a corporation (kabushiki kaisha), it falls outside the requirements for public support and becomes subject to taxation, which means funding tends to rely on donations, personal funds, or corporate backing instead. Yasuko has said that, based on her own experience growing up in a children’s care facility, she believes “someone who’s actually been through it should be the one doing this” — a background that sets her apart from a typical celebrity charity effort. Where the thread split was over whether it’s even fair to slap the label “fake virtue” on a well-intentioned activity in the first place: some questioned the scale and transparency of the funding, while others simply gave her credit for keeping it going. As for the criticism that “it’s reservation-only, so it’s not reaching the kids who are truly in need” — that’s a challenge common to children’s cafeterias in general when it comes to awareness and access, not a flaw unique to this particular facility.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geinou Sokuhou+) thread ‘[Celebrity] Yasuko on the children’s cafeteria she runs: “People call me a fake do-gooder, but it’s better than not doing anything” — also reveals the most popular menu item‘.
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