Jun’ichi Ishida: “Riko Was Dead Set Against It” — Sidelined by a COVID-Era Scandal, He’s Now Running a Yakiniku Joint in Funabashi

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The story

Actor Jun’ichi Ishida (72) appeared on a Bunka Broadcasting radio program airing on the 13th and talked about “Jun-chan,” the yakiniku restaurant he runs in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture. He touched on how his wife, Riko Higashio, was fiercely opposed to his side business, as well as the circumstances that cost him his regular TV spot amid the COVID-era dining-out controversy. On 5ch, reactions poured in from every angle — pointing out inconsistencies in his account of how he got sidelined, eyewitness reports that he’s actually at the shop almost every day, and surprise at the Funabashi location.

Jun’ichi Ishida: “Riko Was Dead Set Against It” — Side Business, Sidelined by a COVID-Era Scandal… “I Poured In Every Last Penny I Had”

Actor Jun’ichi Ishida (72) made a guest appearance on Bunka Broadcasting’s “Hiroshi Ikushima’s Sunday at 9” (Sundays, 9:00 AM), airing on the 13th, where he talked about his current “side business.”

Ishida currently runs the yakiniku restaurant “Jun-chan” in Chiba Prefecture while raising three children he’s been blessed with alongside his wife, Riko Higashio.

Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here

What people said

2AnonymousSep 13, 2026 15:41
Guess I'll have a snack while watching Peace-kun, the world's most famous capybara from Omiya Zoo, on YouTube
3AnonymousSep 13, 2026 15:41
Guess he had zero savings?
Can't live off the national pension alone.
10AnonymousSep 13, 2026 15:44
Re: #3
Nah, probably not —
his wife's seriously loaded to begin with.
It's probably just more convenient for Ishida to play the broke character.
5AnonymousSep 13, 2026 15:42
Wait, why was Ishida sidelined again?


I know why Hiroshi Ikushima got sidelined lol
16AnonymousSep 13, 2026 15:46
Re: #5
The COVID thing was just him eating out at restaurants while everyone was told to stay home.
70AnonymousSep 13, 2026 16:09
Re: #5
He suddenly announced he'd run for Tokyo governor and got cut from all his regular shows,
then focused on his business during COVID but kept making the wrong call at every turn.
90AnonymousSep 13, 2026 16:16
Re: #5
Because he got a hair transplant in Turkey
7AnonymousSep 13, 2026 15:43
He got avoided because he suddenly started going full lefty-activist in public ("payo-payo" — mocking slang for left-leaning activism).
As long as he keeps blaming COVID and running from reality, there's no comeback for him.
8AnonymousSep 13, 2026 15:44
Can't help it, I just can't bring myself to hate this old guy
11AnonymousSep 13, 2026 15:44
Even after he dies, this guy's never going to end up like Reo Morimoto (an actor whose reputation soured after posthumous revelations)
83AnonymousSep 13, 2026 16:14
Re: #11
Ah lol
like embezzling his son's money lol
the scandals never end lmao
15AnonymousSep 13, 2026 15:45
No matter how much free time they get, celebrities always just leave their restaurants to other people to run
same with Miyasako.
68AnonymousSep 13, 2026 16:09
Re: #15
Isn't Ishida actually at the shop almost every day though?
There was a documentary following him commuting over an hour each way and working hard running the place.
When he brought food to the table, he'd apparently agree to photos if asked.

Wonder if he's still doing that now.
17AnonymousSep 13, 2026 15:47
Same, can't bring myself to hate Ishida either
and I can say for sure he's not scum like Reo Morimoto.
23AnonymousSep 13, 2026 15:49
Didn't the towel business fail too?
49AnonymousSep 13, 2026 15:58
Re: #23
He poured in even his son's paycheck, but the towel shop went under over an affair and he ended up in debt, right?
24AnonymousSep 13, 2026 15:50
Apparently Ishida's actually at his Funabashi shop a lot
haven't heard any bad reviews
seems to be doing fine
just a bit pricey though lol
30AnonymousSep 13, 2026 15:52
Re: #24
Kind of sad that a guy who once took the whole country by storm ended up with a shop in Funabashi lol
51AnonymousSep 13, 2026 15:58
Re: #24
People say the taste is mediocre, but at a yakiniku place you just grill the meat yourself and eat it, so the taste barely changes no matter where you go.
32AnonymousSep 13, 2026 15:52
Don't get how he's totally broke just from losing work — no savings either?
Feels like he's exaggerating the story.
47AnonymousSep 13, 2026 15:57
If you can't run the place yourself properly, the restaurant business is rough.
He probably can't even cut the meat himself.
54AnonymousSep 13, 2026 15:58
Re: #47
And yet it's actually going well.
Maybe it's just his personality.
63AnonymousSep 13, 2026 16:06
Why do celebrities always want to open a yakiniku restaurant?
71AnonymousSep 13, 2026 16:09
Re: #63
There's a reason, but it's a bit awkward to say
78AnonymousSep 13, 2026 16:13
Re: #63
No know-how needed —
just serve raw meat
and let the customers grill it themselves
64AnonymousSep 13, 2026 16:07
Didn't this guy try to run for office at some point? Or am I misremembering?
72AnonymousSep 13, 2026 16:09
Re: #64
In 2016 he held a press conference saying he'd run for Tokyo governor if the opposition parties united behind him as their candidate
but he ended up withdrawing, citing lack of preparation.
77AnonymousSep 13, 2026 16:12
Re: #64
He got talked into running by the Shibaki-tai (a left-leaning anti-racism activist group), but he did it without laying any groundwork, so he got dropped from his regular shows and commercials, incurring penalty fees.
Riko apparently learned about his candidacy from the news.
After all that happened, it's honestly impressive Riko never divorced him and stuck around.
66AnonymousSep 13, 2026 16:07
Wonder why Funabashi
Maybe he's targeting customers coming back from golf?
69AnonymousSep 13, 2026 16:09
Re: #66
Probably because there are a lot of yakiniku places there, so he could get a cheap move-in-ready space (taking over an existing restaurant's fixtures/equipment)
79AnonymousSep 13, 2026 16:13
Re: #77
He never actually ran
He held a press conference saying "If the opposition unites behind me, I'll run!" and withdrew it three days later.
87AnonymousSep 13, 2026 16:15
Re: #79
He backed out that fast?
What he lost over it was huge though.

Background and Key Points of This Story

Two separate incidents from different time periods came up in the thread as reasons Ishida got “sidelined”: eating out during the state of emergency in the COVID pandemic, and his 2016 announcement — later withdrawn — that he’d run for Tokyo governor. The show cancellations and penalty fees were mainly tied to the gubernatorial bid, and it’s reported that his wife, Riko Higashio, learned of his candidacy from the news without being consulted beforehand. Opinions in the thread were split over whether he actually had savings and over his choice of Funabashi as a location, with some posters reporting they’d actually seen him at the shop almost every day. The “reason he got sidelined” tends to get boiled down to a single incident, but it’s easy to overlook that it was really the result of multiple scandals piling up.

*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “[Entertainment] Jun’ichi Ishida: “Riko Was Dead Set Against It” — Sidelined by a COVID-Era Scandal… “I Poured In Every Last Penny I Had”

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