Papaya Suzuki Skips Live Show Due to Illness — Iwamoto Sho, Mizutani Yutaka Also Reported Unwell This Month

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The story

Choreographer and TV personality Papaya Suzuki (60) has announced he will skip his scheduled live appearance at Kanda Myojin Hall in Tokyo on September 27 due to poor health. He has reportedly been recuperating since mid-September, and doctors have determined he needs a bit more time to recover. On the same day, September 25, it was also announced that Unagi Kazuhiro of comedy duo Ginjishari would be unable to perform in his solo live show on the 26th due to illness, so the event will instead go ahead as a solo talk show by his partner, Hashimoto Nao. This month has also seen reports of health issues affecting Snow Man’s Iwamoto Sho, Dennis Ueno, and Yutaka Mizutani, among others, sparking discussion on 5channel split between those pointing to industry factors like aging performers and the spread of event-cancellation insurance, and those linking the cause to vaccines.

Choreographer and TV personality Papaya Suzuki (60) has announced he will not appear at “Funky Diamond 18: Wack Wack TV Live Special,” scheduled for the 27th at Kanda Myojin Hall in Tokyo, due to poor health. The event’s official account made the announcement on the 25th. Reports of health issues among entertainers have been piling up this month.

According to the announcement, Papaya Suzuki’s health declined starting in mid-September, and he is currently recuperating. Staff have been in careful, ongoing discussions with him while monitoring his condition, and under a doctor’s diagnosis it was determined that “a bit more time will be needed before recovery.” He reportedly strongly wished to perform, saying he wanted to “stand on stage as much as possible,” but out of caution has decided to sit this one out.

That same day, comedy duo Ginjishari announced via their official X account that member Unagi Kazuhiro would be unable to appear in the solo live show scheduled for the 26th due to poor health. As a result, the show will proceed as planned but will instead be a solo talk performance by his partner, Hashimoto Nao.

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

What people said

4AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:06
Isn't Papaya Suzuki in the latest Super Sentai series?
Wonder what they'll do.
Will they bring in a stand-in?
40AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:17
Re: #4
Yeah, he's been out and about — even did a Suzuki (car maker) commercial
11AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:07
Can't really blame Mizutani Yutaka, though
12AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:07
Dennis Ueno might actually be pretty serious — his wife seemed fairly shaken up about it
69AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:26
Re: #12
Hope it's nothing serious
I've always enjoyed watching him, he's funny
13AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:08
I caught a fever too, been in bed for a week~
14AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:08
Is COVID going around again?
101AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:34
Re: #14
Yeah it is
High fever, and fatigue that drags on for days
16AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:08
Guess society has finally reached a point where people are allowed to rest, when in the old days they wouldn't have been
17AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:08
Once you hit 50, something's bound to go wrong somewhere.
You could drop dead tomorrow and it wouldn't be strange.
Better to be brave and take the time off.
18AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:08
Seriously, there's a lot of "medicine" going around these days
22AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:10
Glad to see Natsume Kokona from Daily Sports back and doing well
23AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:11
Well, they're old.
People used to say life expectancy was 50.
Now everyone's living past 70.
24AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:11
People's health crashes right when the brutal summer heat finally lets up
25AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:12
Guess the COVID vaccine effects are kicking in now (sarcasm)
26AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:12
Well, aging comes with rough patches sometimes
29AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:12
Before COVID they just gritted their teeth and showed up anyway
Even regular people went to work while sick
30AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:13
Papaya's way too thin
Even more than back when he talked about dieting, he looks gaunt and worn out now
32AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:13
Papaya Suzuki looks like his blood vessels and cholesterol are in bad shape
34AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:14
It's just gotten easier to take time off compared to the old days
35AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:15
There are thousands of celebrities out there
There's no way none of them ever get sick or die
36AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:15
Back in the day, working through a 38°C fever was called being "a pro"!
Now even a slight fever gets you side-eyed — catching a cold is basically treated like a crime
37AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:16
There are probably people undergoing chemotherapy who just haven't made it public
38AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:16
Iwamoto apparently kept doing the stage show afterward, with kisses every day intense enough to leave a string of saliva (i.e., deep, passionate kissing)
39AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:16
Re: #1
Between the disaster typhoons hitting Kanto and all these celebrities falling ill…
could this be the curse of Taira no Masakado? (a historical figure whose grave is said to bring misfortune)
41AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:17
They can't wear masks on shows or at events, so it's basically a virus paradise — they're just breathing it all in freely.

The flu going around isn't a coincidence either.
42AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:17
Canceling a musical after the curtain time has already passed is just outrageous
Some people arranged time off work, paid real money for travel and hotels to be there
45AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:18
I get that there are people whose personality just naturally fits the so-called "vaccine believer" mindset. But if you ever start thinking "uh oh, this might be bad," I wish you'd quietly refuse the vaccine anyway — even if you keep saying things like "I believe in vaccines, but my family forced me to…"
46AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:18
Who cares, lol
Stuff like that happens in every industry
47AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:18
Ever since performance-cancellation insurance became common during COVID, canceling shows doesn't cost them money anymore, so they cancel more casually now.
And if tickets aren't selling well, canceling is actually less of a loss than pushing through with a weak show
49AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:19
These days it's actually a good era — catch even a slight cold and you're told to just stay home
51AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:19
I mean, maybe they've wanted to say this all along but just couldn't before
52AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:19
Hope Iwamoto gets to rest easy until this year's SASUKE filming wraps up
56AnonymousSep 25, 2026 22:20
I wonder what they all have in common. Maybe they've all been taking some specific thing?

Background and Talking Points

The health issues reported together this time involve celebrities of different generations and different affiliations — Papaya Suzuki (60), Snow Man’s Iwamoto Sho, Dennis Ueno, and Yutaka Mizutani — and no shared diagnosis or cause has been made public for any of them. It is true that since the COVID-19 pandemic, “event-cancellation insurance” has become more widespread, reducing the financial loss from canceling a show and making it easier for performers to simply rest rather than push through illness. It’s also worth noting that many veteran entertainers are in their 50s to 70s, an age bracket where health issues naturally tend to cluster. That said, the thread was full of posts blaming “vaccine side effects” — this is speculation without any medical evidence, and unrelated to the actual cause of each individual’s condition. The easy misunderstanding for readers is assuming that because several people’s health issues were reported around the same time, there must be one shared cause — but at this point it’s more likely that each case is an unrelated coincidence.

※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (Geinou Sports Express+) thread “Wave of Health Issues Hits Entertainment World This Month — Papaya Suzuki, Snow Man’s Iwamoto Sho, Dennis Ueno, Yutaka Mizutani, and Others.”

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