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The story
On October 4, 2026, the closing ceremony of the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games — held in Japan for the third time in 32 years — took place at Mizuho Athletic Stadium. During the finale’s Bon Odori (traditional summer folk dance) segment, actor Ken Matsudaira, a native of Toyohashi City, made a surprise appearance and performed his signature number “Matsuken Samba.” On 5ch’s Entertainment & Sports Express+ thread, welcoming comments stood out, but reactions to the ceremony’s production were mixed — with complaints that TBS failed to air it on terrestrial TV (“I wanted to see this on regular broadcast”), and others noting that, unlike South Korea and China, Japan has few actors with true worldwide name recognition.
10/4 (Sun) 7:44 PM
The closing ceremony of the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games — Japan’s third time hosting in 32 years — was held on October 4 at Mizuho Athletic Stadium in Nagoya. During the finale’s Bon Odori segment, a major Japanese actor appeared and performed his legendary samba dance.
Near the end of the colorful ceremony, a special Bon Odori venue was set up at the center of the stadium. Performers in yukata (summer kimono) and happi coats (festival jackets) emerged from all four sides, where four pillars had been erected and hung with red lanterns. The surrounding performers fired up the athletes with dancing and clapping.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Probably the highlight of the whole ceremony
Wish I could've seen it on TV
No wonder the crowd went wild
on TV — you barely even show
the actual events as it is
Wonder how much you'd have to pay to book him?
but Japan doesn't have a single one
Even with Matsudaira showing up, delegations from other countries at the ceremony were probably just staring blankly
Really drives home how pathetic Japan's entertainment industry is on the global stage
Just cosplay, really
The backup dancers take a few steps, stop, and shake their hips, which makes me want to yell 'just get out here already!'
That's just stalling for time, same as they do on stage
covering His Lordship's costume change with the dancers' and band's skills
Whenever they try to do something 'original,' it turns into some contemporary-dance mess
The guy's genuinely got dance sense
His rhythm is really good
But the thought of this happening at an actual Olympics gives me chills
Fuji TV's period drama Ōoku gets a pass too since it's filmed at Himeji Castle — so this is fine too
They just picked him as a 'quintessentially Japanese' performance
Samba is, apparently, a representative music and dance style of Brazil
Or so they say lol — not even Asian
Apparently Matsuken Samba isn't even real samba to begin with
So the closing ceremony was today, huh
'Did you get an offer from the Olympic committee?'
But it ended up happening in his home turf of Aichi instead
Wonder if it was director Yukihiko Tsutsumi's idea
Heard it got cut for budget reasons
Matsuken's a massive legend within Japan so it works here, but from overseas, isn't all that glittery over-the-top dancing just going to read as 'what on earth is this??'
This forgives every blunder (in how the Games were run)
The Para Games are still coming up, so he can't do that until after those are done
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Matsuken Samba has been a beloved signature song across generations ever since Ken Matsudaira first performed it in 2004, though as the thread points out, despite its name it doesn’t actually follow the musical structure of Brazilian samba. Matsudaira is a veteran, highly respected actor best known for the long-running samurai drama Abarenbo Shogun (The Rowdy Shogun), and he hails from Toyohashi City in Aichi Prefecture. The closing ceremony was produced by the TBS network, but it wasn’t broadcast live on terrestrial TV, which — combined with already-limited coverage of the Games’ events — drew complaints. Opinions on the thread split between praise for the surprise performance and criticism of Japan’s entertainment industry for lacking actors with the kind of worldwide name recognition that South Korea and China have; both viewpoints stem from a broader debate about how Japan should represent itself through entertainment at an international event like the Asian Games, and read as commentary on the industry as a whole rather than an attack on any individual.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Entertainment & Sports Express+) thread “[Asian Games] Major Aichi-born actor Ken Matsudaira makes surprise appearance at closing ceremony — “legendary samba” performance electrifies venue: “Matsuken Samba has arrived!”“
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