Yoshimoto chairman Hayashi Hiroaki died of lung cancer on Monday night at an Osaka hospital. He was 62. One of the last people to visit him in hospital was comedian and emcee Shimada Shinsuke (48), who caused a furor when he assaulted a female fellow Yoshimoto employee in October. He was in tears again as he expressed having caused such trouble to the dying Hayashi. Other Yoshimoto veteran comedians, such as DownTown‘s Matsumoto Hitoshi and Hamada Masatoshi, Nishikawa Kiyoshi, and Kazama Kampei paid tribute to their late boss. Former vice-president Yoshino Isao (62) was appointed to take over the firm yesterday. Hayashi entered the firm established by his father-in-law, the late Hayashi Shonosuke, in 1971.
• “Howl’s Moving Castle” has been seen by over 10 million people in Japan in the month and a half since it opened. It was also the No.1 movie in Korea over the New Year, and it is expected to reach 5 million cinemagoers there. The latest animation from Studio Ghibli and director Miyazaki Hayao may yet surpass the box office records set by their previous hit, 2001’s “Spirited Away.”