Former comedian and Osaka governor Yokoyama Nokku died of throat cancer on Thursday. He was 75. His former comedy partners Kamioka Ryutaro (65, No-sleepiness.com “Punch”) and Aoshiba Fukku (68, Yokoyama “Hook”) were among the friends and family in attendance at a wake held in Hyogo Prefecture yesterday. There is speculation that a major farewell event will be held at the Kyocera Osaka Dome. Real name Yamada Isamu, Nokku was born in Kobe in 1932. He joined the Yoshimoto Kogyo agency at the age of 23. Six years later he, Kamioka and Aoshiba became the Manga Trio, as Yokoyama “Knock”, “Hook” and “Punch”. They specialized in comedy routines based around current news. The trio broke up in 1968 and Nokku went into national politics, though continuing to do showbiz work. He was elected to the Diet four times from ’68 to ’89, missing out only in 1974. He left the Diet in 1995 and ran successfully in the Osaka gubernatorial election. He won a second term by a record margin in 1999 but was caught up in a sexual harassment case soon after. He was given a suspended prison sentence for harassing a female college student in his car during the election campaign. The media backlash was extreme and he retired from showbiz. He made a couple of guest appearances last year but his health was already failing. Kamioka was one of the senior members of the showbiz community when he retired in 2000, in part because of the fate of his good friend. Yesterday was his first appearance before TV cameras since then but he declined to make any comment.