Masashi Tashiro facts for kids

Masashi Tashiro (田代 まさし, Tashiro Masashi) (born August 31, 1956) is a Japanese former television performer and a founding member of the band Rats & Star. Tashiro was a tenor singer with the band and, later, a TV entertainer in Japan. He directed a film after the breakup of Rats & Star.

In September 2000, Tashiro was referred to prosecutors for filming up a woman's skirt. From 2020 to 2022, he was incarcerated in Fukushima Prison for violating the Methamphetamine Control Law. After his release in October 2022, Tashiro began his YouTube Marcy's Channel on August 4, 2023.

Early life

Masashi Tashiro was born in Saga Prefecture on August 31, 1956. His father, a manager of a cabaret chain, ran away with another woman. Subsequently, his parents divorced and he was raised solely by his mother. In 1961, when Tashiro was six years old, he and his mother moved to Tokyo and he entered missionary kindergarten. In 1963, he enrolled at Toyama elementary school in Shinjuku. At age thirteen, while a student at Okubo junior high school, his mother remarried and he chose to enroll in a higher grade at a private high school and live with his father in order not to rely financially on his mother's new husband.

In 1972, he entered Machine Studies at Shibaura Institute of Technology Senior High School after graduating from Nakase junior high school in March of the same year. At Shibaura, he met Masayuki Suzuki. They later formed the band The Chanels. Tashiro and Suzuki were then considered juvenile delinquents.

He was allegedly involved in fights, motorcycle gang problems, going to party at a disco and going girl-hunting every day during his time at high school. He has been detained by the police because of assault. He met his present wife at the end of his first year at high school. (However, he and his wife are now separated because of his several scandals and imprisonment).

In March 1975, he graduated from Shibaura Institute of Technology Senior High School. It was around this time he started driving. His first car was a Sunny. His subsequent cars were a Gloria, a Camaro, a Ford, a Prelude, and a Mercedes-Benz. It had grown into an obsession of his.

After graduating from Shibaura Institute of Technology Senior High School in March 1975, centering Masayuki Suzuki, the Japanese doo-wop band The Chanels was formed with Tashiro, Nobuyoshi Kuwano and others in the same year. Suzuki was the lead singer, Kuwano was the trumpeter, and he sang baritone.

In June 1975, he ran away from home after getting into a big row with his father. Later, he was taken in by Chanels member Hiroyuki Kuboki and worked as a clerk for the same filling station. He had lived in the company's dormitory for two years. Afterwards, he became a trucker after he was hired by the president of a truck company, who came as a customer in Tashiro's filling station in 1978. Although he already formed the band, he allegedly kept on working as a trucker because he thought that "The entertainment world is scary".

Entertainment career

The Chanels and Rats & Star

The Chanels were formed in 1975, and began performing as an amateur band in 1976. They finished first place on the Japanese television program Ginza Now (ギンザNOW) and won a prize in a music contest sponsored by Yamaha.

Tashiro made his debut as a group member in 1980, and they became known for their rhythm and blues style. The four main singers, including Tashiro, wore blackface (using shoe polish). Their first single, "Runaway", sold over one million copies. The group's May 1981 single, "Hurricane", was covered by Puffy AmiYumi in 2001.

In 1983, the group changed their name to Rats & Star because of the similarly-named French fashion brand Chanel. They broke up in 1986 after leader Suzuki released a solo single, "The Summer Disappeared Over the Glass" (ガラス越しに消えた夏, Garasu goshi ni kieta natsu). Tashiro appeared on the TV music show The Best Ten (ザ・ベストテン), and was a lyricist for singer and actress Kyōko Koizumi. He released the record, The Legend of Niijima (新島の伝説, Niijima no densetsu), as a solo artist.

In March 1996, Rats & Star reunited for six months and covered Eiichi Ohtaki's song "If I Could Meet You in a Dream" (夢で逢えたら, Yume de Aetara) the following month. The song was a hit, and they appeared on NHK's Kōhaku Uta Gassen on New Year's Eve of that year.

Comedian

After Rats & Star broke up, Tashiro's comedic ability was discovered by Drifters member Ken Shimura and he became a television comedian. As a comedian, he was nicknamed the "King of puns" (ダジャレの帝王, Dajare no Teiō) and "Genius of props" (小道具の天才, Kodōgu no Tensai). On July 10, 1988, Tashiro opened a tarento shop called "Marcy's" (マーシーズ) (after his nickname) on Takeshita Street in Shibuya, Tokyo. He appeared in television commercials, hosted television programs, wrote an autobiography and a book about puns, directed a film and was the main character in the Famicom/MSX2 action game Tashiro Masashi no Princess ga Ippai, which was released in Japan on October 27, 1989. Tashiro appeared in Shizuka Ijuin's film, Crêpe, in October 1993 with Kaho Minami.

Controversy

Car accident

Tashiro was rumored to be returning to the public eye in spring 2004 before he caused a car accident on Ōme Kaidō in Suginami. According to news reports, at about 1 am on June 16, 2004, he struck an 18-year-old vocational-school student who was riding a motorcycle after he made an illegal U-turn. The student was seriously injured.

"Person of the Year" incident

At one point, Tashiro led the online voting for 2001 Person of the Year, passing the number of votes received by Osama bin Laden (left) and George W. Bush.

In 2001, users of the internet forum 2channel (2ch) voted en masse for Tashiro as Time Magazine's Person of the Year. The voting was known as the "Tashiro Festival" (Tashiro Matsuri, 田代祭) by 2ch users. 2channel programmers developed scripts such as "Tashiro Cannon" (Tashiro-hō, 田代砲), "Mega particle Tashiro Cannon" (Mega-ryūshi Tashiro-hō, メガ粒子田代砲), "25 repeated blows Tashiro Cannon" (Nijū-go renda Tashiro-hō, 25連打田代砲), and "Super Tashiro Cannon" (Chō Tashiro-hō, 超田代砲) to vote repeatedly, and "Super Tashiro Cannon" crashed Time's website. Tashiro temporarily reached the number-one position, passing Osama bin Laden and George W. Bush, on December 21, 2001. Time's staff discovered the problem, however, and he was removed as a candidate.

Appearances

Television

• Monomane Ōza Ketteisen (ものまね王座決定戦, The Mimic Champion Contest) (Fuji Television)
• Star Dokkiri Daisakusen (スターどっきり大作戦, Star candid great Strategy) (Fuji Television)
• Yūyake Nyan-Nyan (夕やけニャンニャン, Sunset Nyan Nyan) (Fuji Television)
• Shūkan Stamina Tengoku (週刊スタミナ天国, Weekly Stamina Heaven) (Fuji Television)
• Takeshi, Itsumi no Heisei Kyōiku Iinkai (たけし・逸見の平成教育委員会, Takeshi and Itsumi's Heisei Board of Education) (Fuji Television)
• Naruhodo! The World (なるほど!ザ・ワールド, Indeed! The World) (Fuji Television)
• TV Crews Tonari no Papaya (TVクルーズ となりのパパイヤ, TV Crew next-door Papaya) (Fuji Television)
• Tokoro-san no Tadamono Dewa nai! (所さんのただものではない!, Mr. Tokoro's You are not ordinary!) (Fuji Television)
• Quiz Derby (クイズダービー) (TBS)
• Tokusō TV Gaburincho (特捜TVガブリンチョ, Special Investigation TV Chomp) (TV Asahi)
• Downtown DX (ダウンタウンDX) (NTV)
• Super J Channel ANN (スーパーJチャンネル ANN) (Friday, TV Asahi)
• Soreyuke! Marcy (それゆけ!マーシー, Let's go! Marcy, A program sponsored by a business enterprise) (MBS)
• Guruguru Ninety-Nine (ぐるぐるナインティナイン, guruguru naintinain)
• It's so cool! (めちゃ2イケてるッ!, mecha-mecha iketeruu!)

Radio

• Tashiro Masashi no Super Gang (田代まさしのスーパーギャング, Masashi Tashiro's Super Gang) (Thurdsday, TBS Radio) – October 1986 – March 1987
• Tashiro Masashi no Say! Young (田代まさしのセイ!ヤング, Masashi Tashiro's Say! Young) (QR)
• Tashiro Masashi no All Night Nippon (田代まさしのオールナイトニッポン, Masashi Tashiro's All Night Nippon) (LF)

Films

• Ultraman Gaia: The Battle in Hyperspace (1999)

Music

See Rats & Star for work as a member of Chanels and Rats & Star.

• Nījima no Densetsu (新島の伝説, The legend of Nījima) (August 27, 1986)
• Paradis Latin no Yoru wa Fukete (パラディラタンの夜は更けて, Late in the night of Paradis Latin) (September 21, 1987, as "Shinnosuke & Marcy")
• Unjarage (ウンジャラゲ) (November 2, 1988, as Ken Shimura & Masashi Tashiro and Daijōbudā family)
• Nettaiya (熱帯夜, Sultry night) (July 1, 1994, as Marcy & Izumi)
• Bāsama to Jīsama no Serenade (婆様と爺様のセレナーデ, Serenade for an old man and woman) (December 17, 1993, as Ken & Marcy)
• Ai ga Natsukashii (愛が懐かしい, Nostalgia for love) (March 8, 1995, as Masashi Tashiro & Kuniko Asagi)
• Ultra Tengu (ウルトラ☆テング, The ultra long-nosed goblin) (August 14, 2010, as Marcy & Frontier Create)

Books

• Tashiro Masashi no Dōtoku Yomihon (田代まさしの道徳読本, Masashi Tashiro's moral handbook) (May 1988, Kōdansha) – ISBN: 4-06-103101-5
• Marcy no Chōhōsoku (マーシーの超法則, Marcy's super law) (April 1994, Magazine house) – ISBN: 4-8387-0534-4
• Shinema de Aishite―Eiga no kazu hodo, Koishitai (シネマで愛して―映画の数ほど、恋したい, Love me in the cinema―I want to be in love almost as same as the number of films) (October 1993, Japan Literary Arts Company) – ISBN: 4-537-02384-8

See also

• Ken Shimura
• Takeshi Kitano
• Akiko Wada
• Kazuhide Uekusa
• Sosuke Sumitani
• Masayuki Suzuki
• Nobuyoshi Kuwano

See also

In Spanish: Masashi Tashiro para niños