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Takashi Okamura(岡村 隆史Okamura Takashi, born July 3, 1970 in Osaka, Japan) is a Japanese comedian and one half of the owarai duo Ninety-nine [1] (also known as Nai Nai in Japan), playing the "comic stooge" or boke of the group. His nicknames range from "OkatakaLeader" to "Okachan". His partner is Hiroyuki Yabe, or "Yabecchi", sometimes "Yabe-kun".
Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Japan. It is the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and the largest component of the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Japan and among the largest in the world with over 19 million inhabitants. Osaka will host Expo 2025. The current mayor of Osaka is Hirohumi Yoshimura.
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asian continent and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea in the south.
Owarai (お笑い) is a broad word used to describe Japanese comedy as seen on television. The word owarai is the honorific form of the word warai, meaning "a laugh" or "a smile". Owarai is most common on Japanese variety shows and the comedians are referred to as owaraigeinin or owarai tarento. Presently Japan is considered to be in an "owarai boom", and many minor talents have been finding sudden fame after a gag or skit became popular.
Okamura has consistently been a large-audience draw on Japanese TV for his wild antics, such as breakdancing while wearing only the cowl of anime/professional wrestling hero Tiger Mask. At 156 centimetres (5 ft 1 in) (the tallest person in his family) he is a striking contrast to the lankier Yabe.
Breakdancing, also called breaking or b-boying/b-girling, is an athletic style of street dance. While diverse in the amount of variation available in the dance, breakdancing mainly consists of four kinds of movement: toprock, downrock, power moves and freezes. Breakdancing is typically set to songs containing drum breaks, especially in hip-hop, funk, soul music and breakbeat music, although modern trends allow for much wider varieties of music along certain ranges of tempo and beat patterns.
Anime is hand-drawn and computer animation originating from or associated with Japan.
Professional wrestling is a form of performing art and entertainment which combines athletics with theatrical performance. It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title-match combat sport. The unique form of sport portrayed is fundamentally based on classical and "catch" wrestling, with modern additions of striking attacks, strength-based holds and throws and acrobatic maneuvers. Much of these derive from the influence of various international martial arts. An additional aspect of combat with improvised weaponry is sometimes included to varying degrees.
They formed Ninety-nine in 1990 (when Okamura dropped out of Ritsumeikan University) and in 1993 won a New Talent Prize. Okamura cried with joy when interviewed after receiving it. The following year, Ninety-nine hosted their first on-air show Ninety-Nine All Night Nippon, which is still aired today. Their success continued to grow with programs such as Asayan and Mecha-Mecha Iketeru! .
Ritsumeikan University is a private university in Kyoto, Japan, that traces its origin to 1869. With the Kinugasa Campus (KIC) in Kyoto, and Kyoto Prefecture, the university also has a satellite called Biwako-Kusatsu Campus (BKC) and Osaka-Ibaraki Campus (OIC).
Asayan, originally known as Asakusabashi Young Yōhinten (浅草橋ヤング洋品店), was a talent search variety show that aired on TV Tokyo from 1995 to 2002. Some idols that were originally discovered through Asayan auditions produced by Tsunku, formed groups that worked under the umbrella group, later to be named as the Hello! Project.
Mecha-Mecha Iketeru! (めちゃ²イケてるッ!) was a popular Japanese variety show, shown on Fuji TV. The first episode aired on 16 October 1996 and the last episode aired on 31 March 2018. The hosts of the show were the owarai duo Ninety-Nine. The show was also known as Mecha-Ike (めちゃイケ).
Okamura has appeared in the Japanese stage adaptation of The Lion King . He has displayed his dancing prowess by becoming an honorary member of Johnny's Jr., performing with SMAP and Exile.
The Lion King is a 1994 American animated musical film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd Disney animated feature film, and the fifth animated film produced during a period known as the Disney Renaissance. The Lion King was directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, produced by Don Hahn, and has a screenplay credited to Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, and Linda Woolverton. Its original songs were written by composer Elton John and lyricist Tim Rice, with a score by Hans Zimmer. The film features an ensemble voice cast that includes Matthew Broderick, James Earl Jones, Jeremy Irons, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Moira Kelly, Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella, Rowan Atkinson, Robert Guillaume, Madge Sinclair, Whoopi Goldberg, Cheech Marin, and Jim Cummings. The story takes place in a kingdom of lions in Africa and was influenced by William Shakespeare's Hamlet.
SMAP was a Japanese boy band, composed of Masahiro Nakai, Takuya Kimura, Goro Inagaki, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, and Shingo Katori. The group was created in 1988 by music producer Johnny Kitagawa, founder of Johnny & Associates, originally as a six-piece with Katsuyuki Mori, until his departure from the band in 1996. After making their debut in 1991, the group took the Japanese entertainment industry by storm, becoming the most successful boy band in Japanese history and the bestselling band in Asia, often referred to as a "national treasure" and a "fortune and property of the country" in Japan.
