Record-breaking Japanese talk show Tetsuko’s Room broadcasts 10,000th episode
A Japanese talk show recognised by Guinness World Records in 2011 for achieving the most episodes hosted by the same presenter achieved another milestone yesterday as it broadcast its 10,000th episode, in its 40th year.
A Japanese talk show recognised by Guinness World Records in 2011 for achieving the most episodes hosted by the same presenter achieved another milestone yesterday as it broadcast its 10,000th episode, in its 40th year.
Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, veteran actress and host of , a talk show broadcast daily on weekdays by TV Asahi, celebrated the feat with the day's guests, Masahiko Kondo and Noriyuki Higashiyama - middle-aged singer/actors Kuroyanagi has known since their teenage debuts in show business.
Domestic and foreign celebrities who appeared on the show include actor Hisaya Morishige, the guest on the first episode broadcast February 2, 1976, Nobel laureate for literature Kenzaburo Oe, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and US singer Lady Gaga.
"It's like a dream. I'd like to say thank you to all the guests and the staff who worked with me 10,000 times," Kuroyanagi said in a statement released by TV Asahi.
is recorded but undergoes little editing, so its unscripted content is almost exactly the same as it would have been if it were a live programme.
There is no script but Kuroyanagi pens the running sheet for each episode. She has, incredibly, also never missed a recording of the show, according to the broadcaster.
Yoichi Matsuo, an 85-year-old broadcast critic, said for celebrities, appearing on is regarded as "a kind of status" and the show is like "a salon in the TV world".
Kuroyanagi, a goodwill ambassador for the UN Children's Fund (Unicef) for 30 years, believes in "the power of TV to change the world".
She considers herself as being in the "last generation to manage to talk about the war", and is a survivor of the 1945 bombing of Tokyo by the US military.
Kuroyanagi's personal accounts as a Unicef ambassador have also been broadcast on the programme.
"I want the viewers to know about the children who are trying to live positively despite being in tragic circumstances, and that there are certainly things they can do [to help]," she said.
As a goodwill ambassador, Kuroyanagi has visited more than 30 countries, including Kosovo, Afghanistan and South Sudan, and raised more than 5 billion yen (US$40.8 million) for Unicef's programmes to protect children from conflict, disasters and poverty.
She is also known for her best-selling childhood memoir About eight million copies of its Chinese translation have been sold since it was put on sale in China in 2003.
