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Kiyoshi Hikawa “Pushing the Limit” on Indefinite Hiatus: “I Want to Spend More Time at Home and Spend Time with My Parents

I hope that the recent suicide of a talented and wonderful celebrity will be a kick-start for the Japanese entertainment industry to recognize the importance of mental care.

In the West, when Lady Gaga or Naomi Osaka suddenly simmers down and takes a vacation, the media does not make a fuss and remains quiet. Even the entertainment industry is a normal industry. The same people work in the entertainment industry, so there are times when they need a change of pace or a break. No, rather, they are under several times more pressure than ordinary businessmen and work on weekends regardless of the future, so their mentality wears out quickly.

JYP Entertainment, Korea’s top entertainment agency, has a “mental care” program that provides psychological counseling to its artists. This is a company that understands that artists are susceptible to stress in the highly competitive entertainment industry, and is taking appropriate measures to deal with this situation.

Japan is the country that lags farthest behind in the modernization of the entertainment industry. If the entertainment industry does not change its structure so that the people who entertain people do not get enough rest, it will only fall behind Hollywood and South Korea.

I’ve seen filming sites all over the world, and Japan is probably the only country in the world where labor is wasted on “let’s get some extra shots just in case” after the shooting is over. First of all, I think it is necessary to have a mindset of working according to a plan instead of working with guts.