[/floatr]Yomiuri: Yoshimoto feud no laughing matter
Yoshimoto Kogyo Co., an entertainment company that manages a number of popular comedians, is being shaken by an internal feud involving the management and a shareholder aligned with the founder. Major shareholder Masa Hayashi, the daughter of the late former Chairman Shonosuke Hayashi, disagrees with the management's policy...Hayashi is expected to intensify her offensive at a shareholders meeting on June 26. The...dispute sprang up during a scandal involving Kausu Nakata, a manzai comic storyteller [align=right] who belongs to Yoshimoto. Speaking in Shukan Shincho magazine's April 5 issue, Hayashi accused Nakata of being acquainted with a former yakuza boss and using the connection to influence Yoshimoto's management. Nakata retaliated in Shukan Gendai magazine, saying it was Hayashi who tried to ride the coattails of the former yakuza chief...Later, Nakata confessed to being an acquaintance of the former yakuza boss in a letter to Shukan Gendai. NHK canceled a program featuring Nakata...Fans of Yoshimoto's comedians are far from happy. Toshizo Nanba, who has written a novel based on the company's history, said: "It's no laughing matter for a company that sells laughs and dreams to be suspected of shady business relations with yakuza. In fact, it's a tragedy"...more...
