Akihiro Miwa

As well as his entertainment career, Miwa has also written many books, and is known for his outspoken and often highly critical comments on social issues, the government and war, having been in Nagasaki at the time of its bombing in 1945, but having escaped relatively unhurt.

It was the call shouted by a group of workers as they pulled a heavy hammer, made of rock suspended by ropes and pulleys, to lift and drop it for compacting the soil.

The song was eventually banned from commercial broadcasting, leading to an outcry among viewers and Miwa himself, stating that it was being judged by one word from the title, and not the content.

Miwa appeared in his old, plain showboy-like costume, singing in the dark with only faint pinspot light to avoid the audience from instantly distinguishing his face, as per his request.

In March 2007, he performed the role of Empress Sisi in the play L'aigle à deux têtes by writer Jean Cocteau at Parco Theatre in Shibuya.

[3] From 2005 to 2010, he co-hosted the successful weekly television program Ōra no izumi (The spring of aura) alongside spiritual counsellor Hiroyuki Ehara and Tokio member Taichi Kokubun.