Kiritani-San – Quirky Stockholder Idol Extraordinaire
When you think about the type of person you want to take to feature on a major variety show, who would be your first choice? You want someone that would stand out, has a unique story to tell, and the audience can relate with.
And so a strange B-class celebrity was born: 桐谷さん (Kiritani-san).
I’ve mentioned him briefly before, as he made his debut on the highly entertaining variety show 月曜から夜ふかし. The host of the show, Matsuko Deluxe (マツコデラックス), had a brief segment on the life of an older retired man who lived off of shareholder incentive tickets (株主優待券). These are small benefits or bonuses of holding enough shares of a certain company (ex: a free meal, movie, product, etc.)
Matusko loved him. There is something about his eccentric lifestyle, living solely off of a million dollars of stock in over 400 different stock tickets. He frenzies through Tokyo on a wild daily adventure to make sure every last free benefit (even those he doesn’t care about), is used.
He has appeared again and again on the show, in increasingly longer segments, with additional themes constantly added. He has also appeared live at the studio, and when he has a segment, the studio audience goes extremely wild. He’s a stockholder idol (株主アイドル). He’s brilliant.
There’s already a book about him with the motto (キャッチコピー): “No stock incentives, No life!”
He even has his own capsule toy (ガチャ) machine, where you collect him and his many accessories.
Want to see more? Watch his promotion video?
How about him on his first trip ever to the U.S., going to Vegas, and magically turning $500 into $3800 in 20 minutes?
Only in Japan? I’m hoping he makes it to the U.S. No, I’m eagerly expecting and awaiting his U.S. debut.
Or wait, is this him interviewing Johnny Depp out of nowhere?
But he can’t possibly have a fan made music video to an anime theme song?
Are you a fan yet?
Founder of Jalup. iOS Software Engineer. Former attorney, translator, and interpreter. Still watching 月曜から夜ふかし weekly since 2013.
Haha I love it! Only in Japan.
ああそうか!いよいよ分かります!先週の月曜日ふかし僕は彼を見たけど、どんなような有名人全然分かりませんでした!面白そうだけど!
大人気な理由がこれで分かったかな?!これからの活躍も楽しみだよね!