Having watched all 47 films of Otoko wa Tsurai yo repeatedly, the author reflects on a particular episode that resonated deeply with his own life. Through memories of generosity, betrayal, and lived experience, he draws parallels between Tora-san’s way of life and the harsh realities that followed.

2017-07-30

I believe I am one of the people in Japan who have watched Otoko wa Tsurai yo the most.
I have watched all 47 films over and over again.
When they were released almost like annual events in Japan, I watched nearly every one of them.
Now BS Japan broadcasts them every Saturday evening under the title, “After all, Saturdays are for Tora-san.”
Recording them has become, much like recording Major League Baseball games, a part of my daily routine.
Yesterday’s recorded film was one whose details, for some reason, were the vaguest in my memory among the series, so I was looking forward to watching it.
Trying to watch only the opening part just before going to sleep was a mistake.
Because it was such a wonderful film, I ended up watching it to the end, even at the cost of my sleep.
My friends sometimes say that I am like Tora-san.
Last night’s film focused on a painter who seemed to be modeled after Yokoyama Taikan, played by Shigekichi Uno, and a geisha from Tatsuno in Hyogo Prefecture, played by the late Kiwako Taichi.
The reason I sacrificed even my sleep on a Saturday was simply because it was a very good film.
Among the Tora-san films, it would not be an exaggeration to say that it has the best aftertaste.
Several friends say that I am like Tora-san, and one of them made me think that it was because I have lived a life exactly like the Tora-san of yesterday’s film.
When I see someone in trouble—those I encounter in my business life are, so to speak, people in financial distress—I cannot pretend not to notice.
I end up helping them.
That has been my nature.
The amount of money I have given to help friends and siblings has reached several hundred million yen.
My knowledge of the Korean Peninsula is not only the result of my own research, but also firsthand knowledge gained from realities I have personally experienced.
Having somehow endured more than twenty years of truly foolish times—so foolish that all advanced nations in the world have taken every possible measure to ensure they never become like Japan, with its more than two decades of deflation—
Compared with the results of the work I have long carried out for the sake of society and others, the settlement of a business that was far too modest began to conclude earlier than expected.
At that point, I thought it was finally time to retire and begin the task God had given me—to write, to convey the truth to the world; God must have granted me intellect for that very purpose—
As I was considering starting that work, even thinking that it might be better to live somewhere like Hawaii while writing,
A group of so-called resident Korean villains, of which there are no small number in Osaka, unbelievably appeared at our company building—three men and women—while out on bail.
This, then, was the result of being a Tora-san who read the Asahi Shimbun.
For half a year, I continued to tolerate a situation in which not a single yen of security deposit or rent was paid.
At first it was around three million yen, and then I was defrauded of an enormous sum exceeding one hundred million yen.
One of the central figures in fabricating the so-called comfort women issue, Song Doo-hoe, who manipulated and mobilized a housewife from Oita, a graduate of Kyushu University (whose husband is apparently a doctor), thereby creating the present situation (his activities were supported by a faction including Mizuho Fukushima),
Was illegally residing in the Kumano Dormitory of Kyoto University, with which he had absolutely no connection.
Of course, he paid not a single yen.
To be continued.