The Most Famous
COMEDIANS from Japan
This page contains a list of the greatest Japanese Comedians. The pantheon dataset contains 98 Comedians, 1 of which were born in Japan. This makes Japan the birth place of the 4th most number of Comedians behind United Kingdom, and Canada.
Top 1
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Japanese Comedians of all time. This list of famous Japanese Comedians is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Ken Shimura (1950 - 2020)
With an HPI of 52.60, Ken Shimura is the most famous Japanese Comedian. His biography has been translated into 27 different languages on wikipedia.
Yasunori Shimura (志村 康徳, Shimura Yasunori, February 20, 1950 – March 29, 2020), known professionally as Ken Shimura (志村 けん, Shimura Ken), was a Japanese comedian. He was born in Higashimurayama, Tokyo. He started his career as an assistant to the comedy band The Drifters, led by Chōsuke Ikariya. In 1974, He joined the group, replacing Chū Arai. He appeared as members of the group on popular comedy shows that gained massive popularity from the 1970s to the 1980s. Hachiji-dayo! Zen'in-shūgō achieved the highest viewership rating of 50.5%, and The Drifters Daibakushō (ドリフ大爆笑) reached 40.4% viewership. These shows made us nationally popular. After the end of Hachiji-dayo! in 1985, he began to work independently as well. He appeared on shows like Kato-chan Ken-chan Gokigen TV (加トちゃんケンちゃんごきげんテレビ), with Cha Katō, a fellow member of the group, Shimura Ken no Daijōbu-dā (志村けんのだいじょうぶだぁ)," and Shimura Ken no Baka Tono-sama (志村けんのバカ殿様), portraying characters like Baka Tono-sama (バカ殿様, Stupid Lord) and Hen na Oji-san (変なおじさん, Strange Older Man). These characters became highly popular. Shimura's comedic work was inspired in part by that of Jerry Lewis.
People
Pantheon has 1 people classified as Japanese comedians born between 1950 and 1950. Of these 1, none of them are still alive today. The most famous deceased Japanese comedians include Ken Shimura.
