Actor Shinya Kote appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi) on March 11th. He talked about his age, his wife and parents, why he continued working part-time even after appearing in NHK's taiga dramas and Fuji TV's "Monday 9" dramas, and why he got fired.
He talks about his wife, who supported him even when he couldn't afford it, saying, "She's very affectionate and reliable, so she always gets angry at me." He adds, "I think it's very important that she still scolds me when I'm a bit clumsy or sloppy." He says that his wife still scolds him every day, but he's getting to an age where she gradually stops scolding him. "She basically scolds me for very common social things like not neglecting to report, contact, and consult with others, and tells me to be more reliable."
After graduating from university, he started his own theater company instead of getting a job. His parents were worried about how long he thought he could continue. However, they never told him to quit. His parents wanted him to think for himself and live his life in a way that he would be satisfied with his results. Now, when he goes back to his parents' house, he is given a stack of colored paper and told, "I was asked to sign this." He smiles and says, "Now I'm glad that I kept going."
He sent a message to his parents, saying, "Dad and Mom, I'm sorry for causing you trouble for so long. I will continue to do my best to ensure that you two have peace of mind in your old age, so please watch over me. I'm asking you. I've never said this to my parents before, but I think it's important. I want to talk to my parents more properly and more often."
Even while appearing in the 2016 Taiga drama "Sanadamaru" and the 2018 Monday 9pm drama "Confidence Man JP," he continued to work part-time answering phone calls at a mail-order program order center. "I didn't want to forget my sense of humility, and I was afraid that if I put myself entirely in the entertainment industry, I would become too carried away, so I didn't want to forget the weight of everyday life, which is why I continued working part-time," he explained. As his work became too busy, he was unable to work all of his shifts in March 2019, and his contract was not renewed, leading to his firing. Even before that, people at his part-time job had been scratching their heads and asking, "Why are you still working part-time, Kote?"
