Singer Leon Niihama, who made his first appearance at the NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen on New Year's Eve last year, will be appearing on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi), which will air at 1:00 p.m. on April 18th.
His father is an enka singer. He dreamed of becoming a baseball player from an early age. His high school teammates went on to a strong school where they all became professional baseball players, but when he realized he couldn't become a professional, he decided that the only thing he liked besides baseball was singing, and decided to become a singer.
However, his mother, who had always supported him in everything he did, was strongly against the idea, telling him, "You have to debut in your fourth year of university." At the time, his ideal was to be a manly Enka singer, and he had tanned skin and a sturdy build, weighing 25 kilograms more than he does now. When he was told in an interview at an agency that he was "too big," he made up his mind to lose 10 kilograms in two weeks, and his determination was recognized, allowing him to debut. A letter from his mother was read as a surprise in the studio, and tears welled up in his eyes.
