Actor Yuichiro Yamaguchi, who is a member of the Shiki Theatre Company and is also known as the "Emperor of the Musical World", appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi) on April 23rd. He revealed that he has "five fathers" and talked about the father who encouraged him to pursue singing.
Regarding his own father, Yamaguchi said, "The first one was the one who gave me my DNA, and then the next was a pianist. The third one was probably in the first half of elementary school. He was the first one to play catch with me. When I got to junior high school, it was the fourth one. He graduated from a music college..."
His fourth father told him, "You have a pretty good voice," and, "Yuichiro, you're a waste of someone like you. You can definitely do it, so give it a try," which prompted him to audition for a singing show at TV Asahi.
"I passed the first audition. If I had failed, I would have just lived a normal life. But I would like TV Asahi to take responsibility for my entire life (laughs)," he said with a lot of humor.
After the audition, he ended up joining Shiki Theatre Company because one of the judges was a composer who works on musicals for the company.
When Tetsuko asked, "I heard that after your parents separated, the custody battle was tough?" Yamaguchi cheerfully replied, "It was a long, long custody battle, and it was tough!" When she revealed, "The court's decisions changed, so the father's side would take a year, or two..." Tetsuko nodded without thinking, saying, "That's a tough life."
Yamaguchi said, "At that time, I didn't know any other lives to compare it to, so I thought that everyone was like that. I thought at the time that children must go through so much for their parents, but now I think it just feels right and that it's helping me in my acting."
