It was announced that musician and TV personality DAIGO has been selected in the entertainment category for the 44th Best Father Yellow Ribbon Awards, and he attended the awards ceremony held in Tokyo on June 4th, prior to Father's Day (the third Sunday of June, this year the 15th). "As a father, I'm still finding my way around and learning every day, but I'm grateful to have received this award," he said of his joy at receiving the award.
DAIGO, who is the father of two children - a 4-year-old daughter and a 1-year-old son - said with a smile, "I'm still a novice father, having only been a father for about five years, but I work hard every day so that my children think of me as the best father."
He said that he and his wife, Keiko Kitagawa, share the housework and childcare responsibilities, saying, "My wife is busy filming a cooking show, so when she's busy filming a TV drama series, I cook and support the household. We adjust our schedules so that one of us can be near the child as much as possible. We do as much as possible ourselves, including taking the child to and from kindergarten. We sometimes get help from each other's parents, but basically we divide up the responsibilities between us and work together to raise the child."
At the event, she posted photos of the cream stew she made for dinner that night, her homemade bento lunch, and a photo of her daughter making her famous "wish" pose. She smiled and said, "When I ask my daughter to do the wish pose, she doesn't do it, but when she's in the mood, she does it. Maybe she thinks it's an embarrassing pose (laughs). I want to pass it on properly."
He also revealed, "My main job is as a musician, but my daughter probably thinks of me as a cook," putting the audience at ease.
The Best Father selection committee commented on DAIGO, "At the birth of their two children, he cried tears of gratitude to his wife and relief that both mother and child were safe. He is the best father, filled with love for his family, and even when scolding his children, he will not go astray as long as he does so with love."
The award has been held since 1982 as the central event of the Yellow Ribbon Campaign, which uses yellow ribbons to show gratitude to fathers. The winner is determined based on the results of a survey of media companies and past Yellow Ribbon Award winners. This year's winners were Saitama Prefecture Governor Ohno Motohiro in the politics category, Cowboy Soap Kyoshinsha President Miyazaki Teiji in the economics category, Aoyama Gakuin University Track and Field Team Long Distance Block Manager Hara Susumu in the sports category, and Alpro CEO Sakamoto Masatoshi in the special award category. DAIGO was also selected to receive the Smile Sunflower Award, which is chosen from among the Best Father winners.
