Singer Kiyoshi Maekawa appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi), which aired on January 6th. He spoke about his memories with the late singer Keiko Fuji, the mother and ex-wife of singer-songwriter Hikaru Utada, as well as his meeting with actor Yutaka Takenouchi.
Maekawa has sung Fuji's "Keiko's Dreams Open at Night" and recorded songs such as "From Kyoto to Hakata." When she was married, she lived in the same neighborhood as Kuroyanagi. "Keiko and I once went to see Tetsuko's house together," she said.
Fuji's real name was Junko Abe, so Maekawa called her Junpei. Fuji called her Kiyoshi-chan.
He met Takenouchi when he was frequently going to the gym. "I don't think Takenouchi understood me. He approached me and said, 'I wish I could become like you.'"
"He was such a good-looking guy," she said, and on her way home, she told the gym staff, "Tell him he should become a celebrity," and they told her his name, saying, "He's in the spotlight right now." She had heard the name before, but seeing him on TV was a little different from meeting him in person, and she said, "He was a good-looking guy."
He is currently 77 years old. "I'm not thinking about end-of-life planning. I think I'll probably keep working until I collapse. I don't know when I should stop," he says. He can still sing, but it's difficult to produce the same volume as before. "I'm trying to sing while changing my singing style to suit my age and trying to hide the loss," he says. He used to sing while standing still, but recently he has also started walking. "When I go down (to the stage) and shake hands with the audience and take photos as they like, the audience is happier than when I sing," he says with a laugh.
