“The yellow jacket ruined the moving moment” ... A woman grabbed during a live broadcast, with footage aired across Japan
- Input
- 2026-10-19 14:55:46
- Updated
- 2026-10-19 14:55:46
According to HuffPost Japan, Toyo Keizai and other local media on the 18th, the incident occurred on “All-Star Afterparty 26 Fall,” a variety show affiliated with Tokyo Broadcasting System Holdings, Inc. (TBS), which aired live on the 10th.
“All-Star Afterparty” is a late-night follow-up to “All-Star Thanksgiving Festival,” a major live special that TBS has aired twice a year, in spring and fall, since 1991. Unlike the main show, a family variety program aimed at audiences of all ages, it features a cast made up mainly of comedians and puts the focus on intense games and punishments.
The controversy erupted during the segment “Get Over It by Brute Force! The Real Ariyoshi Wall,” in which nearly 90 participants had to scale a 2.7-meter-high wall within a 10-minute time limit.
When comedian Konno Buruma climbed the wall, Tacos, a male member of the mixed-gender comedy duo “Marimari,” who was below her, was caught on camera appearing to grab Konno’s buttocks with both hands. The camera even zoomed in on Tacos’s hands.
The hosts watching from the scene said of Tacos, “He’s touching her butt way too much” and “It’s somewhat unpleasant,” but no one took any significant action to stop him.
The scene spread on social media (SNS), drawing fierce criticism from viewers. Online commenters reacted: “Who is that person in the yellow suit who keeps touching women’s butts every time they climb? It was really unpleasant”; “It’s tone-deaf to use this kind of behavior as material for laughs”; and “Without Tacos’s sexual harassment, it would have been a moving masterpiece.”
Comedy critic Lari Tooda wrote in an article for Toyo Keizai that Tacos likely viewed the behavior as something to get a laugh out of rather than acting with sexual intent, but viewers did not take it as humor.
“Trying to make people laugh doesn’t mean anything goes,” he said, pointing out, “Quite apart from whether the behavior itself was right or wrong, this incident failed even as a performance intended to make people laugh.”
[email protected] Seong Min-seo Reporter