Takaaki Ishibashi

is a Japanese owarai artist, singer and actor.

Born in Itabashi, Tokyo Prefecture, Ishibashi attended Teikyo Junior & Senor High School and is best known as a member of Tunnels with his partner Noritake Kinashi. He is currently married to former actress nihongo|Honami Suzuki|鈴木 保奈美. He is currently the host of the popular music/interview show, Utaban with Masahiro Nakai. He has several nicknames such as "Taka-san", "Taka-chan" and "Takaaki".

Ishibashi is known for "teasing" music artists on his show Utaban, especially Morning Musume. He has over the years come up with different pet names for each member such as Johnson for nihongo|Kaori Iida|飯田圭織 or Ka-san for nihongo|Sayaka Ichii|市井紗耶香. This is apparently done purely for humor, based on comments made regarding Takaaki by his "victims", and in many cases these taunts actually increase the marketing "buzz" surrounding the artists.

Particularly well known is Ishibashi's fascination with accusing nihongo|Kei Yasuda|保田圭 of anything from simple hideousness, to outright alien or supernatural evil, which started back when the group first debuted (apparently, due to her plainer image). Numerous CG images will depict her as a hag or Kappa or show her in some maniacal facial expression while doing the activities she is speaking of in the interview. Both Kei and her mother apparently credit this humorous "abuse" with Kei's popularity as a member.

He is also an actor known for playing Isuro Tanaka in the film "Major League II" and Taka Tanaka in "".

Trivia

*Pays some of the highest taxes of any Japanese celebrity, hovering around 300 million yen (about 2.5 million USD) per year.

*Was a promising high school baseball player, even making an appearance in the Koshien tournament.

*His favourite brand of cigarettes is Mild Seven but he is not allowed to smokeFact|date=February 2007

External links

* http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0410905/