was a Japanese television host and writer. He also served briefly as a member of the

House of Councillors The is the upper house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Representatives (Japan), House of Representatives is the lower house. The House of Councillors is the successor to the pre-war House of Peers (Japan), House of Peers. If the t ...

in the

Diet of Japan , transcription_name = ''Kokkai'' , legislature = 215th Session of the National Diet , coa_pic = Flag of Japan.svg , house_type = Bicameral , houses = , foundation=29 November 1890(), leader1_type ...

. His real name was Ōhashi Katsumi (大橋克巳). Born in

Sumida, Tokyo is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward in the Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis in Japan. The English translation of its Japanese self-designation is Sumida City. As of 1 April 2025, the ward has an estimated population of 287,766 and a population dens ...

, he grew up in

Chiba prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama ...

and dropped out of the

Waseda University Waseda University (Japanese: ), abbreviated as or , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the Tōkyō Professional School by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the fifth Prime Minister of Japan, prime ministe ...

. Declaring "semi-retirement", he then spent most of his time outside Japan, particularly in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

during the summer, as well as in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

during the winter in the northern hemisphere, in which he ran his "OK Gift Shop" (OK stands for Ohashi Kyosen). When he resigned in the House of Councillors, Ōhashi was succeeded by Marutei Tsurunen, the first European-descended and openly

foreign-born Japanese A foreign-born Japanese is a Japanese person of foreign descent or heritage, who was born outside Japan and later acquired Japanese citizenship. This category encompasses persons of both Japanese and non-Japanese descent. The former subcategory i ...

person to serve in the Diet.

References

External links

* http://www.kyosen.com/ - the official website (this website appears to be down) 1934 births 2016 deaths Japanese television personalities Japanese television writers Japanese music critics Japanese essayists Japanese businesspeople Japanese actor-politicians Members of the House of Councillors (Japan) Japanese racehorse owners and breeders Japanese expatriates in Canada Japanese expatriates in Australia Japanese expatriates in New Zealand Male actors from Tokyo Politicians from Tokyo Politicians from Chiba Prefecture People from Sumida Waseda University alumni Writers from Chiba Prefecture Writers from Tokyo Male television writers {{Japan-tv-stub