On April 8th, the Japanese entertainment conglomerate Yoshimoto Kogyo, which employs and produces almost all of Japan's comedians, celebrated its 100th anniversary with a special comedy performance titled "Densetsu no Ichinichi" at the prestigious Namba Grand Kagetsu theatre in Osaka and all other Yoshimoto theaters across the nations simultaneously.

The Namba Grand Kagetsu (NGK) just went through a major overhaul for this special anniversary and had to bear over 122,000 people who visited the grand reopening of the NGK that day. There were a total of four performances throughout the day at the NGK, which was seen by a total of 3,500 people. Of course all four shows were sold-out immediately, while some tickets were distributed among online applicants through a lottery. Those who didn't get a ticket were only able to resort to online auctions, where some people paid as much as 100,000 Yen (1,225 USD) for one of the highly coveted premium tickets for the evening show.

The people in the audience were able to witness the performances of 208 groups (277 entertainers in total), including Ninety-Nine, Shofukutei Nikaku, Katsura Sanshi, Downtown, Akashiya Sanma, and countless others. An additional number of 17 groups (28 entertainers) were present for other events at the NGK and live broadcasts for TV.

The other 100 theatres that are present in all of the 47 prefectures of Japan, as well as the venues in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea were�also�open to the public and offered its visitors a live viewing of the main event in Osaka. Moreover, they featured live performances of an additional 119 groups (209 entertainers). In total, there were 344 groups and 514 entertainers involved in the 100th anniversary celebrations, which naturally became a new record for Yoshimoto.

We are looking forward to the next 100 years and all the great new comedians Yoshimoto will bring out in the future.

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Sources: natalie, Yoshimoto News, Daily News, Sanspo