Talk Show with Veteran Suit Actor Jiro Okamoto Reaches Milestone 20th Edition with Style and Sausages

By Mishio Suzuki / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

16:17 JST, April 9, 2026

A talk event celebrating Jiro Okamoto called “Jiro Matsuri” (Jiro Festival) has reached its 20th edition this year, with me in charge of planning and emceeing.

Okamoto is a veteran suit actor — an actor who plays characters in tokusatsu action sci-fi films or dramas wearing a mask and full-body suit — known for his portrayal of Kamen Rider BLACK. He has also served as the suit actor for many other heroes, such as the protagonist in “Choko Senshi Changerion,” Kamen Rider Ouja in “Kamen Rider Ryuki” and Kintaros in “Kamen Rider Den-O.”

Okamoto’s bold action stunts and accomplished acting with movements superbly controlled down to the fingertips have earned him many enthusiastic fans.

However, when we started out, I never thought this event would run 20 times.

This was not just because Okamoto was someone who had difficulty speaking casually. He used to be the kind of person who almost never uttered a word on stage.

Who managed to drag him to the event in the first place?

It was actor Kihachiro Uemura, who played Green Flash in “Choushinsei Flashman.” Uemura, a mutual friend of both Okamoto and myself, casually said to him, “Let’s go for a drink in Shinjuku,” and took him straight onto a Shinjuku club’s stage where I was hosting a tokusatsu discussion. Of course, Uemura didn’t lie; alcoholic drinks are served on stage at the club. I remember shaking so hard because I was scared, seeing Okamoto standing upright on stage and staring at us with reproach. The audience loved the look on his face, though.

The fans really enjoyed the 20th edition of the event as it brought back all those memories.

His fellows came to the stage. First, there was Iindayo Greendayozu, a two-superhero unit born from this event whose members have become a familiar sight for fans. I suspect they are Uemura and Kenji Takechi, the suit actor for Oh Green in “Chouriki Sentai Ohranger,” in disguise, but there is no telling because they never take off their masks during Jiro Matsuri.

They not only helped us look back on the history of the event but also sang and danced together with Okamoto.

The second part of the show included guests from Japan Action Enterprise — Toshihiro Ogura, Hiroyuki Muraoka, Shinichi Kaneda and Kazutoshi Yokoyama — all there in support of Okamoto. As in previous years, they were also joined by another familiar figure, actor-stuntman Masashi Shirai.

Before the event, I asked all of them to write something out for the 20th edition or do some kind of act on stage. Muraoka chose to do a comedy skit with Okamoto, which he executed awkwardly at times yet managed to get it done. Kaneda enthused the crowd with what he prepared, which he wrote specially to start each sentence with one of the characters in Okamoto’s name.

Shirai, too, composed something. He not only read it out on stage but also sang a cappella passionately.

Yokoyama impressed the audience with a look back on the days he and Okamoto spent together in their youth. Let me just add that Shirai was crying his eyes out while listening to Yokoyama.

The section was closed with a bang by Ogura, who brought in a lot of sausages for a race to see who could remove them from their wrappers the fastest. He looked so confident that I thought he would win the competition, but the precise and bold Okamoto won in style.

To commemorate the 20th edition of Jiro Matsuri, Takayuki Miyauchi, the singer for the theme song of “Kamen Rider BLACK RX,” came on stage as a secret guest and sang for Okamoto. Miyauchi brought tears of joy to the eyes of many audience members, and the venue was filled with a heartwarming atmosphere.

I think the event was able to reach this milestone thanks above all to Okamoto, who takes an attitude of, “If it brings even a little happiness to the fans …” never says “no” to any ideas and makes meticulous preparations each time.

He pleased the audience again this time by being perfectly prepared even for somewhat strained calls for dancing and singing as well as the “nanori” self-introduction and posing as various superheroes.

Okamoto and I belong to the same generation and, with the event reaching its 20th edition, we are both in our early 60s. Still, we both think this is not the end of the road for Jiro Matsuri. We would like to continue entertaining many fans from now on, too.

We’ve already started planning the event for next year.

Suzuki is a Yomiuri Shimbun staff writer and an expert on tokusatsu superhero films and dramas.