Word: maeno
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...over Tokyo rooftops explains the country's state better than any statistics. Practically every Japanese home has a TV set. New film releases last year totaled 333. More than two-thirds of these were "pinkies," as Japanese call their mass-produced pornos−the kind that Actor Mitsuyasu Maeno starred in until he died a kamikaze's flaming death crashing a Piper Cherokee onto the home of Lockheed Lobbyist Yoshio Kodama (TIME April 5). Box office receipts were deceptively high, totaling $390 million. But more than half the revenue came from a succession of smash-hit imports: Earthquake...
...particularly suspicious when Movie Actor Mitsuyasu Maeno appeared at Tokyo's Chofu Airport last week in a World War II kamikaze pilot's uniform, complete with white scarf and with risingsun flags emblazoned on his right sleeve and on his warrior's headband. As he rented a single-engine Piper Cherokee from a local flying club, he explained that he was merely doing a publicity turn for a new film on the 1944-45 suicide pilots...
...seemed for a while after Maeno, 29, took off, accompanied by a photo plane. But after half an hour of picture taking, Maeno radioed to his wingman that he had "something to do in Setagaya"-a Tokyo area that is home to Yoshio Kodama, the millionaire ultra-nationalist who had been Lockheed's principal go-between in its efforts to use bribes to help sell its planes in Japan...
Minutes later, Maeno cut the Piper's engine and shouted into his microphone the traditional kamikaze pilot's farewell: Tenno Heika Banzai!-Long Live the Emperor! He then dove his plane into Kodama's house, where it slammed into a second-floor balcony and exploded in flames. Maeno died instantly. But neither Kodama, resting in another room, nor any of his family or staff was hurt...
...Maeno's background included some porn film credits (most recent: Tokyo Emmanuelle), two broken marriages and a previous suicide attempt. An ardent admirer of the ancient Japanese samurai code, he also esteemed Yukio Mishima, the flamboyant novelist who committed hara-kiri in 1970 to protest Japan's loss of traditional values. Many members of Japan's restive right wing have felt that Kodama damaged their cause by acting as a conduit for American bribes-an error that Maeno evidently was seeking to avenge...
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