Hideo Higashikokubaru

When a comedian becomes a governor, I expect a punchline. Hideo Higashikokubaru, who performed as Sonomanma Higashi and was Beat Takeshi's first apprentice, refused to supply one. His vow to do something about Miyazaki became a 2007 phrase of the year, he served his full term, and then, the part that still surprises me, he declined to seek a second one. Since then he has lost a Tokyo gubernatorial race while drawing 1.69 million votes, held a Diet seat briefly, and come up short in Miyazaki again. He loses loudly and comes back anyway. Underneath the television career, he is a craftsman.

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Name (English)

Hideo Higashikokubaru

Name (Japanese)

東国原英夫

Reading

ひがしこくばる ひでお

Born

September 16, 1957 (age 69)

Origin

Miyakonojō, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan

Height

171 cm

Occupation

politician / tarento / film actor / comedian / television actor

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Virgo / Rooster

University

Senshu University

Spouse

片平きみよ（現：片平夏貴）（1985 - 1989） / かとうかずこ（現：かとうかず子）（1990 - 2006） / 一般女性（2014 - ）

Works summary

Appearances

250 (1983–2022)

By year

1983: 1, 1989: 1, 1990: 6, 1991: 5, 1993: 2, 1994: 1, 1995: 1, 1997: 1, 1998: 1, 1999: 1, 2001: 4, 2002: 2, 2003: 3, 2005: 1, 2006: 1, 2007: 3, 2008: 8, 2009: 3, 2011: 2, 2012: 1, 2015: 1, 2016: 1, 2017: 2, 2020: 1, 2022: 1

Debut work

青が散る

Filmography / notable works

• Official sitehttps://www.sonomanmahigashi.net/
• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/higashi_kokubaru/
• Xhttps://x.com/higashi_kokuba
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hideo%20Higashikokubaru
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9D%B1%E5%9B%BD%E5%8E%9F%E8%8B%B1%E5%A4%AB
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q730869

Tags

• Miyazaki Prefecture
• politician
• tarento
• film actor

Last updated

September 18, 2026

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Works and profile fields sourced from Wikipedia reflect content as of 2026-08-26. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.