The Outlook Podcast Archive - The man behind Japan's music scandal

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Two years ago, Japan was gripped by scandal when a musician called Mamoru Samuragochi was revealed to be an imposter. Samuragochi was a star in Japan - he claimed to have lost his hearing at the age of 35 but had continued to write music which was hugely popular. The scandal broke when it was revealed that a part-time music teacher called Takashi Niigaki was in fact the composer of much of the music that had been credited to Samuragochi. Not only that, he claimed that Samuragochi had been pretending to be deaf. Samuragochi has admitted that he was not the composer, and apologised for the deception -- but still maintains that he has hearing problems. It's been an extraordinary couple of years for the whistle-blower, Takashi Niigaki. Through an interpreter, he's been telling me how he got involved with Samuragochi in the first place

Published on Thursday, 25th August 2016.

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