Who are Oriental Radio?

かっこいい❤
http://search.yoshimoto.co.jp/talent_prf/137.jpg
オリラジ(pronounced Oriraji), short for オリエンタルラジオ(Oriental Radio), are a comedic duo in Japan comprised of 中田敦彦(Nakata Atsuhiko) and 藤森慎吾(Fujimori Shingo). They are managed by 吉本興業(Yoshimoto Kogyo), one of the largest comedic troupes and entertainment industries in Japan.

The two are often affectionately called: あっちゃん(A-chan, pronounced Ah-chan with a hiccup between Ah and chan) and しんごくん(Shingo-kun).

The name Oriental Radio was thought up by A-chan. He wanted a name that (1) yielded no results when searched on the Internet; and (2) had the sound 'r' (or 'l') because according to his father, the sound 'r' gives a sense of luxury and quality (as in Lexus, Corolla, and Rolls-Royce). 'Oriental Radio' has three r-like sounds (オリエンタルラジオ=Orientaru Radio).

It seems safe to say that his thoughtfulness has paid off, as evidenced by the 1,990,000 results that come up when you google 'オリエンタルラジオ.' From 0 to close to 2 million in 6 years, that's quite impressive.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi! I just want to thank you so much for creating this site! I'm a very new fan of OriRaji (Started getting into them just last October) and it's really hard looking for some English (only some of the parts, but that's something for me so I'm good) sites dedicated to these two. Keep it up and thank you again so much!

- cas

jm said...

Hey, thanks for your comment! I initially started this site heavily biased towards English, but I dunno what happened, it basically turned into all Japanese, and now I just don't even have time to comment at all on the videos. It definitely was originally dedicated to the international fans out there/here, and I'm glad if it could be of help to you!