Actor Toshio Shiba (79) appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi) on May 4th with his wife, actress Kyoko Mano (74). He revealed that he became a graduate student in his 70s.
The couple has been involved in social activities such as volunteering for many years. When Kuroyanagi asked, "I hear you're a graduate student now?", Shiba explained the reason behind it, saying, "For nearly half a century, we've been doing social activities for children who grew up in difficult circumstances. While we've been working with children, we started thinking about how society can better support welfare activities from an academic and data-driven perspective."
"That was social design," Shiba said. "I had the opportunity to meet Professor Yoichi Nakamura, Professor Emeritus at Rikkyo University, and decided to learn from him. At first, I was just an auditing student, but since last year I've been properly studying at graduate school," he confessed.
Seventeen years ago, she established the "Shiba Foundation," a fund for children. Ms. Shiba recalled, "I felt that just getting people to cry wasn't enough, so I started it because I wanted to do something more organized."
Mano said, "Tetsuko encouraged us. She said that in America, all actors are involved in such welfare activities, and that it's normal to do such things once you're past half your life. That was a huge encouragement to both of us."
