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It’s been about a year since that little jingle about pens and pineapples and all the wonderful things you can make with them first made a splash on the internet, and while most of us are pretty much over the song and all the gilt and punch perms that came with it, there was still one nagging question: how much money did that guy make from this anyway?
A few months after the song’s initial success, Kosaka Daimaou who plays Piko Taro told the program "Nonstop!" that he had not gotten a single yen from the song. Naturally there was much rolling of the eyes and a collective groan of “yeah right” to be heard from the general population at this news.
And with good reason it turns out. On Sept 29, Daimaou appeared on Fuji TV’s "Downtown Now" and finally admitted that at the time he was actually bringing in hundreds of millions of yen a month, which equaled his income for the 25 previous years of his life combined.
Of course, the video itself had garnered over 120 million views and the ad revenue that came along with it, but Daimaou said that the bulk of his earning came from commercial appearances. Earlier this year he appeared in a major commercial for a leading chauffeur service in China that aired nationwide and is believed to have padded his pen-pineapple-apple-pen-purse considerably.
And also let’s not forget the PPAP cafe, appearances on "Seasame Street," in SoftBank commercials, at the Grammy Awards, at the legendary Budokan arena, in government PSAs, in his own animated TV series, and even alongside his South Korean counterpart Psy in a music video.
Needless to say, Piko Taro was not one to turn down a job offer and successfully milked the PPAP fad for all it was worth, and perhaps then some. So while we might scoff at the song now and call it played out, Daimaou is having the last laugh all the way to the bank… alongside his swimsuit model wife.
Sources: Josei Jisin, My Game News Flash
Read more stories from SoraNews24.
-- Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen singer makes shocking claim about how much money the song has earned him
-- Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen singer marries beautiful swimsuit model 15 years his junior【Photos】
-- Piko Taro appears in new music video for “I Luv It” by South Korean superstar Psy【Video】
© SoraNews24
11 Comments
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DiscoJ_2
He probably did make a fair bit from the Youtube video of the song itself. It's on an apparently official PIKOTARO channel with an ad attached (so is monetised) and has 125M+ views. But yeah, however much he got from Softbank (+Y-Mobile) and other ad endorsements probably makes up the bulk of it.
gogogo
Made nothing from the song, made money from everything else.
MarkX
Maybe he was furiously trying to move it out of Japan to a tax haven, so lied about how much he made before the tax man could take his share.
Good for him, any one of us would love to make a few million from something as silly and simple as PPAP, and then live off the residuals for the rest of our lives!
Mlodinow
Interesting, because a few months after it's release he claimed he'd made NO money from it. There was even a story on JT about it. Although the majority of the money may have come after he certainly raked in it at the time as well, the liar.
DiscoJ_2
Good for him, but the amount of endorsements and derivative ads that funded his windfall just goes to show how creatively bankrupt agencies like Dentsu (or whoever) really are. There's no way all of those brands benefited enough to justify his price, but gotta be 'on-trend', right?
thepersoniamnow
I’m proud to say I have never heard or watched his song.
pacint
He has had a long successful career before PPAP.
Like many successful musicians long slock till they hit a sweet spot, and a long career after that too.
Just look at who still has sold out concerts here this year, most had their prime a few decades ago.
gokai_wo_maneku
How is he going to top that? Or is he going to be a one hit wonder?
pacint
Not bad going. He also holds a Guinnnes record for the shortest song to be a hit chart topper.
lucabrasi
Magnificent. A legend for the ages. My family reverentially position a pen, along with a pineapple, in the tokonoma at the start of each month.
This Saturday is the anniversary of the release of the masterpiece, and we’re undertaking a pilgrimage to Aomori, the birthplace of the master.
A glittering future in politics surely beckons....