Osamu Shitara

Osamu Shitara (設樂統) was born April 23, 1973, in Minano, Saitama as the youngest sibling of a brother and sister who are 6 and 3 years older respectively. He attended the Minano-chō Tachi Minano Middle School and was the president of the student council and the captain of the school baseball team. Shitara graduated high school in March, 1992 and found a job with Seibu Railway at the connection of his father who is a manager at Seibu Nagatoro Hotel, an establishment of the company. He worked at the Kotesashi Station on the Seibu Ikebukuro Line for 6 months before switching to other various part-time jobs and then finally becoming a comedian as a student of Masayuki Watanabe, whom he worked as a driver for.

In October, 1993, Shitara met up with three other rookie comedians in Shinjuku and formed a comedy group, Yūki Himura is one of them. However, after a few practice sessions, Shitara believed that a four man group would be limiting to their potential, and left with Himura to form what a comedy duo named Bananaman.

Shitara met his girlfriend when he was 19 at a part-time job and married her in 1999. They have 2 daughters as of 2019.

In the year 2012, Shitara appeared on more television programs than any other Japanese personality, appearing in 611 programs, 163 with Himura (Himura was ranked 12th with 428 television appearances). Shitara also led the rankings for the first half of 2013.