Misa Watanabe

**Misa Watanabe** (渡辺美佐, *Watanabe Misa*, September 25, 1928 - ) is a Japanese entertainment promoter. She served as an honorary chairman of Watanabe Productions Co., Ltd., representative director of Izawa Office Co., Ltd., a honorary advisor of the Music Publishers Association of Japan, and the Person of Cultural Merit. Since the surname " Biān (邊)" is the old font of "side", it is sometimes written as Misa Watanabe in the new font. She is the wife of Shin Watanabe and the co-founder of Watanabe Production.

## Misa Watanabe

### Children

Miki Watanabe (eldest daughter)
Mayumi Watanabe (second daughter)

### Family

Hatanoshin Yamaga (grandfather)
Kinzaburo Makino (great uncle)
Michie Manase (younger sister)
Masaki Yoshida (son-in-law)

## Career

Businesswoman promoter Misa grew up in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture in 1928, one year after Shin was born. Manase Productions president Michie Naose is a younger sister. A descendant of a physician in the Edo period, Manase Dosan, and now Misa's nephew (and younger brother's second son) Yozo is the 16th generation of the Manase Family. Her great grandfather is Hatanoshin Yamaga, who was the Methodist teacher under the guidance of Yamaga Sokō.

When she established the Watanabe Productions with her husband, Shin Watanabe, Misa became vice president and later became chairperson. She later currently became the Honorary Chairperson. Misa was also one of the directors of the Izawa Office. As an industry group, she was led by the Music Publishers Association as the third chairperson, but later changed the title from chairperson to chairman and became chairman several times.

## Life

Born in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture in 1928, she was the eldest daughter of Manase Productions founder Masao Naose and Hanako. She also has four younger sisters and two younger brothers. Her maternal grandfather, Kojiro Makino, is a mixed race of Japanese and British, and her grandmother is a mixed race of Japanese and American. Misa's great uncle Kinzaburo Makino, who is the founder of "Hawaii Hochi". Misa attended the Soshin Junior and Senior High School in Yokohama. In 1945, Misa was evacuated to Toyoma, Miyagi (currently Tome, Miyagi Prefecture) during World War II and she was transferred to Miyagi Girls' School in Sendai before entering the Department of English at Japan Women's University in Tokyo.

In 1946, Hanako was hired as a performer at a US military base stationed in Sendai, and her parents established the Oriental Entertainment Company, the predecessor of Manase Productions, in Sendai. Since Misa was a student, she worked part-time as a performer and manager of a student band, mainly in and out of the prince's camp of the expeditionary force. Around this time, Misa assumed the leadership of the jazz band Six Jaws and met the leader, Shin Watanabe. Shin and Misa founded the "Watanabe Productions" in January 1955 and became vice president with the intention of streamlining and modernizing the entertainment world, raising the bar for Japanese music and musicians, and making them internationally accepted, bringing modernization to show business.

The two married in March 1955, two months after formed the production company. "Shabontama Holiday" in the early days of television became famous with guest stars and performers. Also, Misa worked on the 1958 Nikki Western Carnival, and took the nickname Murder Local, and it was a held during post-war. Also, Akira Fuse, Kenji Sawada, Shinichi Mori, and others were praised as singers, and "Navepro" became Japan's greatest entertainment program. In 1987, she became president after Shin's death. Although she was not the direct manager of The Peanuts, he often performed together, and when The Peanuts performed outside of Japan (especially they appeared in the Ed Sullivan Show, along with Jackey Yoshikawa & His Blue Comets), Misa often accompanied them as a supporter.

Furthermore, songwriter Kazumi Yasui is very confident and has long been adored as her sister. She is also witnessing Yasui's bone-cutting ceremony. In September 2013, Misa became a councilor of the National Congress of Industrial Heritage