Minoru Kihara (television personality)
Biography. He was born in Ikegami, Ōta, Tokyo, but was moved to Fujisawa, Kanagawa when he was two years old. He took "rakugo" during his early childhood, and started a theatre during his high school years. After graduating from Atsugi High School in Kanagawa Prefecture, in 1986, he graduated from the Department of Drama, of the Nihon University College of Art. He entered Akira Kamiya's office and start entertainment activities as a voice actor and reporter. Later in 1987, Kihara, Yukikazu Kano, Eisuke Sasai and others from the Hanagumi Shibai started and joined The Sumidagawa . He passed the Weather Foreman Examination in 1995. In 1997, he participated in the Weather Summit in Paris, and started acting as a full-fledged weather forecaster. Later in 1998, he became independent, and established the Minoru Kihara Jimusho. In 2004, he obtained disaster prevention qualification. In 2005, he was inaugurated as a permanent secretary of the Japan Disaster Reduction Association. In 2010, he was later inaugurated as the Cabinet Office "supporter of national campaign to alleviate disaster damage." In 2016, he was ranked first in Oricon's "12th Favourite Weather Caster & Weather Forecasting Ranking." At the end of October  2017, he bore serious cervical spine injuries, and was undergoing surgery, in which he reported on his blog on 24 November. He was later discharged on 22 March 2018, and on 26 March, he returned to "news every." for the first time in about five months. Appearances. News programmes. ※Those without special mention matter, the majority of programmes are Nippon TV. Music participation. ※Joined as the narrator in the songs