The Punch Punch Punch（ザ・パンチ・パンチ・パンチ）

From a commenter's video referral, I came upon this conversation among singers in which one of them stated that she used to listen to "The Punch Punch Punch". My initial impression was actually one of shock because I couldn't quite believe that someone so innocent could listen to something perceived to be so violent. However, I became quite curious as to what this program was all about.

"The Punch Punch Punch" didn't involve any fisticuffs. Instead, this long-running program on Japan's National Radio Network (NRN) between January 1 1967 and December 30 1982 was sponsored by the magazine "Heibon Punch"（平凡パンチ）, and was a 15-minute program broadcast on weeknights between 11:40-11:55. Basically, it was a lighthearted quarter of an hour which had hosts and guests talking on everything between show business and social ills.

Each episode started off with a bossa nova tune created by Keitaro Miho（三保敬太郎）that also had some anarchic sound effects such as a machine gun and soft-voiced catchphrases such as "It's groovy" (remember this started in 1967), perhaps to show off the fact that things were fairly off-kilter. From what I've read in the J-Wiki article for "The Punch Punch Punch", the topics and language could get rather raw so I was wondering if it had been inspired by the even longer-running TV show "11 PM" on NTV, for which composer Miho also provided its theme.

The show was hosted initially by a trio of female tarento/singers/actresses: Motoko "Moko" Takahashi（高橋基子）, Masami "Beaver" Kawaguchi（川口まさみ）and Celia "Olive" Paul who were collectively called The Punch Girls. The hosting format and the hosts themselves would change over the years, and there were eight "generations" of hosts in its 16-year run.

One of those hosts just happened to be Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）who was just changing from 17 to 18 years of age and would be making her aidoru debut in April 1980. Matsuda started her one-year stint as a co-host of "The Punch Punch Punch" right from January of that year alongside Junko Hatsuta（初田順子）and Hiroko Toda（戸田裕子）. The above video is apparently her debut episode and from 5:00, she's given a happy-go-lucky 3rd-degree grilling in a segment called "Seiko The Question 40" in which she's thrown some rapid-fire questions such as "What are your measurements?", "How many records do you have?" and the particularly philosophical "Do you fart?". For the question, "Which singer do you respect?", she answered Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）.

It must have been quite the experience for young Seiko being a high school student from Fukuoka Prefecture already hosting a popular late-night radio show a mere few months before making her debut as a singer. As for me, I think if I'd been growing up in Japan during that time, I probably would have been listening to "The Punch Punch Punch" as something mirthful and entertaining before finally hitting sleep time, although I'm sure that my mother would have been yelling at me to turn off the darn radio!