Yoshimoto: Summer Training Camp at the critical moment

Yoshimoto Kogyo attracts aspiring young comedians from all over Japan. They believe that they are the funniest, and there is a place where they are first sifted through the ranks. Every year in September, a three-day, two-night “mountain retreat” is held. Three hundred people, divided into buses, gather at a lodging facility in Shizuoka. The participants go through a curriculum that can be described as a “comedy immersion” program, aiming to be selected on the last day of the camp as the best of the best. While some emerged as standouts, others found themselves at their limits. This is a coming-of-age graffiti of people who bet on laughter.