Beloved Japanese comedian Ken Shimura has passed away a week after contracting the coronavirus. He was 70. The Tokyo-native was revered in his home country where he is a household name and has been called “Japan’s Robin Williams.” “He was popular among a wide range of generations and was the No.
1 source of pride for locals,” Minoru Hasegawa, 69, a fellow native of Shimura’s home city, told the Japan Times. Shimura was hospitalized on March 20 after developing a fever and being diagnosed with pneumonia.
He tested positive for the virus on March 23, becoming the first Japanese celebrity to announce his infection, and to pass from the disease.