Possibly my first connection with Japan was waking at an ungodly hour (lifelong habit) and turning on the telly to watch Shintaro the samurai and his sidekick, Tombei the Mist, take on the evil Koga ninja and other assorted nasties threatening the Shogunate.

I was watching The Samurai, a program where Shintaro, played by Koichi Ose, possibly did more than anything else to restore friendly postwar relations between Australia and Japan.

The Samurai was the first Japanese TV to screen in Australia in late 1965, and when Ose toured Down Under the following year, thousands of children swarmed Melbourne and Sydney airports to catch a glimpse of their hero, their numbers rivalling the Beatlemania crowds that assembled when the Fab Four toured Australia in 1964.

As the Dec. 16, 1965, edition of the Sydney Morning Herald noted (tastelessly by 2025 standards, but indicative of the emotions at the time of publication), “just after the war, 20 years ago, it would have been harakiri to suggest that a Japanese warrior could be hailed as a hero in Australia,” before going to add that entrepreneurs expected to do record box-office business from Australian Shintaro and ninja fans.

The Samurai was a dubbed version of Onmitsui Kenshi, which had aired in Japan on TBS from 1962, and was a mild success, though Ose had done better in the late 1950s performing in the role of Moonlight Mask, or Gekkou Kamen (月光仮面), one of Japan’s first superheros.

Australia’s Nine network purchased the show. It aired one episode in late 1964 and then made an unprecedented request to viewers to give their opinion of the show. Thousands of letters of support flooded in, and Australia had a hit. In fact, The Samurai was the biggest show on Australian TV, out-rating even the Mickey Mouse Club. The show was repeated over and over again.

Media publications ran special features on the program and merchandisers quickly jumped on the bandwagon.

The chewing-gum company, Scanlen’s, brought out a set of 72 black and white gum cards of photos from the series. When the backs were placed together, they made a giant black and white full-length poster of Shintaro.

Plastic samurai swords and children’s ninja and samurai costumes came on the market, mostly of terrible quality, but cashing in on the phenomenon. More than 20,000 costumes sold in the 1965 Christmas season, as well as more than 3,000 carboard shuriken throwing stars.

Theatrical agent Jim McDonald brought Ose to Australia to star in a 90-minute samurai vs ninja pantomime: another first for Australia.

Let’s not forget this was happening under the White Australia Policy and Ose symbolized a Japan that most Australians at the time viewed as an invader and still something of an enemy, with the tone of a Sydney Daily Telegraph story on Dec. 28, 1965, indicative of the tone of the country at the time.

“With one man, very little money and a couple of television cameras, Japan has achieved a victory over Australia that eluded her militarists two decades ago. Sydney has been conquered, other capitals are sure to fall. It has been a surprising, even an astounding victory,” the story went. “And the man responsible for it is a young Japanese with a girlish ponytail, a long black dress, a long silver sword, accusing eyes and a tremendous occupation with ‘doing the right thing.’ In short, Shintaro the samurai has taken Sydney by storm. He arrives here next week for a two week season at the Sydney Stadium.”

Ose put on six shows that were all sold out, prompting a push to visit Melbourne. The show moved to that city’s Festival Hall, the same venue the Beatles played, selling out another three shows before Ose’s commitments compelled him to return to Japan.

Ose left the Japanese series, which continued without him. The Nine Network followed The Samurai with Phantom Agents, which was also popular, but not attracting the response that Ose’s show had.

Nine showed The New Samurai, the follow-up to the original series, but it didn’t reach the heady heights of its predecessor.

By the end of the 1960s, the popularity of The Samurai had waned, but repeats were a staple, especially in the 6 a.m. timeslot, which the show was repeated on several occasions through the 1970s and into the 1980s.

Japanese TV re-entered the spotlight in Australia with the appearance of Monkey in 1981, and people started remembering The Samurai.

Gradually, a community built on nostalgia for the show began to build up in Australia. They held gatherings and conventions, swapped and admired memorabilia, and invited Ose back to Australia. Men at Work, the band that gave the world the song Down Under that became a symbol of Australia, also issued a track, Shintaro, taken from the TV show, around the same time.

To this day, the community remains dedicated and devoted, maintaining that sturdy foundation of Japan-Australia relations that The Samurai laid down in the ’60s.

Shintaro The Samurai Sensation That Swept Australia in the 1960s 

The Samurai Shintaro

Opening music

The Samurai Shintaro FATE OF A NINJA 隠密剣士 カラオケ

Shintaro the Samurai (Hero of Aussie 1960’s Schoolkids) — Part 1

Shintaro the Samurai (Shintaro Invades Australia) — Part 2

Reference

Nikki White’s amazing Samurai website