Do we like HIKAKIN?
Our score: 8 out of 10. Big, steady disaster giving and public apologies, with no harmful words or company found, but a couple of real stumbles and a thin record on social issues.
Hikakin is Japan's biggest YouTuber, a beatboxer who went viral in 2010 and turned a channel into a media empire. He's the kind of mainstream face that kids and grandparents both know, which is why a blip in his behaviour becomes national news. The 2026 version of him is also a businessman, selling his own noodles and a barley tea.
The April 2026 stoush was more weird than wicked. He ran a dark, wave-sounds livestream for days, fans feared something was wrong, and he put out an apology video saying he was exhausted from product development and that it wasn't trouble. The product turned out to be ONICHA barley tea, and he later apologised again for the worry he caused, saying he'd got carried away trying to hype it.
The bigger past mistake came in 2022 with his Fujikyu Highland tag event. Participants and others raised concerns that the game had been tilted against challengers after an unannounced 10-minute extension. He denied any intentional rigging, but said staff checks showed the extension hadn't been explained to challengers, took the video down, and called it a mistake that could fairly be called unfair. Owning it that plainly is rarer than you'd think.
In January 2024 Weekly Bunshun's online edition published a woman's account alleging he'd two-timed her around his marriage announcement. He posted a video bowing and apologising, admitted parts of the article were accurate, and denied that the relationships overlapped. That's one person's allegation against his word, with no court involved, so it's a small stain on the good-person side, not a pattern.
On the harm check, the searches found no anti-LGBTQ+, anti-women, anti-migrant or climate-denial words or campaigns from him, and no pattern of working with people who push that. To be fair, the coverage is mostly Japanese entertainment news and not much of it is about social issues, so this is a pass on what we found, not a deep dive into what he thinks.
The good stuff is a long run of giving. After the April 2024 Taiwan earthquake he announced a 10 million yen donation through the Japanese Red Cross, saying it was time for Japanese people to repay Taiwan's kindness. He's done the same after other disasters, which is real money from a man with a huge audience, and it's why Japanese fans trust him.