Meshida

Meshida (real name Yoshinari Iida) is a Japanese stand-up comedian based in Tokyo who performs primarily in English. A former salaryman, he quit his corporate job and travelled to the United Kingdom to pursue stand-up comedy after graduation, going on to become a 2017 finalist in the King Gong open-mic competition at London's Comedy Store. He has performed stand-up more than 800 times across Tokyo, New York City and London. In Tokyo he runs a long-running solo English-language stand-up show, "Why Why Japan!?," staged in the Asakusa district, in which he blends comedy with commentary on Japanese history, religion and culture aimed at foreign audiences, and which he has performed more than 600 times. Meshida is also a YouTuber with more than 200,000 subscribers, known for comedic videos explaining aspects of Japanese culture.