You may not remember Koichi Hashizume. He's an actor from the 1995 Hana Yori Dango film. He plays Akira in the film with Kensaku Saeki as Sojiro. However, they receive so little screentime you may not even realize which roles the two are playing. That aside, Koichi is actually the first person involved in the Hana Yori Dango franchise to pass away. For that reason, he has always stuck out in my mind.
Koichi (left) pictured filming Picnic with Tadanobu Asano and Chara.
Possibly due to his passing at an early and it being the pre-internet age, a lot of mystery surrounds Koichi. First of all, I haven't been able to find a source for his Wikipedia listed birthdate (November 30, 1972). After some digging, I found a listing for a pamphlet for Picnic on a Japanese website for secondhand goods. The photo (see below) lists his birthday as March 18, 1972. It also lists his birthplace as Yamaguchi, though the Hana Yori Dango pamphlet lists it as Nagano. However, this can be explained as him being born in Yamaguchi but being from Nagano.
His career, thankfully, is less mysterious. Koichi entered the industry as a model, before filming a commercial for the Nissan Lucino. It was directed by then up-and-coming director Shunji Iwai, whom later cast Koichi as Satoru for his film Picnic. It was going to be Koichi's film debut, but the censor board caused the release to be delayed until 1996. Picnic became a somewhat forgotten Iwai film, but had a resurgence after the director's cut was released.
Koichi's acting debut subsequently became Hana Yori Dango (1995). Despite his relatively small part, he still played a member of the F4 and therefore still remains remembered for that. Koichi then began appearing in television dramas, such as Doc (1996), Singles (1997), News no Onna, and Shomuni (both 1998).
Koichi (far left) with Hana Yori Dango costars Naohito Fujiki, Shosuke Tanihara, and Kensaku Saeki.
Unfortunately, there's a lot of mystery surrounding Koichi's death. On July 9, 1999, he passed away at the age of twenty-six. A blog post confirms the year and month, but not the day. According to said post, his agency claimed that Koichi died in a motorcycle accident but the author (possibly a friend of Koichi's whom also knew Shosuke Tanihara) claims that it could have been suicide. I personally cannot verify either cause of death. I've only been able to find one vague source and then a lot of articles just repeating the Japanese Wikipedia article (which only has one source to it that I cannot access).
In response to this research, I've decided to change Koichi's birthday on his article to March 18 since the November 30 date cannot be verified. I've rewritten his career section with better sources and death section has also been changed to reflect the uncertainness of his cause of death.
I hope Koichi rests in peace along with the others we have lost throughout the years. Hopefully, in the future, some of the mysteriousness around his life will be cleared up.