Yokagao (予科顔, roughly “first-year face”) was a deliberately subdued expression once expected of first-year students at Japan’s Takarazuka Music School when they encountered seniors. On the October 20, 2026 episode of Odoru! Sanma Goten!!, former students described making their eyebrows slope like the Japanese character ハ and their mouths turn down like ヘ. Host Sanma Akashiya could hardly believe that even smiling around older students had been restricted. The school’s unwritten rules were reported abolished in 2020.
What was said on television?
The Nippon TV talk show aired from 8 to 9 p.m. Japan time, bringing together former members of the Takarazuka Revue. Haruka Tokuyama, who performed under the stage name Koko Miyahime, recalled the expression expected during her first year. Former star Jun Shibuki added that students with naturally cheerful-looking faces could be scolded because they appeared to be smiling.
Sanma asked whether students could at least laugh while chatting with friends. Shibuki’s answer amounted to: only if nobody noticed. Tatsuki Koju recalled that the absence of the year above them, for example on a school trip, could finally give the younger students room to laugh freely. A performing-arts school where the availability of a smile depended on who was in the corridor: that contrast made the exchange memorable.
What is Takarazuka, and why did this rule exist?
The Takarazuka Revue is a Japanese all-female musical-theatre company known for elaborate productions, including women playing male roles. Its two-year training school calls first-years yokasei and second-years honkasei. The face rule expressed a once-rigid seniority culture. It was neither a facial acting exercise nor a funny face invented for television.
Other reported customs included bowing toward trains used by senior students and limiting how juniors could answer them. Former pupils told Nikkan Sports that practices varied across generations and depending on the seniors involved.
Is it still required?
No such current rule should be inferred from the TV story. In September 2020, Japanese reports described the school abolishing a number of unwritten student customs, including yokagao. The 2026 guests were recalling their own school years, not issuing a handbook for today's students.
The point of the joke
Sanma’s surprise came from a simple contradiction: young people training to perform joy on stage had once been expected to suppress everyday smiles in front of seniors. The anecdote can be funny in hindsight without turning excessive discipline into a virtue. Yokagao explains the old hierarchy; it does not describe a confirmed rule in force today.
