Noah Advisor Eigen and General Manager Nakata resign after being involved in organized crime.

Weekly Pro

11th April 2012 (Issue No.1624)

On March 23rd Pro Wrestling Noah revealed that company executives had previously had relationships with organized crime.  

According to an investigation by Noah's external lawyers, the relationship began in 2003 when Advisor Haruka Eigen was asked by two members of an organized crime gang to arrange tickets. General Manager Ryu Nakata coordinated the relationship, and wrestlers appeared at events at venues run by members of organized crime. The relationship continued until around August 2010. This relationship occurred before the Organized Crime Exclusion Ordinances were enacted, and there is no evidence that the wrestlers received investments or loans from members of organized crime groups. The relationship has now completely ended. 

However, in light of the influence of criminal gangs, Noah held a board of directors meeting on March 9th to discuss efforts to eliminate anti-social forces. As a result, the following decisions were made:

1. The resignation of Advisor Eigen and General Manager Nakata, and their demotion to regular employees

2. The creation and implementation of compliance regulations; and 3) The implementation of training to eliminate anti-social forces.

On its website, the company stated, "We deeply regret this incident and intend to take measures to prevent recurrence and to prevent any future association with organized crime".  

Yoshinari Ogawa article database

Obviously if you type in "Ogawa" into the search engine of the blog (which is not the best), you will find more articles than the below. The below is a collection of articles specifically about Ogawa which deal with either his contribution to Noah or his All Japan days. You might also like to do a CTRL F search for Ogawa on "Donmai, Donmai" as it contains some interesting stories which take place outside the ring, and also the sadly incomplete "Heir to The Ark". Another resource I recommend is "TheFourPillars1" which is dedicated to Baba era All Japan. 

If you are looking for anything in specific and cannot find it, please let me know. 

Interviews & articles

"Misawa's three forever" Interview with Yoshinari Ogawa and Kotaro Suzuki

Yoshinari Ogawa, "A lonely technician", born from solitude and hardship (interesting article, which gives insight into Ogawa's early days in the All Japan dojo. Although the article is incomplete (it's a paid article, and I only did what was free), it's probably one of the most useful)

"Moss does not grow on a rolling stone" ~ Handsome man pro wrestler biography series, Yoshinari Ogawa

The story of The Budokan and Yoshinari Ogawa

Coach points out! What is the current situation of young people as seen by Ogawa through the "Mauritius Cup"?

Yoshinari Ogawa, who Jun Akiyama described as "The Greatest Authority", was once a young man in years after a left elbow injury 33 years ago

Glittering master of technique, who is the man acknowledged by Mitsuharu Misawa & Keiji Mutoh

Genichiro Tenryu talks about legendary wrestlers: Yoshinari Ogawa

These three articles are probably the first interviews with Ogawa done in Weekly Pro and date from 1985 and 1986

Unknown trainee (1986)

Yoshinari Ogawa's Volume (interview from 1986)

Soar! Young elites who will lead the future of All Japan (Goto, Kawada, Ogawa) (Article from 1985)

Other

Inheriting "Misawa-ism"

"Determination of the departed" (short interview on walking out of All Japan)

Dandyism? It's not like that (Mitsuharu Misawa discusses teaming with Yoshinari Ogawa)

Noah's mystery man

Chris Ridgeway interview

Zack Sabre Jnr interview

Retirement

"I'm actually really sad", Naomichi Marufuji on the sudden announcement of Yoshinari Ogawa's retirement

Yoshinari Ogawa announces retirement due to neck injury, forty years after debuting in All Japan in 1985.

"I heard he had a bad neck, but..." Jun Akiyama is surprised by retirement of Noah senior, Ogawa

Other notes

Noah and All Japan: When Genichiro Tenryu wrestled in Noah, he said that it was like Baba's All Japan in the way that the wrestlers moved and the sound they made when they took moves. This very important to Baba. He credited this to Yoshinari Ogawa and Jun Akiyama.

March 2019

Some junior high school children asked YO-HEY & Ogawa for signatures (Noah aren't meant to sign anything other than merchandise), but Ogawa, seeing that they were little kids and without money to buy merchandise said, "lets do it", and they signed the paper the kids bought with them.  

MISAWA/KAWADA RELATIONSHIP

When comes to his personal relationship with Toshiaki Kawada, as far the mid 1990s onward go, was it a sort of "frenemies" situation? How real or not was their dislike for each other? It's hard for me to tell when kayfabe ends and reality begins.

In the 1990s, Mitsuharu Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada appeared at an All Japan show with heavy bruising to their faces. All Japan announced that Mitsuharu Misawa's eye injury was due to a match (he later needed surgery), but fans heard rumors that he and Toshiaki Kawada got into a bar brawl. Genichiro Tenryu years later said that truth was that he and Kawada had gotten into a fight with each other. Kenta Kobashi in an interview in 2023 revealed, "now that the statute of limitations has passed, I guess" that they got drunk at Karaoke, “the reason is trivial…to sing or not to sing”. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi and he turned pale as they screamed at each other. Kobashi held Misawa back begging him to calm down, and then Kawada broke free of Kikuchi, and threw the first punch. Baba took no action on it, seeing it as "a fight between brothers", which he saw as being triggered by Kawada's jealousy of Misawa. Theirs was a volatile and complex relationship, in the ring Misawa used to provoke Kawada into losing his notoriously short temper, but outside of it, they would go drinking together in later years. After the walk out to Noah, Kawada chose to stay with All Japan, not due to any grudge against Misawa, (he said that it wasn't as if the two of them had a falling out, and "time will solve that problem" as to whether he would ever face Misawa again), but because if he had left then the name of "All Japan" would truly be gone. After Misawa died, Kawada said his heart was no longer in wrestling without Misawa. The irony was that Kawada (although his final match to date was in New Japan), like all of the Four Pillars, would spend the majority of his final career in Noah. 

Misawa/nerd

There's footage from a Japanese TV show where the host is going through what appears to be Misawa's room or office and pointing out a bunch of trinkets and, like Kamen rider figures. Was Misawa into certain shows like this, or collecting toys? Did he have typically "nerdy" hobbies other than video games?

In "Donmai Donmai" (which is your best reference) he mentions not ever going to Akihabara with Go Shiozaki and Kotaro Suzuki. 

"But, I'm not a nerd like Kotaro and Shiozaki! And no matter how much I am invited, I am not going on a tour of Akihabara. [A MENS]* is a nope!"

([A MENS]: Misawa referred to himself as this, while Kotaro was [A BOY])

"Unlike you guys, I'm not an otaku, Kotaro-kun. Also, I won't go to Akihabara with you. It wouldn't be fun to do group activities where everyone has different hobbies."

"Misawa bought a 1/350 Space Battleship Yamato Plastic Model during these off days. The plastic model is a faithful reproduction of the wave motion gun and barrel laser, and its size is 766mm. I don't have time to make it, and I don't have any more space to display it"

Donmai-Donmai is full of references to figure collecting, SFX shows, his Ultraman alarm clock (which he had because he didn't know how to work the alarm on his phone). And films such as "basically, my favorite genre is SFX, which looks far from reality. I am looking forward to the release of many interesting sequels this year, such as "Spiderman 3", "Harry Potter" and "Die Hard". I bought "Hong Kong Police Force", "Oceans 12", "Star Wars" boxsets at the end of the year"

 

Although it wasn't/hasn't been mentioned in "Donmai Donmai", Misawa also collected gacha, and even saved all the ones that his junior roster had bought back from him from overseas, all over Japan etc. His favorite TV show was about a lawyer (which he appeared on once and the theme was played at his funeral), and Final Fantasy VII memorabilia.

Misawa on his favorite show clip - https://twitter.com/i/status/1190008910742208524

Kotaro Suzuki made a courtesy call to Misawa's home after Misawa's death, and Mayumi showed him Misawa's room. This indicates that Misawa and his wife no longer shared the same bed, but I don't think this was due to any kind of marital strife, it was probably more to do with Misawa's worsening physical condition and the fact that he needed a mountain of pillows to even sleep due to the state of his neck, massive weight gain etc. Misawa makes reference to his having a separate room in 2007, so this was probably something that had been going on for a while. Whatever the reason, Kotaro recalled to "Weekly Pro", that there were so many figures in the room of various things, they were even clustered around the bed. 

Misawa/lewd

Sounds like also had a bit of a lewd sense of humour too, you've mentioned on social media and podcasts before that he jokingly told an interviewer he'd been reading pornography while recovering from an injury as Tiger Mask. Do any other examples come to mind?

"If you ask me to give a speech, you need to be prepared. After all, I rarely give praise. At a wedding, other people will fight to give praise, and basically it's in the way of lowering the bar. The lowering of the bar rate is about 80%.
Everyone beware."

Open the floodgates....

Donmai-Donmai

"Basically, I love hot springs. It's nice to just go to the hot springs, but it's even better if the room has a bath. If you go to a large communal bath when there is no bath in the room, you may feel a slight gaze at your crotch" 

"And now a question for Kobashi. It's been hot and warm lately, and the temperature has been fluctuating a lot, so how does Kobashi sleep? Tell me....by the way, before you ask me, I am wearing a negligee."

That, however, is mild compared to...

Said on TV, “Every man wants to be thick and long” and had his own word for male genitalia…

Had plans for a tribute to Shinya Hashimoto which was to write a book of rude stories
He once asked a couple who asked him for his autograph if they had "done it yet", and told Kotaro Suzuki's mother that her son had gone to a strip club...
Said that he was a boob man on TV, making one of the guests admonish him! 

All this (and more) got him the nickname of "The Ero-President" (Erotic President), and as he was so blue, Noah's then General Manager, became concerned that Misawa was tarnishing his serious image and forbade him from doing television appearances.

Misawa/Kobashi

Misawa had a stoic persona in the ring, but it sounds like he was a bit of a jokester behind the scenes. I read that he liked to playfully mess with Kobashi a little bit -- know anything about that? 

In "Donmai Donmai", Misawa and Kobashi (before Kobashi's illness) used to ask each other questions, Misawa's questions included

"So, I asked Kobashi "Have you ever been crazy about anything other than training?" (By the way, Kobashi, his favorite Shochu is "Downtown Napoleon". I wonder if this was the answer I was expecting...what is more elaborate than training is "Fashion?" It's what??? (laughs) The last question to Kobashi is, "How much money do you have?")"

"Firstly, there was a special program recorded for NTV for New Year, which specified wearing suits. Normally, when talent appears on TV, I think the TV station will usually prepare costumes, but as there is no such thing as our sizes, most of them are our own. This time, Kobashi wore his own suit too. When I saw Kobashi in a shirt, I had the idea of short sleeves. Even though this is the end of year, when is he with the season? Besides, I was sweating just by changing clothes. Well, if I put on a jacket you can't see the short-sleeved shirt. I think I took measures considering the heat in the studio. So, in the waiting room I was asked "Boss*, where do you buy your clothes?". I recalled Kobashi's fashion check. As expected, this is the man who answered, "My hobby other than practice is "fashion"."

"Lastly I have a question for Kobashi. The photobook is on sale now, but which photo would you recommend for an "mature woman"?"

However, this was pretty mild compared to the infamous time when he (possibly in March 1997) called Kobashi from a late night radio show. Kobashi, who was woken by the phone, ran to answer. 

Misawa asked him why he was panting...had he been jerking off? 

Kobashi said no, he had run for the phone as he had been woken up by it.

Misawa didn't believe him.

Sometimes Kawada could join in the teasing...

*Kobashi, Kawada and Misawa were on a roundtable, and Kobashi talked about knee pads*

Misawa: So, how do you use it as an ordinary person? (Grins)

Kawada: Because his knees are bad, he uses it during...

Kobashi: Cut! Cut! Cut!

Misawa said the elbow was not good for such times.

Despite his teasing of Kobashi, and his aesthetic life devoted to training and not much else, Misawa knew when to keep Kobashi from himself. Despite telling the roster not to bring him exercise equipment in the hospital, but to bring him porn instead, Misawa made sure that Kobashi when he was able to return to the ring was only booked in Tokyo to start with (and around Tokyo in the bigger cities) as he was on a special diet, which would have been hard to accommodate (back then) outside of the big cities, and medical help wasn't so easily got should anything go wrong. Kobashi himself was known to play the odd prank call on Misawa, and after Misawa's passing said that he felt that he was watching over him, and made a promise to both he and Baba, that he wouldn't break his word and return to the ring.

Misawa/drinking

I've heard Misawa liked to drink, and I believe you said on a podcast that he and Hayabusa became drinking buddies. Do we know anything else about his drinking habits, like how much he would consume? Drink of choice? Favorite brand? 

In his All Japan days, Misawa was compelled to drink by his seniors. Genichiro Tenryu (who is most often credited with teaching Misawa how to drink), said that he felt kind of bad, because here was Misawa newly married, and he was whisked away by Tenryu to drink. As Mayumi Misawa states in "The Last Bump", " As a junior, the senior wrestlers got him drunk, but when he was in that position, he never compelled his own juniors. He would sit at the end of the bar, with his back to the wall, and laugh at their views as they were boasting about their overwhelming track record in the ring, the Triple Crown Heavyweight championship, which is the apex of All Japan wrestling." However, Kenta Kobashi does recall that Misawa thought it would be funny to get him drunk, and he sometimes would lie on his futon, the world spinning and wondering what day it was, when Misawa would appear and take him out again. I don't know about his having a favorite drink brand, but he seemed to like spirits more than beer

 

Mitsuharu Misawa, Naomichi Marufuji, Yoshinari Ogawa and Kotaro Suzuki (c.2003) - this was taken from a skit on a variety show, not a picture of a night out.

(although he did undoubtedly drink beer). 

Naomichi Marufuji recalls going to a sushi restaurant in Sapporo (Misawa was born in Hokkaido, like Marufuji's parents interestingly), which Misawa used to take him to when he was his attendant. Even though this was not somewhere local to Noah, they always kept a bottle of Sake for Misawa, and the manager would prepare it for him personally. After his passing, (7th year), Go Shiozaki and Kotaro Suzuki were in Hokkaido (this was during their AJPW era), and they found an Izakaya (kind of like a Japanese pub or tavern), took a table for three, and put his favorite cigarettes and Shochu in his place. So, I would probably say that given the references to it, and the fact that Shiozaki and Kotaro chose it, Shochu was probably his favorite. 

From "Donmai Donmai"

"I am not a big fan of Japanese sake, but I've always wanted to drink it at a hot spring or inn, but it was delicious. Wine is actually the worst of all alcoholic beverages. Wine may be the alcohol most distant from our lifestyle, where we often go out to eat late at night after the match is over"

"I'll answer Kobashi's question promptly. If I had to choose between tea and coffee, I would be more of a tea person, but I drink cafe au lait the most."

"I often end up eating yakiniku or going to a Izakaya. So, on that day I didn't want to eat much, and so I had yakiniku as a side dish for drinking. Towards the end, I remember suddenly thinking, "The Shochu has gotten darker". I think I was drunk before I knew it. On the 3rd, the matches started at 4pm, so compared to the pattern of going out drinking after the event, which usually starts at 6:30pm, I got off to an early start, and although I don't remember much, I think I probably got home around 2:00. 

It seems that Ogawa, Kotaro, and Ippei went out drinking again after that.

Later on, Misawa thought, "I wish I had been invited too."

Then, in the evening of the next day, Ippei sent me a mail saying "Sorry I couldn't answer the phone. I was going to change my cell phone." "I didn't call you, and I wonder why Ippei went to change his phone?" As I thought about it, my memories gradually came back. Come to think of it, I might have put Ippei's phone in the Shochu when I was drunk"

See Donmai Donmai for drinking references, nights out etc  

"Talking like Kenoh"

A phrase coined by Yoshinari Ogawa in an interview with STINGER in "Weekly Pro" in 2022, when he and Chris Ridgeway teased HAYATA that as he was speaking he would start "talking like Kenoh". This means to talk in long sentences for a long time, and usually in an angry shouting manner using different tones of voice and swear words. 

"Dokan"

TADASUKE: But let me say it plain and simply, one person is angry and the other one is just oh, what is "Dokan?" Hey! Tell me! What is "Dokan"? I won't go home until I hear the answer!

HARADA: Dokan! It's "Dokan!" Do you understand?

TADASUKE: So what is "Dokan"

HARADA: "Dokan!" Nothing more, nothing less! "Dokan" is "Dokan!"

TADASUKE: So what is "Dokan"? 

HARADA: How many times do I have to say it? "Dokan" is "Dokan"! Remember that!

TADASUKE: Ha! Ha! Ha! "Dokan", don't say it then if you don't have a punchline! Blowing up by yourself!

"Dokan" is an onomatopoeia word that is/was used by Daisuke Harada. It doesn't have a direct equivalent in English but the word itself indicates the sound of an explosion i.e. a volcano, a firework. Harada (as he is from Osaka) uses the Kansai pronunciation, whereas the word can be pronounced differently elsewhere in Japan (for example in Nagasaki it is "Donpo", in Kumamoto "Donkacho"), so the best way to put it would be "kaboom", "boom" etc. Additionally Harada will also sometimes add on "Hana..dokan", which can probably be best put as shower of sparks.  

"Warring States Period"

Phrase used by YO-HEY (and I think also Daisuke Harada) to describe the chaotic war going on in the Noah Juniors for most of 2020 and 2021. This refers to the period of ancient Chinese warfare characterized by seven warring states constantly attacking each other, switching sides and then betraying each other etc, and plunging the country (as it was then before China was unified) into chaos. 

"100 Wrestler"

Phrase first used by The Sugiura Army (probably Takashi Sugiura), to describe Kenoh. While there is no direct equivalent of the saying in English, it can be likened to mean something uniform, alike and featureless and no different from the rest i.e. peas in a pod, a packet of office biro, a pile of plastic boxes. 

HAYATA used the phrase, "Next...100 wrestlers", against Haoh and Nioh when they challenged STINGER for the GHC Junior Heavyweight titles. 

"Good Fight Man"

"Good Fight Man" basically means someone who is always trying to succeed, but for various reasons cannot. Although the term was also used for Jumbo Tsuruta, it was also the nickname of sumo wrestler, Kurama Tatsuya, who could not win even though he was on par with superior wrestlers. The term is also applied to job hunters who fail the final interview; so in short it is someone who often fails the final hurdle. In Noah the term has been applied to Yoshiki Inamura, and Shuhei Taniguchi by Takashi Sugiura. 

"Brum Brum"\"Bun Bun"

"Bun Bun" or "Brum Brum" is the sound of a motorbike revving that petrolhead Atsushi Kotoge from FULL THROTTLE uses. In Japanese onomatopoeic sound the word is pronounced and translated as "Bun Bun", but in English "Bun Bun" is slang for the word "Bunny", so it becomes "Brum Brum". 

The differences in spelling come from Western Roman and the Japanese Katakana alphabet, the Japanese have a "ru" and "n" sounds, but they do not have an "br", so the word changes to "bun bun" (on a personal note my favorite is "Do-den-ka-sha", which is the sound a train makes when travelling along tracks). 

"Engine Zenkai"

エンジン全開 ("Enjin Zenkai") is a phrase used by Atsushi Kotoge to describe both FULL THROTTLE (Atsushi Kotoge, Hajime Ohara & Seiki Yoshioka) and their special move of the three of them holding an opponent throat down on the bottom rope, with one applying pressure from the back and the other two side by side with their feet. 

In English the equivalent of "Engine open" would be "engines charged" or "engines firing" (to say an "Engine was open" in English would kind of roughly mean that the bonnet\hood would be open and it could be inspected). 

Atsushi Kotoge is a big motorcycle fan, having grown up around bikes in Osaka as his parents ran a bike repair store, and so it is natural that his obsession with them continues into the ring, as you can see from the picture above which was taken for a programme filmed in Kawasaki that they will be doing (picture credit, Noah.co.jp)

TEEN'S HEAVEN

TEEN'S HEAVEN are a idol group which consists of three girls, Usagi Sekine, Ayame Ishihara and Yui Fujisawa (pictured above with Naomichi Marufuji in June 2020). The relationship between the band and Noah works both ways, Noah want to reach out to people who wouldn't normally watch wrestling, and TEEN'S HEAVEN want to reach out to people who wouldn't normally listen to their music. 

Their association with Noah came in early 2020, when they filmed a video for an upcoming song they were releasing, "LITTLE HERO IN YOUR HEART", at the Noah dojo. Naomichi Marufuji and Kinya Okada appeared in the video, with Naomichi Marufuji appearing at the CD launch event.

The girls look to be making more appearances in Noah, and are scheduled to appear in July 2020 at "NOAH The Sanctuary" at Club Citta. 

"Era Wrestler"

Background

The Japanese give regnal eras to each Emperors reign, so the Showa Era ("Enlightened Peace" or "Radiant Japan") was the reign of Emperor Hirohito from December 1926 to January 1989. Any wrestler who trained and was active during this era, is known as a "Showa-Era Wrestler".

The Showa Era was followed by the Heisei Era (8th January 1989 - 30th April 2019). At the time of writing, Japan is currently in the Reiwa Era (1st May 2019 onwards).

Wrestling terms 

"Showa Era Wrestler"
Masa Kitamiya is often referred to as wrestling "Showa Era" style, although he himself trained during the Heisei Era. To wrestle "Showa Era" style means that his style is reminiscent of an older time in wrestling, the more classical style that belonged to his senior, Masa Saito, which would not have looked out of place in the Giant Baba era of All Japan.

The majority of Noah are Heisei Era wrestlers, while the trainees in the dojo will be Reiwa era wrestlers. Each era is marked by its own style; Showa Era encompass the veterans, Heisei era are the current product, with Reiwa in Noah yet to be seen, but I would imagine that with a varied mix of teachers, they will encompass both styles while bringing their own in.

Trivia

Although Masa Kitamiya is the "Showa Era" style wrestler, he never actually wrestled in the Showa Era, having been born in 1988 the year before Hirohito died. However, Yoshinari Ogawa has wrestled in all three eras having debuted in All Japan in 1985 (Showa), where he remained until 2000 (Heisei) and is still active there in 2020 (Reiwa).

One day manager

Each month Mohammed Yone has a member of the Noah roster come to his restaurant to serve drinks and food to fans. The events are always on a reserved basis with limited capacity, and the restaurant closes for the evening. As well as serving drinks and food, the wrestler will usually put his own spin on it i.e. Akitoshi Saito mixed his own drinks, and Hajime Ohara cooked the evenings food. The evening will usually finish off with an auction of wrestlers personal items, an autograph session and a chance for photos.

"The Yone Women" (aka "The Tadasuke women")

"The Yone Women" consist of Mohammed Yone's mother, some other relatives, and local women who always come to see Noah when they come to Shinyuri Twenty One Hall, Kawasaki. The women are basically Yone's cheering squad, and they hiss and boo his opponents. They were so loud in February 2020 that Yone was worried that they were disturbing other fans.

They are also known as "The Tadasuke Women" as they seem to have taken him to their hearts after a show in 2018 when Tadasuke played up to them after beating up Minoru Tanaka, and showed them how tough he was by a muscle gesture. Like Yone they cheer him when he does well, and boo his opponents. 

Trivia

~ In 2018 Minoru Tanaka sprained his ankle when fighting Tadasuke near them, it was him who coined the phrase "The Tadasuke Women". He also said that they had distracted him so much that was why he hurt his ankle. 

Use of honorifics - "Chan"

ちゃん is a Japanese honorific, and used like "kun" as a term of endearment, but there are differences between the two. "Chan" does not have a direct meaning in English, but its like calling someone "little" in an affectionate way. 

Use in Noah
"Chan" amongst wrestlers is not usually used, because they tend to use the suffix "kun", which is more masculine. "Chan" is normally used by and for women, although there are exceptions;

1. Takashi Sugiura has called KENTA "Ken-chan", which I think probably goes back to the fact that he's known him since he was a teenager of about 18 or 19 (not to mention that Sugiura is 49, and KENTA 38).
2. Marufuji has used it for Takashi Sugiura when asking Kenoh why he chose to sit between himself and "Sugi-chan". This is an example of using it in "baby talk", which was how Marufuji was basically speaking to Kenoh (i.e like a small child).
3. Kenta Kobashi also used to call (or still does call for all I know) KENTA "Ken-chan", ("Little KENTA"), because the similarity of their surnames "Kobashi" and "Kobayashi" caused instant confusion in the All Japan\Noah dojos, and therefore differentiating between "Kobashi-san" and "Kobayashi-san" was a lot easier when "Chan" was added. 
4. Satoko (Mohammed Yone's female alter-ego) refers to Naomichi Marufuji as "Michi-chan", this is an example of feminine speech. 
5. YO-HEY calls himself "YO-HEY chan" at times, which is an example of playful speech.  

Fans (usually female) also use the honorific as nicknames, the most popular being "Katchan" (Katsuhiko Nakajima), which comes from the fact that he has grown up in Puro. 

"Chan" and "Kun" are not honorifics that would ever be used for anyone like Kenta Kobashi, Yoshinari Ogawa or Mitsuharu Misawa. You would never address anyone senior to you as "Chan" or "Kun", unless of course you had an extremely playful and informal relationship with that person...or else like Kenoh, wished to be very rude, but he uses "kun" in these situations, as its mainly male speech, and he doesn't wish to be playful, babyish or whimsical, but rude. 

"Noah Wrestlers Association"

I am unsure of what exactly this is, but Go Shiozaki is the chairman of the committee (I believe that Takashi Sugiura is also on the board). I believe that this deals with protecting the rights of the wrestlers, dealing with pay issues and health insurance.

The association is not exactly a union (it's not going to tell them to strike), but tends to lean more towards speaking for them as a whole, and ensuring that they are taken care of. One thing that Mitsuharu Misawa, the company founder, was always concerned about was what would happen to wrestlers when their in-ring lives were over. Before he died he had planned to open a restaurant which would have been staffed by veteran wrestlers, which would have given them an income and a purpose, so it is conceivable that the new Noah would create something to take care of its roster, the way old fashioned All Japan did not.
In the past Go Shiozaki has been the one to address the crowd at the Christmas shows, and present flowers from the roster as a whole at various events. In short it gives them a voice. The Noah Wrestlers Association is not the booking team.

Naomichi Marufuji may also be on the committee, as he is the roster manager (Takashi Sugiura held this position from 2011 until 2016), and so would deal with any issues and personal concerns in the day to day life of the roster whether in the dojo or on the road, and probably mediate disputes amongst people jammed together for such a long period of time. He would not get involved in anything regarding pay, health insurance etc.