Career
Nishikawa trained to be a comedian under Kin Ishii, and became a student at Yoshimoto Shinkigeki (a comedy troupe run by Yoshimoto Kogyo) in 1964. In 1966, he formed a manzai duo with Yasushi Yokoyama, and rose to fame, the pair eventually becoming one of the leaders of the manzai boom of the early 1980s. Nishikawa served in Japan"s House of Councillors for three terms between 1986 and 2004 representing the Osaka district, coming in first all three times with more than one million votes.
Nishikawa resumed his entertainment career after 2004.