Monthly Archives: October 2004

Kajiwara Mayumi (37), formerly a member of the “sexy group” Shape Up Girls, held a wedding reception with her new husband, golf shop owner Kakuta Hiromichi (33), at a country club in Ibaraki prefecture on Tuesday. The couple married in Fiji on October 7 after going out for three years. Asked to compare their feelings on married life to golf, Tsunoda called it a “hole in one.” The best Kajiwara could manage was a “nice birdy.” They plan to register their marriage in Japan on November 22 – 11/22 is read in Japanese as “ii fufu” or “good husband and wife.”

Former Speed member Imai Eriko (21) has given birth to her first child, a baby boy, at a Tokyo hospital. She married Shogo (24), vocalist of the hip-hop group 175R, in June after a relationship of about a year. Next month will see the release of her first greatest hits album “Single Collection – Stairway.” Speed, the Okinawa pop group that got their start as backup singers for Amuro Namie (26), were one of the biggest names at the turn of the century. They broke up in 2000 and have played only charity events since.

• The silly award season is back. Among this year’s “Megane Best Dresser” award winners for people who look good in glasses were Cutie Honey actress Sato Eriko (22), retired news reader Kume Hiroshi (60) and popular golfer Miyazato Ai (19). And the “Best Leathernist” award went to actress Ishikawa Asami (27) for looking good in leather.

Never ones to avoid the limelight, the family of baseball legend Nomura Katsuya (69) got plenty of press coverage when they took their latest addition for her first shrine visit. Third son Katsunori (31), who has managed to hang in as a player due to his father’s support, and his wife brought their 5-month old daughter Sayako to the Hie Jinja shrine in central Tokyo for her traditional “o-miya mairi.” The elder Nomura is now manager of the Sidax company team, after a series of tax evasion scandals and court cases involving his acid-tongued wife Sachiyo (72) forced both to give up their main jobs – he as manager of the Hanshin Tigers, she as a TV celebrity. Their other sons are U.S.-based baseball agent Don Nomura and estranged son Kenny, from Sachiyo’s first marriage. Sachiyo was sued for libel by her daughter-in-law in 2001.

Actor Takahashi Katsunori (photo, 39) and half-German model Nakanishi Hanna (24) tied the knot at the weekend. The couple registered their marriage at the local municpal office and held their ceremony in the afternoon at Aoyama Gakuin University, the groom’s alma mater. Takahashi is best known for his role as “Salaryman Kintaro” a TV adaptation of the best-selling manga series. He was on record as saying he wanted to marry before he turned 40 – he made it with just two months to spare!

• Another 39-year old getting hitched at the weekend was actor Tsurumi Shingo (39). His bride Hitomi (29) is a former employee at a retirement home. The couple held their ceremony and reception at the swanky Hotel Okura in central Tokyo. They will probably register their marriage this week.

New York-based R & B singer Kubota Toshinobu (42) this week married a 31-year old employee of a Norwegian company. The couple have been going out since Ms. A moved to N.Y. as a student five years ago. She is expecting a baby in December. Earlier this month, Kubota became the first Japanese artist in 24 years to record an appearance on “Soul Train.” He moved to the U.S. in 1989 and made his debut there in 1995. He has released three albums there so far. The most recent, “Time to Share” was released just last month. His biggest hit to date was the 1996 single “La La La, Love Song,” which sold over 2 million copies in Japan.

• Utada Hikaru‘s U.S. debut album “Exodus” has made the Billboard charts. It ranked at No.5 in the chart for new artists, and No.160 on the overall chart. Billboard magazine pointed out that it was unrealistic to expect even someone who is a huge star in Japan to be able to replicate that kind of success in the U.S. But it added that the talented, new York-born Utada could be an exception.

• Popular celebrity Sakashita Chiriko (28) is romantically involved with one of the staff on one of her five regular TV shows, according to the weekly magazine Friday. Already linked with comedian Tamura Atsushi (of London Boots), Yomiuri Giants baseball player Nioka Tomohiro and a company employee, it seems that the real man in her life is a beefy 25-year old cameraman on the Fuji TV show “Moshimo Tours.”

Singer songwriter Utada Hikaru (21) has been doing the rounds in the U.S. media. She made an interview appearance on CNN’s entertainment show “The Biz” on Wednesday. The show was also braodcast on the Japanese channel CNNj. The interview, in English, was conducted in a studio in New York, where Utada was born and spent her youth. Her debut U.S. album “Exodus,” which she released on the Island/Def Jam label under just her family name, went on sale on October 5. Among her comments from an interview with the Washington Post: “When I dress girlie in New York, I always feel like I look like a hooker just because I’m Asian.”

Washington Post article: “Leaving the Girl Behind”

Interview with Dan Wong, with sound files and song samples

Big things are expected for the latest album from smooth balladeer Hirai Ken. “SentimentaLovers,” his first original album in two years, is set to go on sale on November 24. It includes the biggest hit single of this year, “Me wo Tojite” (Close Your Eyes), which sold over 900,000 copies. All of Hirai’s previous three albums (“The Changing Same” – 2000; “Gaining Through Losing” – ’01; and “Life Is…” – “02) have been million sellers and the new title is expected to achieve at least the same level of sales.

• Natsukawa Rimi’s hit single “Namida SouSou” has become the fourth-longest chart entry of all time. Currently at No.78 in the Oricon charts, it has stayed in the Top 100 for 123 weeks, ranking second among female solo artists. It first went on sale in April 2001. The No. 1 long-seller is Nakajima Miyuki’s “Chijo no Hoshi,” which charted for 181 weeks.

The Takarazuka theater troupe held a sports day to celebrate its 90th anniversary, the 20th such event in its history, at Osaka Castle. The all-female troupe, which has hordes of fanatical – and mostly female – fans, last held an “undokai” in 1984. In 1998, it added a fifth sub-troupe, so this year a total of 520 current members and students at the Takarazuka school took part. Even the actresses who normally play only male parts wore skirts, a rare sight for fans. the overall event was won by the Moon Troupe, with top star Ayaki Nao taking the MVP award.

• There were a couple of press events yesterday for tear-jerking dramas featuring couples. Matsuda Seiko (photo, 42) and Funakoshi Eiichiro (44) play the parents of a child with Down Syndrome in a TV dramatisation of a true story. It airs on NTV on October 26. And Takeuchi Yuko (24), who stars alongside kabuki actor Nakamura Shido (32) in the new movie “Ima Ai ni Yukimasu,” says she was moved to tears when she read the original novel.

The official soundtrack for the hugely popular Korean soap opera “Fuyu no Sonata” (Winter Sonata) has stacked up sales of over a million albums, a first for a soundtrack. The previous best was 832,000 for the Fuji TV drama series “Long Vacation,” that starred the always popular Kimura Takuya. To be fair, the FuyuSona sales figure is actually for three separate versions of the album, the first of which has been on sale since July 2003. The series has aired several times on NHK and has made a household name of its stars Choi Ji Woo and especially Bae Yong Joon, known simply as “Yon-sama”. He is now a huge star in Japan, particularly among housewives, and has appeared in several TV commercials. He is one of the flagbearers for a Korea “boom” in music, movies and TV.

Today is Taiiku no Hi (Health/Sports Day), a national holiday
A couple of singers who had their heyday in the 90s showed that they still have plenty of fans. Amuro Namie (27) turned up in Tokyo’s trendy Shibuya area for a series of PR events yesterday. Her arrival sparked chaos in the huge crowd in front of the 109 building and forced police to cancel her 5-minute appearance after just 2 minutes. Another afternoon event was cancelled altogether. She did turn up at the local HMV to perform her new single “Girl Talk/The Speed Star,” also part of the PR tie-in with a cosmetics brand.

• Suzuki Ami (22) has kicked off her first tour in four and a half years. She will play at six college festivals, and started with Nihon University in Tokyo yesterday. “Amigo” was a big star in the late-90s but disputes with her record label and a series of court cases put her career on hold for several years. She made an official comeback in April with her first single in over three years. She is still unsigned to any record label, but Avex president Matsuura Katsuhito was seen at yesterday’s event.