Kano Mika (39), the younger half of the “Gorgeous Kano Sisters” had the best-selling talento photo book of last year. Her “Sweet Goddess”, with photos taken by her elder sister Kyoko (44), outsold Kimura Takuya‘s “% (Percentage)” and several others featuring Johnny’s Jimusho male stars. In the No.3 spot was American model Leah Dizon (photo, 20), whose self-promotional savvy has worked particularly well in Japan. The half French-American, half Chinese-Philippina model was born in Las Vegas and raised in Los Angeles. She built up her name on the Web, gaining new fans here with her loose socks and Japanese schoolgirl outfits, not to mention the more scantily-clad photos. She first came to Japan in the spring of 2006, though she had learned enough Japanese to be able to sing the Amuro Namie song “I Will” in her self-made promo video. She lists several Japanese artists among her favorite musicians, thought to be the influence of her half-Japanese cousin. She has just the right look for today’s young Japanese female market and isn’t afraid to turn on the sex appeal for male fans. A big name in the making?
• Domestic movies beat Hollywood imports at the box office last year for the first time in 21 years. The biggest hits of the year were the latest Harry Potter movie (¥11 billion), the second in Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” series (¥10 billion), and “The Da Vinci Code” (¥9 billion). But six local hits, including Studio Ghibli‘s latest anime feature “Gedo Senki” (Tales From Earthsea, ¥7.65 billion) and the sequel “Limit of Love Umizaru” (¥7.1 billion) were over the ¥5-billion mark, and of the 50 movies that made more than ¥1 billion, 28 were Japanese. Domestic productions brought in almost ¥108 billion in total, while foreign films made ¥94.8 billion. Altogether, 821 new movies were screened in 2006, up 90 from the year before. The number of screens nationwide has also been increasing annually since the first cinema complex opened in 1994. The current total is 3,062, a return to the level last seen in the early 1970s.
• Actress Inoue Harumi (32) is pregnant with her first child. She is expecting the baby at the end of May. She met her Canadian husband, named only as Reuben, while studying in Canada in 2005. Inoue started out as an idol singer in 1991, and was later credited with starting the boom in busty pin-up girls.
Morning Musume celebrated their tenth anniversary yesterday with a concert at Yokohama Arena, bringing an end to the Hello! Project spring tour. The weekend was marred by an accident on Saturday, when a 35-year-old male fan fell from a 3rd-tier balcony and had to undergo emergency surgery. But the mood was upbeat on Sunday, as former Momus member Konno Asami (19, photo left) made her first appearance on the tour. She is entering the prestigious Keio University this year. The show also marked the first on-stage look at new member Mitsui Aika (14) and the graduation of Country Musume members Asami (22, photo center) and Miuna (19, photo right). Mitsui introduced herself as the first member from Shiga Prefecture and her arrival brings the lineup to sixteen members, though leader Yoshizawa Hitomi (21) is graduating in April. The group performed their new single, “Eigao Yes Nude”, due for release on February 14.
You may think the craze for Korean actor Bae Yong Joon (35) has faded in Japan, but he’s still raking in the cash. Looking at the latest tax records, he is the biggest showbiz taxpayer in his home country. But 90% of his earnings originated in Japan, from “Yon-sama” goods, TV commercials and other media tie-ups. It was revealed this week that in the 2005 tax year he made about ¥4.2 billion. Last year he didn’t appear in any TV dramas or movies, but even in 2005 the popular movie “Shigatsu no Yuki” (April Snow) and commercials accounted for only about 20% of his earnings. The other 80% came from merchandising. The whole Yon-sama boom was started by the 2004 TV series “Fuyu no Sonata” (Winter Sonata), with huge crowds of mostly middle-aged women becoming fanatical about him. And in those three years he has milked that popularity to the tune of almost ¥8.5 billion. The flame may be reignited later this year, with a new drama series due to air on TV from the spring. Though “Taio Shishinki” is likely to be hugely successful here, his management say they don’t want to focus too much on Japan at the expense of his fans in Korea and China. Meanwhile Sanrio, the company behind Hello Kitty, have agreed to start licensing Yon-sama goods. Details of the agreement with media contents company Key East have not been announced, but are thought to include an original “Joon Bear” character – designed by Yamaguchi Yuko, the women behind Kitty – as well as a host of products featuring his likeness.
You may have trouble believing it, but Mizuno Miki (32) is one of Japan’s more attractive actresses. The special makeup she’s wearing is for her role in the horror movie, “Kuchisake Onna”. The title literally means “slit-mouth woman” and is reminiscent of the gruesome ghosts of Japanese folklore. The movie is based on a famous urban legend from the late 1970s, in which a masked woman would terrorize young children on their way home from school. Removing the mask, she’d ask them, “Am I beautiful?” If they answered “No”, she would slit their throats on the spot. If they told her she was beautiful, she would take them to their home and kill them there. The only way to avoid death was to answer “Not bad” or “Normal”. Mizuno was originally offered the part of one of the children’s mother, but asked for the more “interesting” role. “The director (Shiraishi Koji) told me to be the incarnation of violence. So in my acting I tried to make 100% use of the little bit of evil that lives in the heart of everyone. It was fun.” She added, “I even scared myself in that makeup!” The movie, which opens on March 17, also stars Sato Eriko (25) and Kato Haruhiko (31).
Kikuchi Rinko (26) has made it onto the Oscar shortlist. Yesterday, she became just the fifth Japanese actor to be nominated for an Academy Award, for her role in “Babel”. She plays a deaf high school girl struggling to come to terms with the death of her mother and her own awakening sexuality. She was also among the nominess for a Golden Globe, though the award went to Jennifer Hudson for “Dreamgirls”. Among Kikuchi’s other rivals for the Oscar will be her Babel co-star Adriana Barraza. Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu is also up for an award. Babel was nominated in a total of six categories, including the one for best picture, in which it’s up against Clint Eastwood’s Japanese language WWII drama “Letters From Iwo Jima”. That movie in turn stars 
23-year-old Hagi Mika is the 39th Miss Japan. The Rikkyo University graduate school law student was chosen from 2,432 entrants at the finals held at the Keio Plaza hotel in Tokyo yesterday. She won a ¥14-million diamond tiara and a holiday in Phuket. It was the third time for Hagi, from Mie Prefecture, to enter the contest. Her mother first entered her without her knowledge while she was a high school senior, taking her measurements while she was sleeping. Hagi was a national debate quarter-finalist while in high school, and was a beauty queen while studying at Mie University in 2002. She worked as a local TV reporter at the Suzuka race circuit, also in her native Mie, before coming to study in Tokyo. The day before yesterday’s finals, she had been announced as the winner of the “Miss Nihon Sponichi Special Award”, chosen by readers of the Sports Nippon newspaper.
Executives of Kansai TV apologized on Saturday for made-up content on a popular show that caused a rush on natto products. The sticky, stinky fermented soybeans are a food that you either love or hate. But packs were flying off supermarket shelves across the country after the January 7 edition of “Hakkutsu! Aru Aru Daijiten II” (Encyclopedia of Living II) touted their effectiveness as a diet product. The program quoted research from the U.S. that claimed boosting DHEA hormone levels in the body, such as from eating natto, led to dramatic weight loss. But the U.S. university professor shown on the program was not the one who carried out the research, his statements were incorrectly translated, and photos of test subjects were fake. The show also showed eight people who went on a two-week natto diet, saying they lost up to 3.4kg. But blood test results that allegedly showed increased DHEA levels were simply made up, as were several other claims. The show was produced in Tokyo by Japan Television Workshop and broadcast nationwide by the Fuji TV network and affilates. On Saturday, KTV president Chigusa Souichiro apologized to viewers, sponsors and celebrities who appeared on the show. Another KTV spokesman said that the problem was with the program itself and that they stood by the dietary benefits of natto. Sunday’s scheduled broadcast was replaced by a 5-minute apology by Fuji TV announcer Mori Hachiro and an extended edition of the show “Stamen”, which also addressed the issue.
Talento Sonomanma Higashi (49) was elected as the new governor of Miyazaki Prefecture yesterday. The former member of comedian 
Singer Izawa Hachiro died yesterday from esophageal cancer at a Tokyo hospital. He was 69. Real name Kudo Kinichi, he was the father of Hollywood actress Kudo Yuki, who turned 36 yesterday. She wasn’t with him at the end but had visited him in the morning. She said on her official homepage that her father had done his best to hold on and help her celebrate her birthday. Izawa was first diagnosed with cancer in September 2005 and had been undegoing treatment. He was hospitalized since last November. He made his singing debut in 1963 and had his signature hit, “Aa Ueno Eki” the following year. He had two children, Yuki and former actor turned club DJ Kudo Masaki, with his first wife, Yukiko. They divorced in 1989 and he married voice actress Aoba Miyoko, 25 years his junior, in 1993. Kudo Yuki appeared in the 2005 hit “Memoirs of a Geisha” (Sayuri) and is currently filming “Rush Hour 3”.