Monthly Archives: March 2007

Entrepreneur and playboy Nojiri Yoshitaka (34) is to settle down with popular model Tanami Ryoko (32). The pair are planning to get married this summer. Nojiri is a member of the so-called “Hills-zoku”, or Hills Tribe, the rich and famous people who live in the Roppongi Hills complex in central Tokyo. He is the founder of the wedding planning company Take & Give – Needs, which has facilities across the country and was listed on the Nasdaq Japan index in 2001. He has had a string of widely publicized relationships with celebrities. The most recent was with actress Shaku Yumiko (28), but they broke up last summer. Nojiri was also romantically linked with actress Umemiya Anna (34) after her brief marriage ended in 2003, as well as TV announcers Uchida Kyoko (30) and Takeuchi Emi (29). Tanami has been a model for magazines such as “JJ” and “Classy” and is considered a fashion leader for Japan’s OL’s (office ladies). She is also an actress, having made her movie debut starring in “Ame Yori Setsunaku” in 2005. Other Hills-zoku entrepreneurs who married celebrities include IT company owner Ozeki Shigeo (32), who married talento Yamaguchi Moe (29), and Cyber Agent president Fujita Susumu (33), who won and then lost the heart of actress Okina Megumi (27).

• Another soon-to-be trophy wife is talento Kanda Uno (31). She and pachinko company president Nishimura Takuro (36) yesterday announced plans to hold their wedding in the autumn. The pair had originally talked of marrying in April but their busy work schedules have been blamed for the delay in plans. Uno suggested that they would hold the ceremony at a Shinto shrine, as actress Fujiwara Norika and comedian Jinnaiu Tomonori did last month.

• Already married is comedian Takakura Ryo (26). His agency announced yesterday that he and indie band vocalist Rika (21) tied the knot on February 17 after an 18-month relationship. Takakura is one half of the manzai duo Sanbyoshi.

Talento Iijima Ai (34) has confirmed the rumors about her retiring from showbiz. On yesterday’s edition of TBS’s “Sunday Japon” she made the statement she had so doggedly avoided a week before, saying she will quit by the end of this month. She denied another rumor that she would be moving to New York, saying she planned to continue living in central Tokyo. As widely speculated, she said the main reason for her decision is her deteriorating health, which caused her to miss the show twice at the end of last year. She has suffered from bladder and kidney infections. The former top porn star made the crossover to variety TV in the early 1990s and became hugely popular with young women. Her frank and uncompromising autobiography “Platonic Sex” was a million-seller in 2001. She is expected to hold a formal press conference once she has finalized matters regarding her existing contracts.

• Actress Ishihara Mariko (43) yesterday admitted that she had a criminal record in the U.S. She held a press conference to explain her two arrests, in 1997 and 2003 on stalking charges, that were revealed last week by a weekly gossip magazine. The 1997 case, in which she received a 20-month suspended sentence, came about when she wrote some 30 letters to a musician on the advice of a fortune teller, who she claims defrauded her of some ¥40 million. The letters included death threats, which she buy flagyl er online by a jealous band member. The 2003 case, in which she broke a restraining order taken out by another musician, led to her imprisonment in Las Vegas for more than 4 months. One of Japan’s top actresses in the late 1980s, she left the country in 1991, and only finally returned to showbiz here last year. She immediately upset things by publishing a book revealing the names of several top stars she had affairs with in her youth. And she is currently directing a movie based on the book.

• When asked yesterday about the recent marriage of her old boyfriend, actress Adachi Yumi (25) simply said, “Yokatta desu ne. Omedetou gozaimasu” (That’s good. Congratulations). The age difference of 21 years was often cited as a main cause of her split with actor Kuroda Arthur (46), but the problem obviously wasn’t on his side as he married a woman 23 years his junior on February 25. Adachi herself can afford to be generous, after marrying comedian Itoda Jun (33) at the end of 2005 and having a baby last year. She said she hadn’t heard about Kuroda’s marriage until Saturday.

Popular singer songwriter Angela Aki (29) is getting married again, according to her official website. The lucky man is 41-year-old “A-san”, who has worked with her as a music director since before her major label debut. They plan to register their marriage today. Angela was born in Tokushima Prefecture but the family moved to Hawaii when she was in junior high and later to Washington D.C. Her mother is Italian-American and her Japanese father is Aki Kiyoshi, the owner and co-founder of the major AEON chain of English conversation schools. Angela started playing the piano at the age of three and continued her interest in music after moving to the U.S., where she graduated from George Washington University and also had a short-lived marriage. She returned to Japan in 2003 and made her indie debut with the mini-album “One” in March 2005. She moved to the major Sony Music label and released “Home” in September of the same year. Her big successes to date include singing “Kiss Me Goodbye”, the theme for Final Fantasy XII, and performing at the venerable Nippon Budokan in December 2006. She is known for her bilingual ability, “haafu” looks and trademark glasses. She is scheduled to perform her latest single “Sakura Iro” on tonight’s edition of “Music Station”.

24-year-old Yamazaki Midori is Race Queen Of The Year ’06-’07. She was presented with her award at the KDDI Design Studio in central Tokyo yesterday. The award has led to showbiz careers for former winners such as Yoshioka Miho (2000-01) and Morishita Chisato (2001-02).

• JASRAC, the association that protects Japanese artists’ copyright, has published an unusual warning on its homepage. Following the demands of songwriter Kawauchi Kouhan (87), the site warns against anyone singing the altered version of his 1971 song “O-fukuro-san”. The warning applies to any singer and even the country’s thousands of karaoke bars, but of course is indirectly aimed at enka singer Mori Shinichi (59), who has been singing the disputed version of his signature tune for some thirty years. His much-publicized attempts to meet with and appease the elderly songsmith have only resulted in making him more angry. Kawauchi has said he won’t allow the singer to perform any of his songs again, a demand Mori has said he will respect until he receives forgiveness. JASRAC recently received attention abroad when it made demands for the removal of thousands of Japanese video clips from the popular YouTube service.

• The recent showbiz baby rush extends to Europe, too. Former popular actress and model Goto Kumiko (32) recently gave birth to her third child in Switzerland. She is married to retired French Formula 1 racer Jean Alesi (42). And former Fuji TV announcer Nakamura Eriko (37) had her second baby this week. She and her French businessman husband live in Paris.

Southern All Stars vocalist Kuwata Keisuke (51) has put out his first original song in four and a half years. “Konna Boku de Yokattara” is being used for the new American Express TV commercial that airs from today. The commercial features Kuwata, who is the first musician to take on the company’s image character role previously portrayed by Robert De Niro, Tiger Woods and Watanabe Ken. Two versions of the commercial were filmed in January using locations as diverse as Kyoto, Okinawa and Thailand. The recording is Kuwata’s first since the album “Rock and Roll Hero”, released in October, 2002. No plans to release the song as a single have yet been announced.

• Tamashiro Chiharu (29), vocalist of the popular duo Kiroro, is expecting her second child in August. She and her fellow Okinawa native husband married in January 2005 and had their first child in February of last year. Tamashiro has been on “maternity leave” since then. Musical partner Kinjo Ayano (29) is also the mother of a young child, born in November 2005. But the duo plan to perform at a one-off event in Okinawa in June, their first concert appearance since two years ago when both were pregnant. Kinjo is releasing a new solo album of piano music today.

• His star may have fallen but Michael Jackson can still rake in the bucks. A spokeswoman for Positive Productions, the company promoting a pair of fan events this week said, “We don’t think the ¥400,000 yen ticket is too expensive. It simply responds to Michael Jackson’s value as a global star, fans’ acknowledgement of that and their willingness to pay for it.” Fans can meet the former Prince of Pop at a party on Thursday and have their photo taken with him. Similar events were held last year.

On his latest trip to Japan, Michael Jackson (48) took over the Bic Camera electronics store in Tokyo’s downtown district of Yurakucho yesterday for two and a half hours. Staff formed a barricade around the store’s emergency exit, but Jackson sneaked in through the main entrance around 10:15pm. He and several children spent a couple of hours mostly in the toy section and left shortly before 1am. Even at that late hour, about 200 fans and curious onlookers were on hand to scream their love and surround his car. Sources say Jackson originally wanted to go to the chains Shibuya store but was refused. Jackson is expected to visit Tokyo Disneyland today and will be attending fan events on March 8 and 9.

• Respected actress Terajima Shinobu (34) recently married French creative art director Laurent Ghnassia, her management announced yesterday. The couple started dating after meeting through work in the autumn of 2005 and tied the knot on February 26. They are currently living together and plan to hold a wedding ceremony and reception in the near future. Ghnassia is the the former artistic director for fashion brand Agnes b.

• Actress Sakurai Atsuko (34) and TV Asahi producer Shimakawa Hiroatsu (35) are expecting their first baby. The couple married in May 2003 having met the previous year on the TV Asahi drama series “Omiya-san”. Meanwhile, Da Pump member Ken (27) is one step ahead, his wife having recently given birth to their first child. His management announced yesterday that his wife gave birth to a baby girl on January 26. They have named their daughter Kairi. The couple got married last July after a nine-year romance. And already on baby number four is talento Nakayama Hideyuki (39), whose wife, former Takarazuka top star Shiraki Ayaka (39), gave birth to their fourth son on March 2.

Singer Utada Hikaru (24) and filmmaker Kiriya Kazuaki (38) have divorced. And it was revealed that her parents also divorced yet again last year – for the seventh time! Just as her marriage to Kiriya was announced on Hikki’s website four and a half years ago, on Saturday she used the same website to reveal that they had divorced the previous day. She thanked fans fopr their support and apologized for the sudden announcement. She cited different views of the future and a lack of communication due to her business international work schedule as the main reasons for the split. Kiriya posted his message on the same site, an indicator of the one-sided nature of their respective levels of success and fame. The two met in 2000 during the design of the sleeve for Hikki’s 7th single, “Can You Keep a Secret?” Two years later, she underwent surgery for ovarian cancer and just five months later they were married. They worked together in several different capacities, one being Utada’s title song for “Casshern”, Kiriya’s 2004 debut as a movie director. He also supported her during her attempt the same year to break into the U.S. market. According to a friend of the couple, neither of them are particularly sociable or talkative types and so communication was a problem for them. Utada, whose parents have divorced and re-married each other a ridiculous seven times since 1981, was looking to him as an older man who could support her emotionally. She made no mention of the split during her live appearance on Friday’s “Music Station”, where she performed her new single “Flavor of Life”. Bittersweet is probably the flavor one would use in English to refer to her life right now, though she referred to it as being like “green pepper tempura”.

• Former porn star turned popular TV regular Iijima Ai (34) hinted on her blog at the weekend that she plans to retire from showbiz at the end of March. She appeared as scheduled on yesterday’s edition of “Sunday Japon” on TBS but didn’t give details of her reasons. She missed the show twice at the end of last year due to health problems with her liver and bladder. When quizzed by other panel members, she seemed reluctant to discuss the matter but retorted “Don’t you ever feel like quitting?” With contracts often running from April to March, she may announce soon that she will quit after her current four regular shows finish their run.

Japanese fans will be the first in the world to get a look at the latest in the Spiderman series. Stars Tobey Maguire (31, photo left) and James Franco (28, photo right) were in Tokyo yesterday as it was announced that the world premiere of “Spiderman 3” would be held at the Roppongi Hills cinema complex on April 16. The movie, again directed by Sam Raimi and originally scheduled for worldwide release on May 5, will now open in Japan first on May 1. Made on a budget of $300 million (¥36 billion), the latest in the series is also the most expensive. But the previous two movies have done very well in Japan, bringing in ¥14 billion between them.

• The drama is turning into a farce. Enka singer Mori Shinichi (59) is going out of his way to apologize to Kawauchi Kouhan (87), but each time he only succeeds in making the elderly songwriter madder than ever. Having previously being refused a meeting at Kawauchi’s hotel in Tokyo, Mori and his staff made the 1,200km journey from the capital to his home in Hachinohe but found no one at home (Kawauchi was seeing his doctor and slamming Mori to the media in Tokyo at the time). In the tradition of a visiting guest, he left a souvenir on the doorstep. Yesterday Kawauchi described Mori’s intrusion into his home as “ilegal entry”, said he had returned the souvenir to Mori’s office, and called his recent behavior a “cheap drama” and Mori himself a “liar”. He insists he has no intention of meeting with Mori or allowing him to perform any of his songs ever again. The drama began last month when Mori canceled a meeting with Kawauchi at the last minute. He was to apologize to Kawauchi for performing an altered version of his 1971 hit “O-Fukuro-san”, though he had already been doing so for almost 30 years.

• The master and the pupil were reunited under new circumstances. Recently elected Miyazaki Prefectural governor Higashikokubaru Hideo (49) was in Tokyo yesterday to receive a special award. Formerly a comedian under the name Sonomanma Higashi, he found himself in the awkward situation of having higher social status than his old mentor, Kitano “Beat” Takeshi (60), who presented him with the award. It was the first meeting for the two since the election, but the always acid-tongued Takeshi took no prisoners, emabrrassing the former Takeshi Gundan member time and again. Another recipient of an award from the master funny man was announcer Yamamoto Mona (35), who is with the same Office Kitano agency. He was the only one who covered for her last year after she was caught up in a scandal with a married politician.

Can one studio really hold these two egos? For the 1,000th edition of his “Sanma No Manma” talk show, comedian Akashiya Sanma (51) has chosen fellow comedy veteran Kitano “Beat” Takeshi (60) as his special guest. The show was recorded in Tokyo yesterday, with the pair sharing a bottle of ¥1.9-million Romanee Conti wine and reminiscing about old times. They both achieved huge fame and notoriety on the “Ore-tachi Hyokinzoku” show in the early 1980s, building on that success to become two of the biggest names in Japanese showbiz. While Takeshi has fitted work as an actor and movie director in between his frequent talk and variety show appearances, Sanma has stuck almost entirely to the variety circuit and remains Japan’s most high-voltage talk show host. One of his several regular shows, “Sanma No Manma” has been on the air for 22 years. For some reason the special will air in Tokyo on Fuji TV at the late hour of 2:05am on April 6, though in the Kansai area it will be on March 23 at 7pm.

• Actor Oda Yuji (39) is to team up with actress Iijima Naoko (39) for the first time in 11 years. The pair will co-star in the new TBS drama series “Jodan Ja Nai!”, set to run on Sunday nights starting April 15. The romantic comedy tells of 40-year-old Keita (Oda) who marries a 20-year-old woman (Ueno Juri) only to discover that her mother is an old flame (Otake Shinobu). Laid off from his job, Keita finds work at a family restaurant run by Iijima. The last time the two appeared together was in another popular TBS drama, “Mahiru no Tsuki” in 1996, in which Oda co-starred with Tokiwa Takako. A bit of trivia: Iijima is one of those rare people whose birthday falls on February 29.

• Nagabuchi Ayane (18), daughter of singer Nagabuchi Tsuyoshi (50) and former actress Shihomi Etsuko (51), is to make her showbiz debut. And she will hit the ground running, having landed the starring role in the new movie by director Sasabe Kiyoshi (49). The budding actress has studied ballet and Japanese dance and is said to be proficient in English.