Monthly Archives: June 2007

Recently-crowned Miss Universe Mori Riyo (20) has been in the media spotlight since her return to Japan. She arrived at Narita Airport the day before yesterday and was greeted by dozens of reporters. Yesterday, 11 TV cameras and 150 reporters turned out at her press conference at a Tokyo hotel. She wore a black and white dress and a diamond and pearl tiara said to be worth $250,000. As the first Japanese to win the crown in 48 years, she is in huge demand from the media and has already filmed her first commercial endorsement, for aesthetic company TBC, and has been inundated with interviews. When asked if she had changed in her month and a half away from Japan, she said that she hadn’t but everything around her in Japan had. Asked what she had missed, she replied talking with her family and miso soup! She comfortably answered questions in English from foreign media, saying that in the future she hopes to follow in her mother’s footsteps and open an international dance school. She soon heads back to New York, where she took part in a recent Japan Day event, and her schedule for the coming year includes traveling to some 25 countries and taking part in charity events for causes such as AIDS.

• Good news for fans who haven’t been able to get tickets to see popular rock band L’Arc En Ciel. They announced yesterday that they have 6 different releases coming up before the end of the year. Starting with their next single, “My Heart Draws a Dream”, on August 29 they will releases three singles, a new album and two live DVDs over a 5-month period. The group revealed the news as they opened their nationwide hall tour at the Yokosuka Arts Theatre. Though they could easily sell out a stadium tour, vocalist Hyde said the band decided they wanted to perform with less distance from their fans. Yesterday 2,000 of those fans enjoyed a 21-song set that included no less than nine new songs. L’Arc have been one of the outstanding bands in the J-Rock scene for most of their 16-year history.

Self-styled 21st century pop queen Hamasaki Ayumi (28) finished off her ¥1.8-billion, 16-show Asian tour on Sunday. For the first time, she finished a tour with a concert in her hometown of Fukuoka, playing the Marine Messe convention center. The tour featured Ayu’s first solo concerts overseas, including dates in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Shanghai, and was seen by a total of 170,000 fans. Fukuoka fans were the first to hear her new single, “Glitter”, due to go on sale July 18. They also got a look at the 15-minute promo film, which was filmed in Hong Kong and features a kiss scene with actor Shawn Yue (25). Never one to hide her ambition to follow in Madonna’s shoes, the show also featured Ayu on a crucifix, though the imagery is meaningless for Japanese audiences.

• It seems that former idol singer Kokusho Sayuri (40) is back with her ex-husband, according to the “Shuukan Post” magazine. The two, junior high school classmates in Kagoshima Prefecture, married in 2000. He left behind a massage clinic business to move to Tokyo in 2002 but they broke up in August of 2003. According to the magazine, he took over the running of her management company in July of last year and the two are now living together in an apartment in the Shibaura district of Tokyo.

Yoko Ono (74) is to make her first ever appearance on a Japanese music show. She will appear on “Bokura No Ongaku” on the Fuji TV network on June 29. She was approached by pop duo Love Psychedelico, who have performed with her at the annual “John Lennon Super Live” concert for the last two years. They will be going to New York later this month to film a segment for the show. They will also perform several songs on the show, including their cover of the Beatles “Help!” and their new single “Freedom”. It’s included on “Golden Grapefruit”, their first new album in three and a half years, and due for release on June 27.

• Model Nakamura Kentaro (24) was arrested yesterday for the use of cocaine. He was questioned by police in Tokyo’s Roppongi district last month and urine samples revealed traces of the drug. He was taken into custody at the Azabu police station yesterday but says he has no recollection of using the drug. As reported here, Nakamura and singer Chinen Rina (26) split after just a year and a half of marriage. They have one child.

• Comedian Sakurazuka Yakkun (30) is a ladies’ man after all. Though his hugely popular Sukeban Kyouko character wears a schoolgirl’s sailor outfit and makes occasional references to liking guys, his first reported romance is with a female hair makeup artist. Real name Saito Yasuo, he is a former member of the boy group Johnny’s Jr and was in a manzai duo called Abare Nunchuck. He made his breakthrough last year using the Yakkun name on the NTV comedy show “Enta no Kamisama” and has remained a regular.

• Kabuki actor Ichikawa Ukon (43) revealed this week that he got married for the third time last December. His new wife Akiko (34), who at 170cm is slightly taller than Ukon, is a native of Chiba Prefecture. He said they have been dating for five years, four of which they have lived together.

Singer-songwriter Ayaka (19) is being touted as the J-pop star who just might go global. Yesterday she became the first Japanese artist to have a video released as a world premiere through the iTunes Store. And she is in good company, being just the third artist overall, after Justin Timberlake and Bjork. The video for her upcoming 5th single, “Jewelry Day” (on sale from July 4), was released in ten countries worldwide, including the U.S., the U.K., France, and Germany. And her million-selling debut album, “First Message”, is to be distributed in 22 countries at once, a record for a Japanese artist. Ayaka’s star quality was clear right from her February 2006 debut single, “I Believe”, which reached No.3 on the Oricon chart and sold a quarter of a million copies. The chart-topping success of her 4th single “Mikazuki” brought exposure overseas too, being shown across the continent on MTV Asia. She is currently in the middle of a nationwide tour, and told fans about her iTunes breakthrough during a concert this week in Kanazawa.

Singer Gackt (photo right) continues to diversify and has filmed his first role in an NHK taiga drama series. In an episode of the ongoing series “Fuurinkazan” to be aired on June 17, he makes his first appearance as the historical figure Uesugi Kenshin (1530-1578), one of the many powerful warlords of the Sengoku period. Yesterday at NHK’s studio in Tokyo, he filmed scenes with star Uchino Masaaki (39, center), who plays the samurai Yamamoto Kansuke (1493-1561), and veteran actor Ogata Ken (69, left). In his 9th taiga series, Ogata plays Usami Sadamitsu (1489-1564), military strategist to Uesugi. Yamamoto is best known for his battle plan which led to victory over Uesugi at Kawanakajima. But believing his plan to have failed, he charged headlong into the enemy ranks and died before the battle was won. The title of this year’s taiga is an old expression that means “as fast as the wind, as quiet as the forest, as daring as fire, and immovable as the mountain.”

• Comedian Hata Yoku (32), better known as the Guitar Samurai, got hitched yesterday. He met former daycare center worker Hatsumi (33) 12 years ago when still a university student. They chose yesterday because it was Hata’s birthday and also an auspicious taian day in the Shinto calendar. They plan to hold a wedding ceremony within the year.

Five years after they debuted, popular Okinawan rock band Orange Range are to release their first greatest hits collection. They will put out two albums, the singles collection “Orange” and an album of fan favorites “Range”, on July 27. They will also release a new single, “Ikenai Taiyo”, a week earlier on July 18. A former indie band, Orange Range made the major label debut with Sony Music in 2003. It was their second single, “Shanghai Honey”, that made the breakthrough, selling over 350,000 copies. Within two and a half years, they had broken the 10-million-copy barrier. To date their 15 singles have sold some 6.5 million and their four albums over 5.5 million. Even in a market that has seen big declines in CD slaes, a Sony spokesman said they hope to sell a combined six million copies of the new albums.

• Actress Okamoto Aya (24) announced yesterday that she is taking an extended break from showbiz. She has quit her management agency, Ten Carat, and says that since the beginning of this year she has has nothing to express as an actress. She made her debut as a child actress in 1991 and starred in NHK’s morning drama series “Audrey” in 2000-01. Perhaps a bigger claim to fame is that she was the actress who was in the car with kabuki actor Nakamura Shido (34) when he was stopped for running a red light last July. He was found to be over the alcohol limit and the whole thing led to his divorce from actress Takeuchi Yoko (27). Okamoto is said to be dating a 33-year-old Australian whom she met while filming a commercial last year and they may be considering marriage Down Under.

• Meanwhile, Shido’s father, kabuki actor Nakamura Kanzaburo (54) gave a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Tokyo. He spoke about his recent run in with the tax authorities, in which he was found to have failed to declare some ¥70 million in income. He also talked about his upcoming performances of the kabuki play “Hokkaibou” in New York from July 17. “Do I have a surprise in store? Yes, I do. I have a lot of solo parts and I’m going to do them all in English. That’s probably a first for kabuki.”

Singer Chinen Rina (26) and model Nakamura Kentaro (23) revealed yesterday that they divorced in mid-March. In a faxed statement from her management agency, Chinen said that she and her ex had simply grown apart, and she apologized to those who have supported her and celebrated her wedding. The two were only married for a year and nine months, following a relationship of about two years. Okinawa native Chinen was two months pregnant when they married in August 2005, and she had a baby boy the following March 11. She retains custody of the boy, who would have just turned one at the time of his parents’ divorce. In addition to his modeling career, Nakamura also works for his father’s trading company. More cynical readers might wonder about the timing of the divorce announcement, with Chinen set to appear in a stage musical of “Les Miserables” at the Imperial Theater in Tokyo from this Friday.

• Happier news for actress Kawai Michiko (38), who is engaged to a young TV director. The two are said to have met at the end of last year while Kawai was appearing in a TBS afternoon drama series called “Kekkonshiki e Ikkou!” (Let’s Go to a Wedding!). She is set to make a formal announcement on her regular Bunka Housou radio show on Saturday. Kawai was involved in affair with the husband of actress Yoshimoto Miyoko in 1999, and had a romance with a chef nine years her junior in 2003. But she’s done even better this time as her new fiance is described as 12 years younger!

Less than a month after she took over as leader of Morning Musume, Fujimoto Miki (22) has announced that she is going to quit the group. The Up Front Agency says her role as leader, a job she took over when Yoshizawa Hitomi (22) left on May 6, officially came to an end yesterday, June 1. Japan Zone reported here just a week ago about her romance with comedian Shoji Tomoharu (31), and it seems that the revelation in weekly gossip magazine “Friday” is behind her decision. She plans to continue as a singer, a return to the solo career she had for a year from 2002. Takahashi Ai (20) has stepped into Fujimoto’s shoes and is the 6th leader of the group.

• Actor Ishidate Tetsuo died of an acute arterial aneurism at his home in Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture yesterday morning. He was 64. he first became popular in the early 1970s following the drama “Okusama wa 18-sai”. He also played the father role to child actress Sugita Kaoru in another hugely popular series “Papa to Yobanaide”.

• Talento Watanabe Marina (36) announced yesterday that she is four months pregnant. She and comedian Nagura Jun (38), leader of the popular trio Neptune, married in May 2005. A former member of the 80s idol group Onyanko Club, at 15 she held the record for the youngest singer to debut at No.1 on the Oricon chart, a record she held until 2001.

NTV’s televised coverage of the recent wedding reception for actress Fujiwara Norika (35) and Yoshimoto comedian Jinnai Tomonori (33) drew huge audience ratings. In the Kanto region it pulled in 24.7%, which would be a success for a TV drama, but in the Kansai area, where both stars are from, it got a whopping 40%, with a peak of 49.2%. That surpassed any Kimura Takuya drama or even the annual Kohaku special, at least in recent years. It is the second most popular TV broadcast of a reception after that of singer Go Hiromi and actress Nitani Yurie in 1987. Go was one of the performing guests at Wednesday event and advised the new couple not to end up like him. He and Nitani divorced in 2001.

• So-called “charisma housewife model” Kuroda Taeko (45) has divorced after 16 years of marriage. She became a popular model while a university student but retired after she married. After raising a daughter she re-started her career with a new image as a housewife and mother. Last year, she was a regular on the popular afternoon variety show “Waratte Ii Tomo” and made her actng debut in the TV drama series “Taiyou no Uta”. She retains custody of her daughter, now 16, and plans to continue her career.