Monthly Archives: December 2007

Rock legend Yazawa Eikichi (58) reached a new milestone in his long career on Sunday when he became the first musician to perform at the hallowed Nippon Bukodan for the 100th time. He was joined on stage by members of the Doobie Brothers, long-time friends who came to Japan just for the occasion. He first played the central Tokyo venue in August, 1977 and in recent years it has become an established practice to perform there in December. Yesterday he wore the same black shirt and white suit fashion that he had in the 70s and he kicked of the show with the same song, “C’mon Baby”. He thanked fans, musicians, crew and his own muscles for supporting him over four decades and gave the 10,000-strong audience a performance of two and half hours. In 1966, the Beatles were the first ever band to play the Budokan and it was their influence that led Yazawa to become a musician. He will extend his record run at the Budokan with two more shows this week.

• Veteran actor Tsugawa Masahiko (67) revealed on a documentary aired last night that he had recently been close to bankruptcy. The majority of his ¥600 million in debts were related to his struggling toy brand “Gran Papa”. Tsugawa was forced to sell his most valuable asset, the original Norman Rockwell painting “Extra Good Boys and Girls”. The famous illustration of Santa Claus planning his Christmas Eve route round the world, created for a December 1939 cover of The Saturday Evening Post, was auctioned for $2.17 million in New York at the end of November.

• Singer Hamasaki Ayumi (29) had to overcome mechanical problems at a “secret live” performance yesterday. She was at the Ikspiari shopping mall in the Tokyo Disney Resort filming a performance for her now annual NTV Christmas special. Just one song into the set, there were technical problems but rather than leave the gathered audience of 2,500 people waiting in the cold, Ayu went back on stage and did an acappella version of her hit “Seasons”.

• The sequel movie “Always Zoku San-chôme no Yuhi” (Always – Sunset on 3rd St.) has done even better at the box-office than the 2005 original. In the 42 days since it opened, it has made ¥3.7 billion and been seen by 3.1 million people. Directed by Yamazaki Takashi, the heart-warming tales set in 1950s Tokyo star Yoshioka Hidetaka (37) and Horikita Maki (19).

• Johnny’s Jimusho have teamed veteran singer Kondo Masahiko (42) with young Johnny’s Jr. unit Question? Described as a rock band, Matchy With Question? have recorded “Mezasero! Yasei” as the ending theme for January’s new series of the popular anime “Naruto Shippuuden”. It’s the first anime song for Kondo, who marks 28 years as a singer on Wednesday. The new band are set to appear in his scheduled Budokan show next February 14.

• Popular vocal and dance unit Exile have shipped a million copies of their latest album “Exile Love” since its release last Wednesday. Sales have been helped by their recently completed nationwide tour and the inclusion of a bonus DVD that features comedian Okamura Takashi of the duo Ninety-Nine.

Enka singer Hikawa Kiyoshi (30) won a record 4th Grand Prix at this week’s annual Nihon Yusen Taisho music awards. The awards show, being held for the 40th time, took place at the TBS studios in Akasaka, Tokyo. Known as the “Prince of Enka”, Kiyoshi also won the award for most requested artist and thanked his (mostly middle-aged female) fans for his decade of success. He then sang a tearful version of his most famous hit, “Kiyoshi no Souran Bushi”, which won the award for most requested song. The award for best newcomer went to the female unit RSP.

The following day, Hikawa performed two shows for a combined 10,000 fans at the Tokyo International Forum. He went through six costume changes and 21 songs during the show. Referring to the previous night, he said that despite the fact that he recently turned 30, he’ll probably be known as the “Emotional Prince”.

• Lawyer and TV celebrity Hashimoto Touru (38) has finally announced that he is running in next month’s Osaka gubernatorial election. A regular on variety shows and the father of seven children, the Osaka native became famous on more “serious” variety shows such as “Sunday Japon” (TBS) and “Gyouretsu no Dekiru Houritsu Soudansho” (NTV). He is campaigning with the support of the ruling LDP party, and possibly quite a few celebrities. He is represented by the showbiz management agency run by Ohta Mitsuyo, wife of Bakusho Mondai comedian Ohta Hikari.

• Veteran comedienne Utsumi Keiko (85) underwent surgery last week for breast cancer. She has already left hospital and is recuperating at home. She plans to return to work on December 21, shooting an episode of NHK’s detective drama series “Keiji no Genba”.

Former pop singer Goto Yuuki (21) has been re-arrested for robbery and assault. As the leader of a group of teenage thieves, he was arrested in October for stealing 48 coils of copper electrical wiring (worth about ¥470,000) from a Tokyo construction site in July. The latest arrest is for a similar robbery in September, in which a 57-year-old security guard was severely beaten. Goto is accused of threatening the guard with a steel pipe and saying “If you try to stop us, we’ll kill you!” He has confessed to the crimes, saying he and his gang committed about 10 such robberies. Goto had a brief fling with a pop career in 2000 as one half of the duo EE Jump, but his underage drinking and clubbing brought it to an early end. He is the younger brother of former Morning Musume member Goto Maki (22), who quit the Hello! Project after the first arrest and is now trying to build a solo career.

• Young actress Fukuda Saki (17) has been named to the cast of the planned live-action “Yatterman” movie. Due for release in the spring of 2009, the movie is an adaptation of the hugely popular 1977-79 Fuji TV anime series. Filming is scheduled to start next March with Miike Takashi directing the project. Fukuda will play the role of heroine Ai-chan, also known as Yatterman No.2 and the girlfriend of Yatterman, to be portrayed by Sakurai Sho (25) of the Johnny’s Jimusho pop group Arashi.

• NTV announcer Miyazaki Nobuko (28) was late for work again yesterday. She arrived on the set of the morning show “Rajikaru” about an hour late, apologizing for having overslept. It’s the second time she’s been late for the show. Fellow announcer Furuichi Sachiko (34), a presenter on the “Zoom In Super” show, had to cover for her.

Rock duo B’z have truly established themselves as kings of the Japanese music world. Their latest album “Action” naturally went straight to No.1 on the Oricon charts. Their 13th consecutive chart topper and 21st overall means they share the record for most No.1’s ever with 70s folk singer Matsutoya Yumi. So B’z now hold or share the record in all of Oricon’s six major sales categories: most No.1 singles/albums; most million-selling singles/albums; most total single/album sales. Oricon say this is the first time in the company’s 40-year history that one artist has held all six records. The duo recently became the first Asian artists to be inducted into the Hollywood Rock Walk.

Meanwhile, Southern All Stars vocalist Kuwata Keisuke (51), who’s broken a few records of his own, is on top of the singles chart again. “Darling” is his third No.1 solo single of the year and seventh overall, giving him a share of the record with Boowy’s Himuro Kyosuke for most by a male group member as a solo artist.

• Comedian Nagura Jun (39) and talento Watanabe Marina (37) are parents for the first time, it was announced yesterday. Watanabe, a former member of the 80s teen idol group Onyanko Club, gave birth to a baby boy at a Tokyo hospital on Sunday and wrote about it on her blog yesterday. She and Nagura, a member of the trio Neptune, married in May 2005.

• A somewhat more belated birth announcement came yesterday from actress Matsushima Nanko (34), who revealed that she had her second daughter on November 10. The baby had been due at the end of December. This year, Matsushima had her first movie starring role in almost a decade in “Bizan”. She’s been working far less since she married actor Sorimachii Takashi (33) in February 2001 and says she is currently undecided about her future career.

• The long court battle over the estate of the late actress Miyako Chocho (1920-2000) seems to be at an end. The actress left about ¥260 million and a home in Osaka worth about ¥170 million, which her adoptive brother said would be turned into a museum. Her three step-siblings had been trying since 2002 to have the home sold.

Talento Oh Rie (37, photo right) is getting married again. The daughter of baseball legend and current Softbank Hawks manager Oh Sadaharu (67) is engaged to marry Honda Masaki (37, photo left), the doctor who recently treated sumo yokozuna Asashoryu (27, photo center). The couple are planning to register their marriage on New Year’s Day and hold a ceremony in Tokyo sometime in January. They first met on Oh’s 37th birthday in March when they happened to be seated next to each other at a restaurant. Oh, a graduate of Aoyama University, worked for the Hakuhodo ad agency before moving to TV in 1996. Qualified as a “vegetable sommelier”, she is marrying for the third time. Honda, also a divorcee, is a psychiatrist and plastic surgeon, with a clinic in the tony neighborhood of Roppongi in central Tokyo. He got a lot of media attention during the summer’s sumo scandal when he treated grand champion Asashoryu for his depression.

• Yukinari (29), a member of J-Pop trio Da Pump, and former talento Tamaki Miho (24) are heading for divorce. They are already separated and are expected to go to the Tokyo Family Court for mediation next week. They have a young daughter. In 2000, Tamaki won an audition to join the major Hori Pro agency and become an idol singer using the stage name Nishida Natsu. In 2002, she tried her hand for a few months in the pro wrestling scene before returning briefly to singing and retiring from show business in 2003. By that time, she was dating Yukinari and was several months pregnant when the couple married in February 2004.

• Talento Moriguchi Hiroko (39) gave a mini concert in Tokyo yesterday to promote her new CD, “Mo Hitotsu no Mirai – Starry Spirits”. It includes the main theme and ending song for the latest “SD Gundam G Generation Spirits” game for the Sony PlayStation 2. Moriguchi made her smash hit debut as an idol singer in 1985 with the ending theme for the “Gundam Z” anime, but never made much of an impression after that as a singer. Instead she established herself as a general chatterbox talento on the variety show circuit. Indeed, it was her success that led to the coining of the term “baradol”, a combination of “baraeti” (variety) and “idol”. Yesterday she denied that a nude shower movie that has been circulating on the Net is really her, joking that she looks a lot worse in the flesh.

Rock singer Otomo Kouhei (51) gave evidence at the Tokyo District Court yesterday on the first day of the complicated case against his former management agency. The dispute between the “Mother Enterprise” agency and the Hound Dog vocalist began in 2005, the band’s 25th anniversary. Otomo was accused of doing deals and “going solo” behind the backs of management and the other band members, while he claimed he was unhappy with their small-scale approach to business. The band had been one of Japan’s most popular in the late 1980s but went into decline in the early 90s. Otomo set up his own agency Iehok, in April 2005. Mother announced that the “Omega” album, released that June, would be the band’s last original recording and that they would split after a Nippon Budokan concert in July. On stage, Otomo insisted the band would continue and he managed to persuade three other members to join him at Iehok. But the following months saw further disputes break out between the members and a series of legal suits and counter-suits.

• Talento Hayasaka Yoshie (32) gave birth to her first child yesterday. She and Super Delphin (40), a former wrestler and now the president of an Osaka wrestling troupe, married in December 2003.

• Actor Kurobe Susumu (68) and actress Hishimi Yuriko (60) attended an event in Tokyo yesterday to celebrate the 41-year history of “Ultraman”. Kurobe played the lead role of Hayata Shin in the original 1966 series, while Hishimi played the heroine Yuri Ann in “Ultraman Seven” the following year. Real name Yoshimoto Takashi, Kurobe is the father of actress Yoshimoto Takami (36), who played the heroine Yanase Lena in the 1996 series “Ultraman Tiga”, though he was originally totally opposed to her entering show business.

• Comedian Himura Yuuki (35) of the duo Bananaman is to undergo throat surgery in the New Year. Last month, he lost his voice on the first day of a stage show starring top comedian Uchimura Teruyoshi.

The lineup for this year’s “Kohaku Uta Gassen” (Red-White Song Battle) was announced at the NHK studio in Shibuya yesterday. Among the 58 pairings are some names that haven’t in the lineup in many years, while eight – comprising 67 people – will be making their debut on the year’s most popular TV show. The Red Team includes a transsexual for the first time, singer-songwriter Nakamura Ataru (22, photo). Japanese family registers include the gender of all family members, so Nakamura is still officially male. But NHK said they are not making a statement or seeking publicity by including Nakamura in the female team, which included a male (comedian Gori in his Gorie-chan character) for the first time in 2005. Nakamura made his indie label debut in 2004 with the song “Tomodachi no Uta”, a song he wrote at the age of 15. He switched to the major Avex label in June 2006. (Watch the video for “Tomodachi no Uta” on our Forum)

Keeping the otaku crowd happy will be idol Nakagawa Shouko (22), the 48-member idol group AKB48, and American Leah Dizon (21), who are being touted as an “Akiba Trio”. Dizon has had a breakthrough year in Japan. She released her CD debut in January and has been in the media spotlight since arriving in Japan in April 2006.

Morning Musume, appearing for the tenth time in a row since their 1997 debut, are among 23 Hello! Project members in the lineup. Among the veteran names making long-awaited returns are: singer/actor Terao Akira (60), who last sang on the show in 1981; female duo Amin, who appeared once in their debut year 1982; and Kome Kome Club, one of the biggest pop acts of the 1980s and early 90s, after an 11-year absence.

• Actress Yoshimura Ryou (29) married her childhood sweetheart in mid-November, it was revealed yesterday. She is best known for her role as Kojima Ai in the long-running family drama “Wataru Sekken wa Oni Bakari”, on which she debuted in 1990.

• Stars in town promoting upcoming movies: Will Smith (39) flew from the Yokota U.S. military base to central Tokyo in a Blackhawk helicopter as part of the PR for “I Am Legend”, which premieres tonight and opens on December 14; Nicholas Cage (43) is here to plug “National Treasure 2”, which opens worldwide on December 21 and has its world premiere in Tokyo on December 6; Rowan Atkinson (52) appeared at an event yesterday to promote “Mr. Bean’s Holiday”, which is in theaters from January 19.

Yesterday saw the annual awards ceremony for the new and popular words and expressions that have defined the last year. Sponsored by U-Can (Japan Correspondence Education Association), the awards get a lot of media attention but can also signal overexposure for an up-and-coming comedian. Kojima Yoshio (27, photo right) will be hoping his shelf life extends beyond that of his “Sonna no Kankei-nee!” and “Oppapii” catchphrases. A total unknown until last May, he’s now a household name, but such sudden success is often short-lived. He and makeup artist Ikko (45), who popularized the word “Dondake!” (No way!) beyond the gay community, were the brightest spots in a lineup of nominees that generally reflected the problems Japan went through this year. They included “kieta nenkin” (disappearing pension funds), “shokuhin gisou” (falsely-labeled food products), “netto cafe nanmin” (Internet cafe refugees), and “moushobi” (extremely hot day). But the awards are primarily meant to give the Japanese people a bit of a lift at the end of the year, so the top award was given to two upbeat stories. “Hanakami Oji” (The Shy Prince) was the nickname given to young golf sensation Ishikawa Ryo, who at the age of 15 became the youngest ever player to win a pro event (see our story. And “(Miyazaki wo) dogenkasen to ikan” was chosen to represent the vitality that former comedian Higashikokubaru Hideo (50, photo left) has shown in his job as governor of Miyazaki Prefecture. Over the last year, he has overcome several crises and used his fame with great effect as a hugely successful salesman for the region. Among his constituents, he has retained a popularity level of over 85%, almost unheard of in political circles.

• At the age of 60 years and 3 months, pop legend Oda Kazumasa is the oldest artist ever to top the Oricon album chart with his hits collection “Jiko Besuto – 2”. He’s also the first artist to have a No.1 hit in his 30’s (with the band Of Course), 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. Meanwhile rock legend Nagabuchi Tsuyoshi (51), who has written a string of No.1 hits over the years, now for the first time has a chart topper performed by someone else. He penned the music and lyrics for Tokio‘s latest single “SEI SYuN”, which is atop the Oricon chart released yesterday.

• Hollywood star Will Smith (39) touched down in Japan for the eighth time yesterday. He’s here this time to promote his new movie “I Am Legend”, which opens in theaters both here and in the U.S. on December 14. He will attend a press conference today and the movie’s Japan premiere tomorrow.

Singer Tamaki Koji (49) just can’t seem to stay married. His third marriage lasted eight years, but he announced on December 1 that he had filed for divorce the same day. He made his name in the 1980s as the lead vocalist of rock band Anzen Chitai. Having become established as the backing band for singer Inoue Yousui, the group had a series of hits following the major label debut in 1982. Tamaki’s first marriage, to a woman not in show business, ended in 1986. Five years later he married top actress Yakushimaru Hiroko in Hawaii. They split in 1998 and the following year Tamaki got married to Ando Satoko (50), a pianist in his touring band.

• Comedian Yoshioka Hironori (36), the “Daikichi” half of the Yoshimoto duo Hakata Hanamaru-Daikichi revealed last Friday hat he got married in mid-November. After a 12-year relationship, he and a 34-year-old Miyazaki Prefecture native tied the knot on November 18. They have been living together in Tokyo since career success led the comedy duo to move from their native Hakata to the capital in 2005.

• Pin-up girl and variety show reporter Ozaki Nana (25) has been fired by her management agency after some nude photos turned up from her past. Weekly gossip magazine “Flash” published the photos in last week’s issue. On her blog, Ozaki said the pictures were taken about three years ago during her first ever photo shoot. She said she had been naive at the time and had been shocked to see the results. She followed up her online apology by asking for fans’ forgiveness, implying she plans to continue her career.

• Semi-retired newscaster Kume Hiroshi (63) is to make his first TV drama appearance in 29 years. The former comedian and variety show host, main anchor for a decade on TV Asahi’s popular News Station, will appear on the final, two-part special episode of “Galileo”, the Fuji TV drama series starring Fukuyama Masaharu and Shibasaki Kou. The episodes will air on December 10 and 17.

• Pop stars SMAP have got their own store in Tokyo, for the season anyway. The SMAP Shop opened in the Omotesando Hills shopping complex in central Tokyo, with the first day’s 2,000 entry tickets being snapped up in an hour. At the front of the line were a family who had lined up from 4am. Other fans came from as far away as Pusan, Korea. The store idea started last year and drew 50,000 fans over the Christmas/New Year season. On display in addition to the licensed goods on sale are stage costumes, illustrations by the five group members and videos of all their various TV commercial appearances. The store will be open until January 7.

The theme tune for the upcoming “Death Note” spinoff movie is to be provided by none other than U.S. rock legend Lenny Kravitz (43). The new song “I’ll Be Waiting” is from Kravitz’s 8th album “Love Revolution”, due for release in Japan on January 30. It will appear on “L Change the World”, in which Matsuyama Kenichi (22) reprises his role as L from last year’s movie adaptations of the hugely popular manga. Those two films made a combined ¥8 billion at the box office and were a hit across East Asia. They featured songs by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Producer Sato Takahiro said, “When I heard this song I knew this was the one! And the fact the Lenny’s name starts with L just seemed like fate.” Directed by horror master Nakata Hideo, “L…” is scheduled for theatrical release on February 9.