Yearly Archives: 2007

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.

The lavish ¥500 million wedding reception for actress Fujiwara Norika (35) and Yoshimoto comedian Jinnai Tomonori (33) was broadcast live on national TV last night. According to the NTV network, it was among the most expensive receptions ever televised. The event was held in the Heian no Ma reception room at the Hotel Okura Kobe and was attended by about 600 guests. As always there was no irony intended as Norika’s father walked her in a white dress with an 8m-long veil down the “virgin road”. Seeing the dress for the first time, Jinnai said, “She’s more beautiful than I ever imagined. 100 times! She looks like something out of this world!” There were videotaped messages from stars including Hollywood actress Cameron Diaz (34), Miyazaki Prefecture governor and former comedian Higashikokubaru Hideo (49) and top Yoshimoto comedy duo Downtown. Singer Go Hiromi (51) had 14 backing dancers for his performance of “Oyome Samba”, a popular choice for wedding receptions. Finally, Jinnai surprised his bride with a version of her favorite Kobukuro song, “Eien ni Tomo ni”, accompanying himself on the piano. Not a musician, he spent three months secretly learning to play the song. The couple held their wedding ceremony on February 17 at the Ikuta Jinja shrine, also in their hometown of Kobe.

Thousands of fans have flocked to the offices of the late singer-songwriter Sakai Izumi to pay their respects and leave flowers. Sakai, who performed solo using the name of her former band Zard, died after a fall at the Keio University hospital at the weekend. Her body was taken yesterday to a funeral hall near her home in the western Tokyo suburb of Machida. Yesterday, more than 1,200 fans came and said their tearful farewells at the Roppongi office of Being, Sakai’s management agency, and hundreds more turned up at the Osaka office. They opened from 7:30am to allow office workers to pay their respects on their way to work. Sakai was the most successful female artist of the 1990s and her fans are mostly young adults. This week they cleaned record stores out of copies of the most recent Zard album, a 15th anniversary greatest hits collection released last October. It had dropped out of the Oricon Top 100, but immediately shot back to No.6 on the daily rankings. It was announced yesterday that “Sakai Izumi-san o Shinobukai”, a remembrance event, will be held for fans and fellow artists on June 27 at the Aoyama Sougijo funeral hall. Zard hits will be played throughout the event. Her songs, which have inspired and encouraged a generation of young Japanese, will provide a suitably uplifting sendoff.

• Actress Okina Megumi (27) is to retire from show business, according to “Sports Hochi”. According to sources, she is simply tired of it and her management agency have admitted that she will quit at the end of this month. Real name Mimasu Takae, the Hiroshima native was scouted while still an elementary school student. She made her TV debut in 1992 at the age of 13 and her first drama leading role four years later won her a best newcomer award. She married an IT entrepreneur in 2004 only to divorce a year later.

20-year-old ballet dancer Mori Riyo is the first Japanese to be named as Miss Universe in 48 years. She was selected from 77 contestants at the annual competition in Mexico on Monday. The runners up were from Brazil and Venezuela. Mori is from Shizuoka Prefecture, where she currently works as a jazz instructor at a dance school run by her mother. She has studied dance since she was four, including time studying ballet in Canada. In an indication that the world has fallen for Asian Beauty – a common theme in Japanese advertising these days – Miss Korea Honey Lee was also chosen among the final five contestants. The win by a Japanese entrant is all the more notable since the runner-up in last year’s contest was Naha City native Chibana Kurara (25), who has capitalized on her instant fame and now works as a TV news reporter among other things.

Tragedy hit the J-pop world last weekend when Zard vocalist Sakai Izumi died in a bizarre accident at a hospital where she was undergoing cancer treatment. She was 40. She was first diagnosed with cancer of the womb last year and underwent surgery. She was recently readmitted to the Keio University hospital in Tokyo as the cancer had spread to her lungs. Early on Saturday morning she was returning from a walk in the hospital grounds when she fell from the landing of an external staircase and suffered a severe blow to her head. She received treatment but died of a cerebral contusion on Sunday afternoon. Real name Kamachi Sachiko, the singer, song writer and former race queen formed Zard in 1991 along with fellow members Machida Fumito (guitar), Hoshi Hiroyasu (bass), Michikura Kosuke (drums) and Ikezawa Kimitaka (keyboards). After their debut single, “Goodbye My Loneliness”, the band had their breakthrough hit with “Makenaide” in 1993, which was used as the theme tune for the spring high school invitational tournament that year. Though the band dwindled in number until it was just Sakai as a solo artist, she kept the band name and continued to have hits during the 90s, including “Mou Waserenai” and “In My Arms Tonight”. She was planning to release a new album this autumn and follow it up with just her second ever concert tour and the first in three years. A prolific artist with over 40 singles released, Zard was the No.1 best-selling female artist of the 90s and third overall.

• TBS revealed today that announcer Toyoda Ayano (30) recently married and is expecting a baby in December. She and her husband, a 38-year-old producer with the network, registered their marriage on May 20. Toyoda, a graduate of Sophia University, is a presenter on the “Evening Five” show.