Yearly Archives: 2007

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 Watanabe Ken (47), who was the last Japanese actor to receive an Oscar nomination in 2004 for “The Last Samurai”. “Letters…” didn’t get any acting nominations but it’s in the running for best original screenplay and sound editing, and Eastwood was nominated for best director.

• Actress Uchida Yuki (31) is to make her first movie appearance in nine years. She will star in “Quiet Room ni Youkoso”, written and directed by Matsuo Suzuki (44). Based on his Akutagawa Prize-winning novel, it is the story of a divorcee writer who one day finds herself confined in a hospital isolation ward. Uchida is herself a divorcee, having split from actor Yoshioka Hidetaka (36) in 2005. She returned to TV drama last year after a 4-year absence from the small screen.

• Talento Ishikawa Asami (29) and musician Ryoji (32) are the proud parents of a baby boy. The couple married in July of last year after meeting at a gig by Ryoji’s popular group Ketsumeishi.

• Just days after his 10-year-old daughter was killed by a truck, talento Kazami Shingo (44) made tearful return to work. He turned up at the Meijiza Theater yesterday for rehearsals of a theatrical production scheduled for next month. In a quintessentially Japanese form of politeness, he apologized to fellow cast members for the “meiwaku” (inconvenience) and thanked them for attending his daughter’s funeral.

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.

• The natto scandal has taken down a long-running Fuji TV show. After 27 years as sole sponsor of “Hakkutsu! Aru Aru Daijiten”, Kao Corporation has said it will no longer back the program after it was revealed that a recent show on the dietary benefits of eating fermented soybeans was largely made up by the production company. The Kansai TV show, broadcast nationwide on the Fuji TV network on January 7, will be taken off the air following more than 6,000 complaints from viewers and a government investigation, and KTV president Chigusa Souichiro may be forced to resign. (see yesterday’s story for more…)

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 Kitano “Beat” Takeshi‘s crazy gang was elected on an independent reformist platform, promising to stamp out the kind of bid-rigging scandals that brought down his predecessor. Sonomanma himself (real name Higashikokubaru Hideo) is no stranger to scandal, though on more of a personal level. He and his wife split last year, with her saying she didn’t want to give up life in Tokyo to become a regional politician’s wife. Long known as one of the best long-distance runners in showbiz, Sonomanma was often seen out jogging while canvassing for votes.

• Ditzy talento Yamaguchi Moe (29) revealed at the weekend that she is 4 months pregnant. She married IT company president Ozeki Shigeo (32) at the end of 2005.

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”.

• Hollywood stars visiting Tokyo this week include Leonardo DiCaprio (32), in town to promote his latest flick, Oscar contender “The Departed”. Martin Scorsese’s remake of the Hong Kong hit “Infernal Affair” won a Golden Globe award for best director earlier in the week. It opens here on January 20; Will Smith (38) presented Prime Minister Abe Shinzo (52) with a bottle of wine yesterday. The PM said he doesn’t drink but his wife is sure to enjoy it. He added that he has yet to see “The Pursuit of Happyness”, to which Smith urged him to be sure to bring some tissues!

• Coming soon is hip hop star Kanye West (29), who will join the local Teriyaki Boyz for a live performance on TV Asahi’s “Music Station” on January 26. last year saw appearances by The Red Hot Chili Peppers and U2 on the show, but both were in Japan for concerts. West, who was here in November, is scheduled to play shows from March 31 to April 3, but this month’s visit is simply in support of the Boyz. Together they’ll be performing “I Still Love H.E.R.” West is a personal friend of Boyz member and fashion guru Nigo (36), the founder of the A Bathing Ape brand.

For the first time ever, a classical recording is top of the Oricon singles chart. “Sen no Kaze ni Natte”, by tenor Akikawa Masafumi (39), was released in June of last year but got a huge sales boost from his appearance on NHK’s Kohaku Uta Gassen on New Year’s Eve. The song is based on an English poem of bereavement, that opens with the lines “Do not stand by my grave and weep, for I am not there, I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow, I am the diamond’s glint on snow.” A different version of the song sung by Arai Michiru, who wrote the lyrics and music for Akikawa’s hit, has also made the charts. Meanwhile, taking up the No.2 and No.3 spots in the chart are new releases from 28-year veterans Chage & Aska. Chage takes the vocal lead on “Here & There”, while Aska is the frontman for “Man & Woman”.

• The 10-year-old daughter of talento Kazami Shingo (44, real name Ohshita Yoshihiro) was killed yesterday morning by a truck on her way to school. The accident happened when Oshita Emiru was walking to school in Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward shortly after 8am. She was crossing a road just 130m from her home when a 3-ton truck turned into the raod and hit her. She suffered a fractured skull and was accompanied by her father to hospital, where she died later in the morning. The 22-year-old truck driver was arrested for professional negligent homicide. Kazami and his wife Naoko, a former Miss Japan, married in 1994. They had a second daughter in 2003. The family only last month suffered the death of Naoko’s younger brother.

• Comedienne Daita Hikaru (31) is getting divorced after just a year of marriage. She and writer Kitamoto Katsura (30) got married on January 16 2006, and Kitamoto wrote of their plans to split on his blog yesterday, a year and a day later. He didn’t state the specific reason, but it is widely believed to be Daita’s rumored extra-marital affair.

Clint Eastwood’s intense Japanese WWII drama “Letters From Iwo Jima” beat a strong field to win the Golden Globe for best foreign language film. It’s the first time a Japanese-language movie has taken the award since Ichikawa Kon’s “Kagi” in 1959, the year that “Letters…” star Watanabe Ken (47) was born. He was in Hollywood for the award show with his wife, actress Minami Kaho (42). The movie is now a strong contender for an Oscar next month, though as a Hollywood production it will first need to be nominated for Best Picture. Meanwhile, actress Kikuchi Rinko (26) failed to see her role in “Babel” earn her the best supporting actress award, which went to Jennifer Hudson (25) for “Dreamgirls”. (I don’t think she helped her chances with the ridiculous dress she wore!) But Kikuchi did have the consolation of seeing Babel take the prize for best film and sharing the joy with co-star Angelina Jolie (31). And she is still in with a chance of being the first Japanese actress since Miyoshi “Nancy” Umeki in 1957 to win an Oscar.

• Popular actor Tanihara Shousuke (34) gave a press conference yesterday to announce his engagement to former talento Miyake Emi (29). The couple performed together on the 2001 Fuji TV drama “Kyuumeibyoutou 24-ji”, though romance for both of them lay elsewhere. Miyake was pregnant when she married actor Ishida Issei (32) in 2003, and they divorced in January 2006. She is also two months pregnant this time, so Tanihara is getting two kids as well as a wife. He was linked with Othello comedienne Nakajima Tomoko (35) in 2004, but they split the following year. He is currently appearing in two drama series, including this year’s taiga on NHK, and is a presenter on the TBS Saturday morning show “O-sama no Brunch”.

• Yomiuri TV is expecting an audience rating of over 30% for their planned live broadcast of the wedding reception for actress Fujiwara Norika (35) and comedian Jinnai Tomonori (32) on May 30. There are also plans for the bride and groom’s parents to appear on the NTV “Narutomo!” morning variety show – co-hosted by Jinnai – a couple of days after the couple’s wedding ceremony on February 17. The show is only broadcast in central and western Japan.

Talk about Beauty and the Beast! Well, that hardly seems fair to Yoshimoto comedian Tsutsumishita Atsushi (29), but that’s how the media are reporting his newly-discovered romance with fashion model Tokita Reiko (22). The chubby member of manzai duo Impulse weighs in at 80kg but that didn’t put off Tokita, who made the first move last autumn when the pair worked together on a variety show. What has reporters speculating that this is a serious relationship is the fact that they spent a week together over the New Year break at the luxury Bulgari Resort in Bali, where rooms cost around $1,000 a night. Tsutsumishita told comedian Akashiya Sanma (51) about the trip during the recent recording of this weekend’s edition of his show, “Sanma no Super Karakuri TV”, adding that it cleaned out his savings. The couple met on another Sanma-hosted show, “Odoru! Sanma Goten” variety show in October, with Tokita telling Tsutsumishita on air that she was an Impulse fan and liked him. Sanma got them to exchange telephone numbers and they clearly took it from there. Impulse, with Itakura Shunsuke as the boke, made their debut in 1998. Tokita made her debut in the teen magazine “Cawaii!” while she was in high school.

• Sunday’s opening episode of Kimura Takuya‘s latest drama scored a high 27.7% audience rating in the Kanto region, according to Video Research. TBS’s “Karenaru Ichizoku” is by far the most popular drama of the winter season, though its ratings still fall well below Kimutaku’s best. Of the 12 series he’s starred in going back to Fuji’s mega-hit “Long Vacation” in 1996, the latest opener ranked only 8th.

Morning Musume leader Yoshizawa Hitomi (21) is a true professional. Yesterday, she made a scheduled concert appearance with the dozens of other Hello! Project members despite the recent tragic death of her younger brother. The 26-song set went ahead as planned, with the pink-clad Yoshizawa making reference only to how sad she was about her planned “graduation” from Morning Musume in May. She is currently the longest-serving member of the group, having joined in 2000. Word of her personal tragedy had spread among the 2,400 fans at the Osaka Kouseinenkin Kaikan hall, and they shouted their encouragement. But reporters were told that she would not be answering any questions about the tragedy after the concert. 16-year-old Yoshizawa Hirota was killed in a traffic accident last Thursday.

• Also on the road are rock band Glay, who kicked off the second leg of their 42-show nationwide tour at the Yokohama Arena yesterday. Some 13,500 fans enjoyed a two-and-a-half-hour set that included the new single “100-mankai no Kiss”, out on January 17. It’s taken from their first original album in almost three years, “Love is Beautiful”, which goes on sale January 31.

• Finishing a mommoth tour yesterday were Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra. They celebrated the end of a 6-month, 71-date tour, that included shows in Europe, with 15,000 fans at the Saitama Super Arena. They will release a greatest hits album and a “road movie” about their tour in March.

• In town promoting his latest book is former U.S. vice president Al Gore (58). He appeared at a book-signing event for “An Inconvenient Truth” at the Maruzen bookstore in Tokyo’s Marunouchi district yesterday. Today he is to meet with the environment minister and business leaders, and attend the Japan premiere of the documentary movie based on his book at the Asahi Hall in Yurakucho.

Former and current members of Morning Musume have formed a new unit to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the popular girl group on January 28. Morning Musume Tanjou 10-Nen Kinentai is made up of “graduates” Abe Natsumi (25), Iida Kaori (25) and Goto Maki (21), and current younger members Niigaki Risa (18) and Kusumi Koharu (14). They have recorded a commemorative single, “Bokura ga Ikiru, My Asia”, which will also be the theme tune of the upcoming Cirque du Soleil show “Dralion”. The name is a combination of the Eastern dragon and the Western lion, and the tune is described by Helo! Project founder and producer Tsunku (38) as a reflection of that east-meets-west theme. The show opens on February 7 and other celebrity supporters enlisted to promote it include comediennes Hisamoto Masami and Shibata Rie, newscaster Ogura Tomoaki, and Olympic ice skating gold medalist Arakawa Shizuka. Morning Musume will also have their annual spring tour from March to May 6, after which leader Yoshizawa Hitomi (21) will graduate from the group. Her role will be filled by Fujimoto Miki (21).

• The DJ Ozma scandal continues and NHK chairman Hashimoto Genichi (63) spoke about nothing else during his regular press conference yesterday. The public broadcaster has received some 1,800 complaints from viewers about the “naked” performance of Ozma and his dancers on Kohaku last New Year’s Eve. The network has apologized, as have Ozma’s label, Toshiba EMI. But NHK are determined that there will be no repeat of such a “surprise attack” on future shows. Ozma appeared on NHK music shows a total of eight times last year, but is unlikely to be seen on the network again anytime soon as he has been resolutely unapologetic for the incident. In future, according to Hashimoto, verbal agreements will be replaced with written contracts that clearly forbid unsuitable” performances. There are also plans for a new manual on how to change camera angles during a live broadcast. On a related note, three U.S. stations in San Fransisco, Los Angeles and Hawaii broadcast an edited version of the show.

• Johnny’s veteran Higashiyama Noriyuki (40) has fessed up to his romance with actress Uchiyama Rina (25). The former Shonentai member admitted to the relationship in a message to fans on the Johnny’s Web mobile site.

Singer turned actress hitomi (30) avoided her usual sexy attire for the Japan premiere of the Tsukamoto Shinya movie “Akumu Tantei” (Nightmare Detective) yesterday. She wore a kimono for the event, attended by 2,000 fans, and looked every bit the ideal Japanese beauty. Giving her her first starring role and co-starring Matsuda Ryuhei (23), the movie was first shown at the Pusan Film Festival last October and is slated to open in 15 countries, including the U.S. and the U.K. Tsukamoto is said to be planning a series and may follow in the footsteps of other horror directors who have recently started working in Hollywood. Some 11 companies are interested in doing a remake. Akumu Tantei’s plot reads like “Nightmare on Elm Street” meets “One Missed Call”. Detective Kirishima Keiko (Hitomi) tries to recruit a mysterious man (Matsuda) who can enter people’s dreams to help unravel unusual suicides whose victims are found to have dialled 0 on their mobile phones before their death. It opens here on January 13.

• Permanently bronzed singer Matsuzaki Shigeru (57) is a proud dad once again. He announced the birth of his third child yesterday at a PR event for the upcoming movie “Keitai Deka, The Movie 2”. He provided songs for the movie’s soundtrack, including the theme tune. His wife Hiroyo gave birth to their second daughter on January 4.