Yearly Archives: 2007

Goto Yuuki (21, photo right), the troubled younger brother of former Morning Musume member Goto Maki (22), has been arrested. Said to be the leader of a group of young thieves, he was arrested by police in Tokyo’s Edogawa Ward on charges of stealing ¥1 million worth of electrical wiring from a construction site in mid-July. The group were spotted leaving the site with the stolen materials in a 2-ton truck. When confronted by a police officer, they abandoned the truck and got away on foot. But the truck had been rented by one of the members and was quickly traced to him. Goto reported to the Komatsugawa police station with his lawyer on Saturday and admitted to all the charges. Goto made his showbiz debut at the age of 13 after he was scouted while attending a Momusu concert. He was teamed with female singer Sonin (24, photo left) in a duo called EE Jump. But within a year, his tendency to stay out all night got him into trouble with his management and he started missing work. After a 5-month forced break, he returned to work but was back in trouble again within three months: photos of him at a hostess club (he was still only 15) were published in a weekly magazine and EE Jump was disbanded. He married in December 2005, at which point his bride was already seven months pregnant.

• As if the recent divorce of former sumo champion Hanada Masaru (36) and former flight attendant Mieko (38) hadn’t already grabbed enough headlines, it now turns out she had an affair with a young actor. Today’s issue of weekly magazine “Shuukan Gendai” includes a story about the 6-month affair in 2004 with handsome actor Aoki Kenji (27). Hanada visited his ex-wife yesterday afternoon and they drove somewhere with their three children, returning in the evening. A couple of hours later, he sped off on his motorcycle, and neither made any comment to the waiting reporters. Aoki, a member of the quartet Jack Jack, spoke to the media after an event yesterday, saying there had indeed been an affair. Last night he updated his blog and apologized to his fans for all the fuss. The media have since been taking the stance that the whole thing was probably timed as a publicity stunt by Aoki.

The epitome of the cool single woman, singer/actress Natsuki Mari (55) is engaged to be married. She announced yesterday that she and percussionist Saito Nobu (56) plan to tie the knot next spring. It is Natsuki’s first marriage, while Saito is divorced. The couple met in spring of 2006 when Saito was a session musician for Natsuki’s new band Gibier du Mari and they started dating this summer. She is scheduled to attend a press event today for the launch of her new book. She is famous for shunning Japan’s more conservative values and was widely believed to have no interest in marriage. Real name Nakajima Junko, she started out as a sensual jazz singer, and has often shocked Japan with her sexuality, appearing nude in the 1983 Kinji Fukasaku move “Satomi Hakkenden” (Legend of the Eight Samurai). Twice nominated for a Japanese Academy Award, she voiced the character of Yubaba in Miyazaki Hayao’s Oscar-winning anime “Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi” (Spirited Away, 2001). Saito is one of Japan’s top session musicians and has recorded with artists as diverse as Matsutoya Yumi, B’z, Gackt, and Morning Musume.

• Talento and former Olympic swimmer Michiko Kihara died yesterday of a brain hemorrhage at a hospital in Kanagawa Prefecture. She was 59. Kihara achieved fame when she swam for Japan at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 1964 and went on to become a popular television personality. She was popularly known by her nickname “Mimi”.

• Eight Japanese films will be showcased over the course of the British Film Institute’s annual London Film Festival which opened Wednesday. With a selection of seven Japanese features and one short making it through the shortlist for a place in the prestigious 16 day program, directors including Yamashita Nobuhiro, Kitano Takeshi and Sori Fumihiko will be given the opportunity to air their works. “There are some highly creative people in Japan and the films are obviously testament to their ideas and their skills and I think that they enrich the festival by providing aesthetic pleasures which you don’t perhaps get from other films,” said program adviser Tony Rayns. The titles include Kitano’s “Kantoku Banzai!” (Glory to the Filmmaker!), Suo Masayuki’s courtroom drama “Soredemo Boku wa Yattenai” (I Just Didn’t Do It), “Mogari no Mori” (The Mourning Forest) which won the Grand Prix at Cannes this year, and the anime fantasy feature “Vexille”.

A couple of Hollywood stars have been in town this week. Jodie Foster (44) attended the Japan premiere of “The Brave One” at the Roppongi Hills complex in central Tokyo last night. She took her time with TV interviews and signing autographs for fans, taking 20 minutes to walk the 100m carpet, which was yellow rather than red. She told the 700 fans, “I’ve been to Tokyo many, many, many times. Since I was 13. The first time I came, I fell in love with Tokyo.” (By the way, the photo shows Foster at a press conference, flanked by Toda Natsuko. Toda interprets for most visiting Hollywood stars and does the subtitles for many of the big movies). The movie opens on October 27. Meanwhile, Matt Damon (37) flew into Narita Airport on American Airlines yesterday, and was met by about 150 fans who sang him a belated Happy Birthday (his birthday was October 8). He’s here to promote “The Bourne Ultimatum”, which has it’s premiere tonight and opens in theaters on November 10. It’s his first visit in almost three years, the last time being to plug “Ocean’s 12”.

• Tickets will be like gold dust for two shows by British rock band The Police, who announced their Japan concert schedule yesterday. We reported here on Japan Zone back in March that the band are coming to Japan for the first time in 27 years (they canceled a 1983 show at Nippon Budokan), and they will play Kyocera Dome in Osaka on February 10 and Tokyo Dome on the 13th. Recently reformed 30 years after their debut and 23 years after they split, their world tour started in Canada in May. Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland are performing without any backing musicians, but will be supported in Japan by Fiction Plane, with Sting’s son Joe Sumner (30) on bass and vocals.

• Talento Sakakibara Ikue (48) recently had her bag stolen from her car, according to police. She had parked her car outside a friends house in Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward on Tuesday evening, and was dumb enough to leave the window open. Her bag, containing ¥60,000 in cash, was gone when she returned half an hour later. One of the top idol singers of the early 1980s, she is married to actor Watanabe Toru (46).

“Galileo”, the new Fuji TV Monday night drama series, is off to a good start. With a couple of top names – Fukuyama Masaharu (38), in his first starring role in four years, and Shibasaki Kou (26) – the audience ranking for the opening episode was a very respectable 24.7% in the Kanto region, according to Video Research. The series is based on a popular novel by Higashino Keigo, and Fukuyama plays the physics genius Yukawa Manabu, while Shibasaki plays rookie detective Utsumi Kaoru. Each week features a guest villain, with Karasawa Toshiaki (44) taking on the role in the first episode. SMAP member Katori Shingo (30) will make a guest appearance in the fourth episode. In a radical change from his recent TV and movie role as the Monkey god Songoku in “Saiyuki”, he will play a cunning serial killer.

Actress Miyazawa Rie (34) may be back together with kabuki playboy Ichikawa Ebizo (29), according to the latest issue of women’s weekly “Shuukan Josei”. The owner of an izakaya restaurant that Ichikawa frequents says the actor introduced her on a recent visit, saying, “We’re dating now.” The two were first rumored to be dating back in 1997 by the same magazine, and romance was rekindled when they starred together in a theatrical production last month. Both have had eventful love lives, to say the least. Miyazawa’s most famous romance was with sumo wrestler Takanohana back in the early 1990s. They were both huge stars at the time and their engagement and Miyazawa’s reported change of heart received massive media attention. More recently, she had been dating accessory designer Mikita Takashi (37) since 2002, but the pair split up in the spring. Ichikawa’s past romances include actresses Yonekura Ryoko (32), Sato Eriko (25) and Takaoka Saki (34). Asked about the latest rumors after a performance yesterday in Nagoya, he had no comment.

• In Tokyo yesterday Miss Mexico, 24-year-old newscaster Priscila Pelares, was chosen as Miss International 2007. Japan’s representative, Shirata Hisako (25), didn’t get any further than the last 12.

An estimated one and a quarter million people turned out in Osaka yesterday for the annual parade to commemorate the 1937 opening of the city’s main Midousuji street. The highlight of the parade was a float carrying veteran actors Fukita Makoto (74) and Shiraki Minoru (73). The pair starred in the hugely popular 1960’s comedy series “Tenamonya Sandogasa”, which was made by Osaka’s ABC TV and sponsored by local confectioner Maeda Seika. To the delight of residents, they held up packets of Maeda’s famous crackers and shouted out the famous catchphrase, “Ore ga konna ni tsuyoi nomo, atari Maeda no kurakkaa”. The show was also closely tied to the local Yoshimoto Kogyo comedy talent agency, to which the diminutive Shiraki belonged. In the 25 years since it started in 1983, the event has occasionally been used as the victory parade when a local baseball team has won the Japan Series, though it’s only happened three times: the Nakai Hawks in 1959 and the Hanshin Tigers in 2003 and 2005.

• Some 300 fans turned out at Haneda Airport to greet popular Korean actress Choi Ji Woo (32). She’s in Tokyo to promote the drama series “Air City”, which airs on Wowow from October 26. The suspense drama is set in Seoul Airport and is Choi’s first starring role in four years.

• Also in Tokyo over the weekend was Oscar winner Jamie Foxx (39), here to promote his latest movie “Kingdom”, which opened at Roppongi Hills on Saturday. It was his second visit to Japan as an actor, the first being to promote “Any Given Sunday” in 2000. But he revealed that he had been in Japan before that, performing stand up comedy on U.S. military bases in Okinawa about nine years ago.

• KAT-TUN member Akanishi Jin (22) has his first drama starring role in the upcoming “Yuukan Kurabbu” (The Leisure Club). Based on the long-running girl’s manga, it tells of six high schoolers who get caught up in various adventures. The show’s theme tune, “Keep the Faith”, was written by former Boowy vocalist Himuro Kyosuke and is performed by KAT-TUN. Akanishi, one of the more popular young Johnny’s Jimusho stars, is making his first drama appearance in almost two and a half years, a period during which he took off to the U.S. to study for six months.

• Rakugo performer Motoya Izumi (33) continues to deny rumors of a split with his wife, former actress Hano Aki (39). She and their two children are said to have moved in with her mother since last month. Motoya, his two sisters, and his overbearing mother have been through a series of scandals over the last few years.

Former rakugoka Sanyutei Enraku (74) is to undergo treatment for cancer, it was revealed yesterday. During a medical checkup at the beginning of the month, an endoscopy discovered a cancer tumor in his stomach. He is currently undergoing further tests at the Keio Hospital to decide if surgery is required. After a career of more than 50 years, Enraku announced his retirement from the stage due to poor health back in February. Best known as the host of popular and long-running NHK show “Shoten”, he was hospitalized with a brain hemorrhage in October 2005 and made his comeback to the stage a year later. He has also been undergoing dialysis treatment for nine years and his combined health problems forced him to pass on the baton at “Shoten” last year after 40 years as a performer and host on the traditional comedy show.

• Thursday’s broadcast of the WBC Flyweight title bout between Kameda Daiki (18) and champion Naito Daisuke (33) drew an impressive audience rating of 28% in the Kanto region. In Kansai, home of the Kameda boxing brothers, the rating was higher still at 32.3%, reaching a peak of over 40% as the judges’ announced their decision: 3-0 for Naito, who won the title in July. The first-ever loss leaves Kameda, middle of three brothers, with a record of 10-1-0 (7 KOs). TBS said that they had over 1,000 complaints after the bout, mostly complaining that the buildup to the fight was too long and that the commentators were too focused on Kameda. But such is the huge hype surrounding the brothers, none of whom have yet to win outside Japan. Eldest brother Koki (20) has a 16-0 record and is scheduled to fight on October 25, though no opponent has yet been named. Youngest brother Tomoki (16) aims to turn pro next summer.

The latest big sports-showbiz couple are Yomiuri Giants pitcher Hayashi Masanori (24) and TV Tokyo announcer Kamei Kyoko (25), who announced yesterday that they plan to marry before the end of the year. The couple have been dating for about 15 months. The Giants recently clinched their first Central League pennant in five years. Hayashi said he wanted to make the announcement before the Giants get into final preparations to face the winner of the 2nd-3rd place playoff in the Climax Series from October 18. Hayashi was a starter in his second season in 2002, but was switched to middle relief the following year. Kamei joined TV Tokyo in 2005.

• Actress Mihara Junko (43) revealed yesterday that she and talento Happy Happy (38) have finally divorced. Though the couple appeared regularly on TV as an ideal couple after their 1999 marriage, rumors of a split had been circulating for several years. Mihara says her husband’s affairs had been their undoing and that despite their efforts to patch things up, they finally filed for divorce on October 6. The revelation was made on the TBS variety show “Kin-Sma”, hosted by SMAP leader Nakai Masahiro, and will be broadcast tonight.

• Another revelation to be broadcast tonight is that actress Hamada Noriko (42) has been married for the last six years. She is scheduled to make a live appearance on the NTV show “Rajikaru”. She made her debut in 1984 as one of four girls selected to star in the hugely hyped movie “The Audition” and spin-off group Saint Four. The group split in 1988 and Hamada became an obscure stage and B-movie actress. She released a book of nude photos in 2000.

• Dance unit TRF have postponed two dates in the 15th anniversary tour as member Etsu (43) has been hospitalized with bronchitis. The shows in Fukuoka and Osaka have been rescheduled for December.

• Comedy duo Cream Stew revealed yesterday that they recently made their U.S. TV debut. The pair appeared for all of 4.4 seconds in an August episode of the popular drama series “4400”. In episode 43 of season four, titled “Ghost in the Machine”, they played a pair of National Security Agency staff members, but had no lines. The series won’t be available for rental in Japan until next year. The duo claim they are aiming to have speaking parts in season five.

• Japan-based American pin-up girl/singer Leah Dizon (21) has her first “scandal”. Today’s issue of weekly gossip magazine “Friday” says she is seeing the handsome 26-year-old son of her management agency’s president. Still a university student, he is also a director of the company and has worked on Dizon’s promo video production. He has been seen several times picking up Dizon in his car and taking her to his apartment. The agency denies that there’s any romance, with the limp explanation that she “is visiting her cat at his apartment, as she’s not allowed to keep pets at her own home.” A likely story!

Though he’s one of Japan’s most established rock stars, Yazawa Eikichi (58) has never performed on the country’s most established music show. NHK’s annual Kohaku Uta Gassen song contest has been a New Year’s Eve institution for almost six decades. But recent years have seen NHK trying different approaches to reverse steadily declining audience figures. This year, the man with the plan is producer Samizo Takashi, who is behind the network’s successful Wednesday night show “Songs”. It was through that show and his respect for true musicianship that Samizo established a strong working relationship with “Ei-chan” and Sano Motoharu (51), another major star who has never appeared on Kohaku. With NHK planning to have a segment of the show centered around singers who have been featured on “Songs”, it should bode well for audience ratings – among the middle-aged bracket at least. NHK has a 3-year plan leading up to the 60th edition of Kohaku in 2009, with the theme of “utajikara”, the “power of music”.

• Talento Toyooka Masumi (24) announced yesterday that she is engaged to be married. She and her businessman fiance plan to register their marriage and hold a ceremony on November 3. He is 10 years older and 31cm taller than the tiny 147cm (4’10”) Toyooka. She debuted in 1999 as a member of the idol trio P-Chicks, all of whom were under 150cm. Her fanatical interest in railways has earned her the nickname “Tetsuko” and ensures her a steady otaku fan base.

• Talento Enari Kazuki (22) settled his lawsuit against a magazine publisher at the Tokyo District Court yesterday. “Nikkan Gendai” published a story that suggested Enari was a regular customer of the sex industry, a claim in total contrast to his clean image, and he sued for ¥11 million in damages. The magazine published an apology in last Saturday’s issue.

• Management for former Morning Musume member Ishiguro Aya (29) and Luna Sea drummer Shinya (37) have denied reports that the two are discussing a divorce. The story, printed in several newspapers today, claimed they are already separated and have only to decide custody and maintenance of their three children. But their agencies say that the separate apartments are simply to allow Shinya to work on his music, a claim he made several weeks ago on TV.

• Comedian Kajiwara Yuuta (27) became a father on Tuesday. A member of the comedy duo King Kong, he and former model Mikiko married in June.

• The latest in this year’s silly awards is the Megane Best Dresser, given to celebrities who look best in glasses. Among yesterday’s recipients of the award, now in its 20th year, were talento Manabe Kaori (26), actor Takenaka Naoto (51), model Mori Izumi (24) and Miyazaki governor Higashikokubaru Hideo (50).

Yesterday, comedian Wakki (photo right) was put on the spot during a live variety show and admitted that he is engaged to be married. The news came during the live 3-hour “London Hearts” special on TV Asahi last night, when the show’s hosts, duo London Boots, and Wakki’s comic partner Nakagawa “Hide” Hideki (36, photo left), who got hitched in July, made an unannounced visit to his home. His fiancee Ayumi, a 33-year-old Tokyo resident, was interviewed but only through a frosted glass window. The couple met eight years ago when Ayumi was working as the emcee for an event in Yokohama. They plan to register their marriage on October 13 but have no immediate plans for a wedding ceremony or reception. One half of the popular Yoshimoto comedy duo Penalty, Wakki (35, real name Wakita Yasuhito) met his partner Hide when they played soccer together for the powerhouse Funabashi High School, with whom they won a national championship. Predictably the entertainment headlines are full of references to his having scored a “goal”.

• The new TBS drama series “Utahime” is to use Eric Clapton’s 1996 hit “Change the World” as background music. It’s the first time that Clapton has allowed his music to be used in a Japanese show, and he is said to given his approval after having enjoyed the script. Naturally there is an angle to the story: Clapton is due to release an album of hits, “Lifetime Best”, in December.