Yearly Archives: 2007

Kanda Uno’s Japanese Wedding

Japanese star

Talento Kanda Uno (32) had her long-awaited wedding in Tokyo yesterday. She married pachinko mogul Nishimura Takuro (37) in a traditional shinto ceremony at Meiji Jingu shrine. The ceremony was followed by a hugely extravagant reception downtown at the Hotel New Otani. A lucky 777 friends and fellow celebrity guests were invited to the reception and bridal fashion show that is said to have cost ¥600 million (771 actually turned up). Kanda wore a 105-carat diamond and platinum tiara, necklace and earring set that arrived just days before from Antwerp and cost some ¥300 million. Kanda’s friend Ohguro Maki (37) performed a ballad she had composed specially for the occasion, leaving both the bride and groom in tears. The couple have not yet registered their marriage and plan to do so on October 13, an auspicious taian day on the traditional calendar. The daughter of a bureaucrat, Kanda entered the world of showbiz in 1992. After many years as a regular on the variety show circuit, recently she has been working more as a fashion designer. Yesterday’s reception featured dozens of her bridal designs. She has never made a secret of her taste for the high life and there was never any doubt that she would marry into money. Nishimura is the founder of the major Nittaku chain of pachinko parlors, with annual sales of ¥200 billion.

• Newscaster Chikushi Tetsuya (72) returned to the studio 147 days after taking a leave of absence to undergo cancer treatment. He revealed on the “News 23” show back in mid-May that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer. He made occasional telephone appearances on the show during the summer, such as for the July national election, as he underwent chemotherapy. He admitted that he had actually put on some weight, and even managed to talk cheerfully about having lost some 20% of his hair. But he acknowledged that his battle with cancer was ongoing and that he would not be able to return to the studio full-time.

• Former Morning Musume member Abe Natsumi (26) is to be prosecuted after causing a traffic accident on Sunday. According to police, she was making a right turn out of a car park on Sunday evening when she hit a motorbike. Abe was unhurt but the rider suffered minor injuries to his elbow and back. Abe has had her driving license for less than a year and still has a learner’s sticker on her car.

• Rock duo B’z have extended their amazing sales records once again. With “Super Love Song” on top of the latest Oricon singles chart, they have now had 40 No.1’s in a row. Their 41 consecutive Top 10 entries lifts them above SMAP and The Alfee.

• Veteran idol duo Pink Lady have sued a magazine publisher for use of their image without permission. A February issue of women’s magazine “Josei Jishin” featured photos of Mii (49) and Masuda Keiko (50) performing their famous dance moves as part of a feature on dieting through dance. The duo have sued publisher Kobunsha for ¥3.12 million in compensation.


News One Day Late

Popular young Johnny’s Jimusho group News gave their first ever overseas “solo” performances in Taipei yesterday. The afternoon and evening shows at the Taipei Arena had been postponed by a day due to the largest typhoon seen in the Taiwanese capital in many years. 26,000 fans forgot any disappointment as the 6-member group descended in a gondola from the 43m high ceiling of the arena. The show also included high-flying wire stunts that got the performers close to the stands, despite the fact that power blackouts had prevented all but the briefest of rehearsals the previous day. Tegoshi Yuya (19) jumped too soon for one stunt and ended up in the seats. He was surprised to be greeted with a chorus of “Daijobu?” (Are you okay?), an indication that many young Taiwanese fans are learning Japanese. During the 2-hour 20-minute show they sang 23 songs including the first performance of their upcoming single “Weeeek”, due for release on November 7. The trip has clearly been a financial success, with the group’s album “Touch” and singles all reaching the top of the local sales charts.

• American pop diva Fergie (32) and acclaimed British newcomers the Pipettes have provided two songs for the TBS romantic comedy series “Hatachi no Koibito. The series stars comedian Akashiya Sanma (52) and Nagasawa Masami (20). The Pipettes’ “Because It’s Not Love”, from their debut album, is the show’s theme tune, and Fergie says she wrote “Pick It Up” especially for her Japanese fans. “Hatachi…” airs on Sunday nights from October 14.


Hollywood Premiere for Midnight Eagle

Japanese star“Heroes” star Masi Oka (32) joined the Japanese director and cast of “Midnight Eagle” for yesterday’s world premiere in Hollywood. Stars Osawa Takao (39) and Takeuchi Yuko (27) said the event was all the more thrilling because it was held at the famous Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre, the site of Hollywood’s first-ever premiere in 1922. Also on stage were director Narushima Izuru (46) and actors Tamaki Hiroshi (27) and Fuji Tatsuya (66). Scheduled for release in Japan on November 23 and in the U.S. in early December, “Midnight Eagle” will be the first Japanese movie to open (almost) simultaneously in Japan and the U.S. following a tie up between Shochiku and Universal Pictures. It will also be the opening movie at the upcoming Tokyo International Film Festival. The plot revolves around a US stealth bomber that has gone down in Japan’s Northern Alps.

• Mickie Yoshino (55), leader of the legendary band Godiego, has married a 36-year-old artist. Yoshino and long-time Godiego fan Ouchi Sachie were married by the band’s bassist Steve Fox (54), who is also a Christian minister. The couple had been dating since the start of the year. Godiego had limited success overseas but achieved legendary status in Japan following their 1978 single “Monkey Magic”, the theme tune for the hugely popular TV drama “Saiyuki”.

• Distribution of this week’s issue of the weekly gossip magazine “Friday” was canceled at the last minute, the first time this has happened in the magazine’s 23-year history. The official explanation was simply that a serious error had been found in a major news story. Sources say that an editor found errors related to the photographs used in the article and that the story in question was about the death of a 17-year-old sumo trainee at the Tokitsukaze stable in June. The incident has led to a police investigation and possible criminal charges against stablemaster Tokitsukaze and several older wrestlers. There has also been strong criticism of the Japan Sumo Association’s handling of the matter. Friday, published by Kodansha, has a circulation of about 415,000.


Health Issues Beset Middle-Aged Women

Chinese singer Agnes ChanSinger Agnes Chan (52) underwent surgery on Monday for breast cancer. According to a statement released by her management agency yesterday, the surgery was a success. Though she has canceled a series of concerts and lectures scheduled for the next few days, they say she plans to be back at work on October 9. The tumor was discovered in mid-September and was found to be in its early stages. Full name, Agnes Miling Kaneko Chan, the Chinese singer started her singing and acting career in Hong Kong in the early 1970s but soon found even greater success in Japan, where she debuted in 1972. She married her former manager, Tsutomu Kaneko, in 1986 but continued working after giving birth to her first child. Her decision to bring her infant son with her to work was seen at the time as highly controversial and led to the first widespread debate on the issue of working mothers. A Christian, Chan is an essayist, novelist, university lecturer and UNICEF ambassador.

• And on the same theme, talento Takagi Miho (45) is to make her return to acting for the first time in 12 years in a drama about three women in their 40s and one’s struggle with breast cancer. “Hitogata Nagashi” is based on the novel of the same name and stars Sawaguchi Yasuko (42) as a TV announcer, while Takagi and Matsuda Miyuki (45) complete a trio of friends. All three actresses had their heyday in the 1980s, with Matsuda getting married young to legendary actor Matsuda Yusaku (1949-89). Their two sons are now up and coming actors in their 20s. Takagi says she is leaving the running of her family’s farm in Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture to her father while she is filming the drama. Apart from her rural work, she has been a regular on afternoon and variety shows for several years. The new 3-part series airs on NHK from December 1.

• Singer Mori Masako (48) has canceled all planned concert in October and November due to her health problems. As we reported here about a week ago, she was hospitalized with acute pneumonia but was expected to be back on stage within a month. But with a mostly empty schedule in December, it’s clear that she will be taking off the next several months to fully recover.

• Former sumo Yokozuna (Grand Champion) Hanada Masaru (36) and his wife Mieko (38) got divorced on Tuesday, the pair revealed to the media yesterday. They had been separated for the last five years. They got married in 1994 when Hanada, fighting under the ring name Wakanohana, and his younger brother were at the peak of the Waka-Taka boom. The brothers were national heroes and Mieko, a model and JAL flight attendant, was seen as the right kind of match. They had four children stop-leukemia-info.com, but cracks started to appear after Hanada retired from sumo in 2000, tried his hand at American football and showbiz and was caught up in rumors of womanizing. He has recently become successful in the food industry and currently runs almost 30 restaurants. According to a magazine interview published today, Mieko says her ex wants to live like comedian Akashiya Sanma (52): one of Japan’s most popular stars, the divorcee often jokes about his ex-wife, actress Ohtake Shinobu (50), and makes no secret of his constant philandering.

• In the first event of the 47th Miss International pageant, which takes place in Tokyo up to October 15, local actress Shirata Hisako (25) was chosen by reporters yesterday as Miss Photogenic. Beauties from 60 countries are aiming to win the coveted title currently held by Daniela Di Giacomo of Venezuela.


Just Like Old Times

Yomiuri Giants CL Champions 2007For fans of the Yomiuri Giants, even a 5-year wait for a league championship is a long, long time. Japan’s most popular baseball team (at least when they’re winning) clinched the Central League title yesterday but for the first time ever NTV didn’t cover the event with a full live broadcast. The network has been cutting back on the number of live Giants games as both baseball and the country’s most storied team have gone through a slump. Last night’s 5-4 sayonara win against cross-town rivals the Yakult Swallows was shown on satellite channels but only when the Giants players hoisted manager Hara Tatsunori in the traditional “doage” did NTV show the event live using an on-screen insert. About 15 minutes later, they broke with scheduled programming and showed a brief 10 minutes of highlights. Several celebrities known to be die-hard Giants fans were in celebratory mood, including SMAP leader Nakai Masahiro (35), kabuki actor Ichikawa Somegoro (34) and freelance announcer Tokumitsu Kazuo (66). The Giants still have to navigate the newly named Climax Series, playoffs between the league’s top 3 finishers to decide who will compete against the top Pacific League team in the Japan Series. The PL playoffs start on October 8, the CL series on October 13, and the Japan Series on October 27.

• The media fuss about actress Sawajiri Erika (21) has died down a bit since she apologized for her recent grumpy behavior. If you haven’t seen the video of last Friday’s premiere of her new movie, it’s definitely worth a look.


Celebrities in Damage Control Mode

Japanese star Sawajiri ErikaActress Sawajiri Erika(21) is one of several major celebrities doing damage control in the last couple of days. In Sawajiri’s case it follows harsh criticism of her recent grumpy behavior. On her official website today, she issued a statement formally apologizing to fans and organizers of last Friday’s PR even for her new movie. While on stage before the screening she appeared sorely pissed off about something, kept her arms folded, and gave only brief and testy replies to questions. In her statement, she acknowledged her bad behavior and that she had “betrayed” her fans, and vowed to learn from the experience. Over the weekend, her attitude was criticized as unprofessional and she was slammed by self-appointed showbiz watchdog Wada Akiko (57). She said it had reinforced her image as a self-centered “jo-sama” or movie queen.

• Meanwhile, legendary guitarist Hotei Tomoyasu (45) has been fined ¥300,000 for his assault on friend and fellow musician Maeda Kou (45). The pair got into an argument over musical differences while driving from Chiba Prefecture back to Tokyo in June. The 6-foot-3 Hotei initially refused to apologize for the incident but published an apology on his website yesterday.

• And comedian Nagai Hidekazu (37) has sued two Shizuoka Prefecture credit unions to get back more than ¥11 million that he paid to get himself out of a scrape in the Philippines in May. The married Nagai got caught up in a badger game scam in Manila after he and a friend picked up a couple of local girls.

• Talento Yamada Kuniko (47) attended a PR event yesterday to promote the Pink Ribbon Campaign for the early detection of breast cancer. Yamada is currently undergoing treatment for the disease herself.

• Florent Dabadie (32), who made his name as the interpreter for the Japanese team’s French manager at the 2002 World Cup, has denied rumors of a romance with Fuji TV announcer Takigawa Christel (30). Attending an event in Tokyo yesterday, he said rumors of the romance and split were untrue and that he is currently dating a different Japanese lady. The popular Takigawa is half French and was born in Paris.


DCT’s Yoshida Miwa Loses Husband

Dreams Come TrueVisual director Sueda Ken died last Wednesday of germinoma, a tumor of the brain, it was revealed yesterday. He was just 33. His death was announced by the management agency of pop group Dreams Come True, as Sueda was the common-law husband of vocalist Yoshida Miwa (42) and he directed many of the group’s videos. The couple married in May 2004 but never registered their marriage. Though Sueda had been undergoing treatment for some time, his condition took a turn for the worse just as DCT started a concert tour in early August. Despite the busy concert schedule, Yoshida spent every free moment at her husband’s side until the tour ended on September 23. Her musical partner Nakamura Masato (49) described on his blog how Sueda has made her promise to give her all on stage no matter what happened offstage. DCT’s new single “A-i-shi-te-ru no Sain” goes on sale this week and the group are currently recording an album due for release in December. But Nakamura says he will wait until Yoshida is ready to sing again before taking on any kind of PR engagements.

• Veteran folk singer Yoshida Takuro (61) is back on the road again. After a series of canceled shows due to health problems, his nationwide “Life is a Voyage” concert tour got started again in Kumamoto yesterday. Showing no after effects of the tonsillitis or bronchitis that kept him off stage for a month, he was in good voice as he performed 21 songs over two and a half hours.


V6’s Inohara Marries Seto Asaka

Seto Asaka and Inohara YoshihikoThe big news going into the weekend was the engagement of Johnny’s Jimusho star Inohara Yoshihiko (31) and actress Seto Asaka (30), announced on Friday. The couple made it official at a press conference and of course it was all over the press on Saturday morning. Then Inohara appeared that same night with his fellow V6 members at a scheduled concert and revealed to the audience that he and Seto had got so caught up the media excitement that they had decided to change their plans and register their marriage the night before at a municipal office. V6, who along with SMAP and Tokio make up the trio of Johnny’s boy bands that established themselves in the 1990s, just started a nationwide tour on Friday. The couple first started going out about twelve years ago when they both appeared in the drama “Owaranai Natsu”, and had an on and off relationship before dating again seriously about five years ago. We reported the romance here on Japan Zone in May 2005 when they first acknowledged it in public. Seto takes her stage name from the Aichi prefecture city where she was born. She was scouted as a teenager and moved to Tokyo after graduating junior high school. After starting as an idol singer, she made a name as an actress in the mid-1990s and has been a constant presence in TV dramas and movies ever since.

• Meanwhile, the media has been wondering what the hell’s wrong with Sawajiri Erika (21). The hugely popular young actress appeared at a PR event on Friday, the opening day of her latest movie, “Closed Note”. But she scowled, kept her arms folded and spoke only three sentences the whole time she was on stage, leading veteran singer Wada Akiko (57) to lay into her on her regular Saturday morning show. “You can’t say just three sentences when you’re the star of the movie…and with your arms folded?!” said Akko, the so-called “God-sister” of Japanese showbiz. “I’ve never met her, but she reckons she’s a movie queen? Is she that full of herself? So, if I meet her, I have to call her Erika-sama? She must be quite a star.” (I have my own theory about why she’s being literally tight-lipped.)


Below Par Debut for Kobayashi Akira

Japanese star Kobayashi AkiraVeteran actor and singer Kobayashi Akira (68) may be rethinking his decision to become a pro golfer. He made his debut as a pro on the senior tour yesterday, the first day of the season-opening PGA Handa Cup. He had a 2m birdie chance at the first hole but after missing it he says he put himself under a lot more pressure. By the end of the round, 11 bogies, 1 double-bogey and 3 triple-bogies left him with an embarrassing score of 94 (22-over) and trailing the field by eleven shots. His wasn’t the worst ever score on the senior tour – at least he managed to stay below 100 – but he was clearly unhappy that his confidence hadn’t produced the expected result. “Like when I’m on stage with a mike in my hand, I started off feeling good. But I hated my own poor performance.” From 1993, Kobayashi played in 23 tournaments as an amateur and the PGA made him an honorary member in February. He practiced hard for his pro debut during the summer despite a busy stage schedule. And a relatively large crowd and two TV cameras turned out at the Ibaraki Golf Club to see his performance. One of Japan’s postwar superstars, Kobayashi has a showbiz career that spans more than 50 years but has been repeatedly in and out of debt. It doesn’t look like golf will be providing him with any financial relief.

• Comedian Matsumoto Kouta (28) recently got into a sexual entanglement with a 16-year-old girl, according to today’s issue of weekly magazine “Friday”. The article says Matsumoto, one half of the popular duo Regular, and a group of other Yoshimoto comedians were at a karaoke facility at the end of August. When Matsumoto, who doesn’t drink, met the girl she told him she was 22 and the pair ended up in a nearby love hotel. Several days later, she called him and told him her true age. When she demanded that he return ¥5,000 she had lent him or she would go to the media, she says he threatened her. Yoshimoto denies all of the girl’s claims.

• Actress Watanabe Eriko (52) has changed her stage name to Watanabe Eri. She made the change on the advice of chanson singer and self-styled spiritualist Miwa Akihiro (72). Miwa told her that the medical problems she had been having since the start of the year would continue as long as she used her old name. Watanabe is currently in rehearsals for a stage production of Stephen King’s “Misery” that opens in Shinjuku tomorrow.


Sato Aiko Marries Riding Instructor

Japanese star Sato AikoPopular actress Sato Aiko got married yesterday, her 30th birthday. She and Numata Takuma (29), a riding instructor and the son of a riding club owner, registered their marriage at a town hall in Chiba Prefecture and then faxed the news to the media. They plan to hold a wedding ceremony and reception next spring. The couple met in June 2006, when Sato took up horse riding after experiencing it for the first time on a TV variety show. She says she plans to continue working, and fittingly her first job is as a guest on an NHK Satellite horse racing broadcast. Sato won a nationwide beauty contest at the age of 15 and made her acting debut the following year. She has been a popular star of movies, dramas, variety shows and TV commercials for the last decade.

• In her latest setback, enka singer Mori Masako (48) has been hospitalized with acute pneumonia and has had to cancel several concert dates. She made a dramatic comeback last summer after an attempted suicide and divorce in 2005 brought a messy end to her long marriage to singer Mori Shinichi (59). In 1986, that marriage had effectively snuffed out a blossoming singing career that promised to make her one of Japan’s greatest stars. After the split, she threw herself back into her career with a frantic schedule of concerts, TV drama roles, and PR events that finally seems to have taken its toll. She’s due to release her 3rd comeback single on October 3 and has many TV and radio appearances booked.

• Actor Namioka Kazuki (29) revealed yesterday that he is not only married but also the father of one child. He wrote on his blog that he and his wife met while studying at Waseda University and dated for five years. They tied the knot in November 2006 and held a ceremony in her hometown of Fukuoka on New Year’s Day. They had a baby girl on September 24. Namioka is known for TV action hero “tokusatsu” roles, such as Shiro Jin’no/Demon Knight in “Genseishin Justirisers” and Shishimaru/Lion-Maru in “Lion-Maru G”. He has appeared in movies such as “Pacchigi!”, “Densha Otoko” and “The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift”.

• Talento Kubo Keiko (35) is finally pregnant. After a year of fertility treatment, the former Fuji TV weather girl announced the happy news that she is expecting her first child next February. She and JBL Super League basketball player Kita Takuya (35) married in May 2006.