Monthly Archives: August 2008

Amuro Namie (30) has become the first artist to have a million-selling album in her teens, twenties and thirties. Her latest hits collection, “Best Fiction,” has been at No.1 on the Oricon album chart since it went on sale July 30 and the latest sales tally is 1.09 million copies, making it the third album this year to break the million barrier. Other artists who have managed to go “platinum” (by the U.S. standard, anyway) in more than one decade include Inoue Yosui (in his 20s and 30s), Utada Hikaru and Nakashima Mika (in their teens and 20s). Amuro debuted in 1992 and was very much a 90s phenomenon, becoming a fashion leader for a whole generation of girls. Though her last million-selling album was 1998’s “181920,” her failed marriage to TRF dancer Sam and motherhood seem to have only broadened her appeal. She is currently top of the lineup of Avex artists on the “a-nation ’08” tour, which she joined this year for the first time, and she has a 16-venue, 40-show arena tour coming up in October. The latest sales figures show that she can still claim to be at the top of the J-pop world.

• The NHK taiga period drama “Atsu-hime” has reached new heights of popularity. The August 17 episode had a superb audience rating of 27.7%, making it the second-most watched show of the week after the hugely anticipated women’s Olympic marathon. The series had already set new high with last week’s rating of 26.4%, and the latest episode featured the first appearance of the key character Kazunomiya, played by popular young actress Horikita Maki (20).

• New Zealand-born singer/songwriter Jay’Ed (26) yesterday announced the release of his second single. The ballad “Zutto Issho” is the follow up to his May debut single “Superwoman.” The song has already done well in download rankings before it’s official release on August 27. Raised in Osaka, Jay’Ed says his new song has the warm island music influence of his other home country.

• Visiting Japan again is Hollywood star Jodie Foster (45), here to promote the movie “Nim’s Island,” which opens in Japan on September 6. Foster, who first visited Japan when she was 12, brought her two young sons with her this time. She said she wants them to have as many experiences as possible while young, but added, “I didn’t know it could get this hot in Japan!”

Singer Crystal Kay (22) has been given a crack at a Hollywood breakthrough. It was revealed at the weekend that her rock song “Hold On” has been chosen as the theme for an adaptation of the Steven King short story “Dolan’s Cadillac.” Due for U.S. release next year, it tells the tale of a mild-mannered teacher (Wes Bentley) seeking revenge against the mobster (Christian Slater) who murdered his wife. The movie has been in the works for several years, with names like Kevin Bacon, Sylvester Stallone and Dennis Hopper linked with the project. But the latest attempt looks likely to be completed, and filming has taken place in Canada and Las Vegas. Producer Ellen Wander says she chose Kay’s unreleased song after one listen, “I’m excited to be working with a singer overflowing with such stimulating talent. This is an exceptional movie that provides the perfect backdrop for her beautiful and exciting music.” The song, with all English lyrics, is her first for an overseas movie, though she has provided themes for a few domestic productions. The Yokohama-born Kay plans to embark on a U.S. career in September after graduating Japanese university. She recently worked with top producers Jam and Lewis in L.A. on two tracks for her latest album “Color Change!”

• Actor Kanasugi Taro recently died from injuries he suffered earlier this year. He was 33. After a night of drinking with school friends in March, he fell onto the subway tracks at Ikebukuro station in Tokyo. He underwent surgery for a brain contusion, but remained in a coma until his death on August 2. Real name Fukazawa Taro, he began acting as a child and landed a role in the popular school drama series “3 Nen B Gumi Kinpachi Sensei” in 1988. He later had a role in the long-running TBS afternoon series “Ten Made Todoke.” He was married in 1999.

Another young female idol has found that work and romance are not allowed to mix. Kikuchi Ayaka (15) has been kicked out of the popular idol group AKB48 for indulging in “behavior that was careless and lacking in self awareness.” Photos of Kikuchi and a boyfriend were recently circulated on the Web leading to her being disciplined and dropped from performances since August 2. Her contract with the Production Ogi management agency was also canceled.

• “Blindness,” the multinational Hollywood movie that features local stars Kimura Yoshino (32) and Iseya Yuusuke (32), is to be shown in almost 80 countries worldwide. The Japanese-Canadian-Brazilian production also features Julianne Moore, Danny Glover and Mexican actor Mexican actor Gael García Bernal and received a lot of international interest after it was chosen to open this year’s Cannes film festival. The Japanese pair were already romantically involved off-screen before they headed for Canada for several months last year shooting the movie on location. But, as we reported here in early June, they have indicated that their relationship is now over. Yesterday in Tokyo, they took the stage together for the first time since then, appearing with director Fernando Meirelles at a PR event for the movie, which opens in Japan in November.

Singer Wada Akiko (58) was diagnosed with some potentially serious health problems during a medical checkup on Sunday’s edition of her TBS show “Akko ni Omakase.” The so-called “Godsister” of Japanese showbiz, Akko is a renowned boozer and heavy smoker so such health issues hardly come as a surprise. Her current condition was diagnosed when she went for a second checkup following signs of pulmonary emphysema on the first screening. The doctors told her she had chronic respiratory problems and possibly hardening of her coronary arteries, putting her at risk of suffering a heart attack. She was urged to give up smoking. Meanwhile another guest on the show, Degawa Tetsuro (44), was diagnosed with kidney stones in both kidneys and inflammation of his liver. And it was revealed yesterday that Degawa had suffered a broken collarbone while filming a TV show just days before.

• Talento/model Kawabe Chieko (21) revealed on her blog that she and TBS producer Ochi Masato got married last Friday. They chose the date of August 8, 2008 adhd-drugs.net to register their marriage at the local municipal office as they both claim their lucky number to be 8. At 42, Ochi is twice Kawabe’s age. Kawabe, who is half Philippina on her mother’s side, says she plans to continue her entertainment career.

Among the performers at the weekend’s major Summer Sonic rock festival was a familiar but unexpected face. Many in the festival crowd were not born when Koizumi Kyoko‘s major hit “Nantettatte Aidoru” was released in 1985, and she hadn’t sung the number in more than 15 years. She arranged open auditions to assemble a 21-member brass section specially for the number, and got a rapturous reception from the 5,000 who gathered to watch her early morning performance. Though she has been more of an actress than a singer for many years – her last concert was a year and a half ago – Koizumi (42) is still best known as “Kyon-Kyon”, one of Japan’s first and most popular idol singers. And she wasn’t the only blast from the past at the weekend event held in Makuhari, east of Tokyo, and Osaka. In addition to the current chart toppers like Coldplay and Alicia Keys were names like the Sex Pistols, Devo and The Jesus and Mary Chain. The Japan Zone award for best band name is shared by Dallas group Forever the Sickest Kids and locals Maximum the Hormone!

• X Japan vocalist Toshi (42) and his new band performed for the first time on Saturday night. “Toshi with T-Earth” played four songs, including “Fire City,” for 300 fans at the Rockmaykan club in Tokyo’s Meguro, a venue where X Japan performed before making their major label debut. The band kick off a nationwide tour on Tuesday, with Luna Sea drummer Shinya scheduled to join them for the latter half. They are also scheduled to perform in Sao Paulo, Brazil on October 10, Toshi’s birthday.

• The “Gorgeous Kano Sisters” are now officially anime characters. And for once, surrounded by cosplay fans of all kinds at the weekend’s “Otakon” convention in Baltimore, they didn’t look quite so out of place. The pair were at the event to launch the “Abunai Sisters” DVD, which features ten 3-minute episodes of the busty crime-fighters Koko and Mika. Presumably it was decided that elder sister Kyoko needed a simpler name for the non-Japanese audience. The animated heroines were created by Matsushita Susumu, one of Japan’s leading character designers. The DVD is being sold by pre-order via a group buying service. This means that the more copies are ordered, the cheaper they become, a handy safety net for a product likely to appeal only to the unpredictable otaku crowd.

• “Detroit Metal City,” the Matsuyama Kenichi rock comedy vehicle, has been invited to screen at two international film festivals in Canada: in Toronto in September and Montreal in October. Matsuyama (23) and co-star Kato Rosa (23) attended a talk event held yesterday at the Shibuya branch of Tower Records in Tokyo, which was used as a location in the movie.

The serious PR has started for the movie adaptation of “20-Seiki Shonen” (20th Century Boys). A post-production event was held last night at the Roppongi Hills complex in central Tokyo for the first of the three movie installments, which opens in theaters on August 30. As we reported back in February, the movie has a star-studded cast, and they were all called out for yesterday’s event. But stealing the show was a 9m high reproduction of the movie’s robot. The Toei studio is said to have shelled out about ¥40 million for the PR event, with most of that being the cost of the robot. As it’s CG-generated in the movie, the cast were seeing it “in the flesh” for the first time. Star Karasawa Toshiaki (45) described it simply: “It’s intense!” The movies are based on the sci-fi drama manga that ran in the “Big Comic Spirits” magazine from 1999 to 2006. There have been distribution negotiations in more 20 countries worldwide, and the movies are likely to be bigger than the recent “Death Note” series. Servers for the official website (http://www.20thboys.com) have been overwhelmed in the last couple of days.

• Actress Katsumura Mika (28) revealed on her blog yesterday that she has divorced from actor and former Johnny’s Jimusho idol Tomoi Yusuke (28). The couple married in January 2006 and had a baby girl the following August. Katsumura filed the divorce papers in June and has custody of their daughter. Tomoi made his debut with kansai Johnny’s Jr back in 1994. He had a major supporting role in the “Kamen Rider Agito” tokusatsu series in 2000 and a Godzilla movie in 2002, but has since dropped in and out of showbiz.

John Woo’s spectacular Chinese epic “Red Cliff” is to open this year’s 21st Tokyo International Film Festival on October 18. The production is the biggest movie ever made in Asia, with a budget estimated at ¥8 billion ($80 million), though it was beset by more than a few casting problems. It has already recouped much of that, appearing in theaters across Asia in early July and setting a new opening-day box office record in China. “Red Cliff” is based on a one of the most famous battles in Chinese history, in which a million soldiers fought and thousands of ships were burnt. The biggest scenes involved 2,000 actors and crew members, and around 1,300 special effects are used. Woo (62) and cast members including star Tony Leung (46) and local actors Kaneshiro Takeshi (34) and Nakamura Shido (35) are expected to walk the red carpet in Tokyo in October. The festival will open with the movie’s first of two parts, which is scheduled to open in Japan on November 1, and runs to two hours and twenty minutes. The second part is expected to open across Asia in December (in Japan in the spring of 2009), at which time a condensed version of the full story will also be released in the West.

• Two of Japan’s celebrated playboys are in the weeklies again. The latest romantic rumors about comedian Tamura Atsushi (34) of the duo London Boots tie him to actress Nakagoshi Noriko (28). The pair were spotted out driving together recently, according to today’s issue of weekly magazine “Friday.” Management for both celebrities insist that they are just friends. And popular kabuki actor Ichikawa Ebizo (30) was recently spotted out on a date by reporters for “Josei Seven” magazine. He has said publicly that he is romantically involved, and the magazine described his latest flame as looking like popular actress Inoue Mao. The two were seen dining out in Tokyo, after which they returned to Ichikawa’s apartment.

The Hollywood stars in Tokyo this week include Cameron Diaz (35) and Ashton Kutcher (30), in town to promote the romantic comedy “What Happens in Vegas.” The pair were at the Imperial Hotel yesterday for the movie’s Japan premiere press event. The story revolves around a drunken decision to get hitched in Las Vegas, and Diaz said she’s only ever had one drink-induced blackout – it came when she was 16 and working as a model in Japan. She clearly still loves the place as she’s been here the last six years running. Kutcher is here for the first time and is accompanied by his wife Demi Moore (45). The movie opens on August 16.

Also at the Imperial Hotel yesterday were Brendan Fraser (39), Michelle Yeoh (46) and Isabella Leong (20), here for the premiere of “The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.” Fraser was in comical mood for the event, but remembering his leading man persona quipped, “I am the luckiest man in Japan to be sitting between the two most beautiful women in existence. Thank you!” On stage, Yeoh was delighted to receive a birthday cake one day early. Known in Japan as “Hamanaputra 3,” the movie opens on August 16.

• The recent scandals involving TV personalities in extra-marital affairs took a unexpected twist yesterday. When a Fuji TV announcer was caught in the act at the end of June, TBS president Inoue Hiroshi (68) said such things wouldn’t happen at his network. But just days later, TBS announcer Aoki Yuko (25) was on the verge of resigning over just such a scandal (though she reversed her decision two days later). And today’s issue of weekly magazine “Shuukan Shinchou” claims that the latest philanderer is none other than Inoue himself. The magazine includes photos of Inoue and a woman said to be in her early 40s holding hands as they leave a Tokyo restaurant at the end of July. For several nights running, the woman visited Inoue’s home in Meguro, while his wife lives at their other home in Bunkyo ward. Inoue claims that the woman is an interior decorator and was helping him redesign his home. TBS have so far refused to comment on what they describe as a private matter.

• Last night Johnny’s Jimusho idol group KAT-TUN finished their nationwide tour at the Tokyo Dome. They are first Japanese artists to ever play four consecutive nights at the 55,000-seat venue. Only Sting has played there four nights in a row, in his solo heyday back in 1988.

• The daughter of rock legend Yazawa Eikichi (58) launches her own music career today. With Yoko (22) on vocals and the backing of heavyweight label Avex, new band The Generous will no doubt attract plenty of media attention. Their first release, “Himitsu no Basho” – a piano-based ballad and a long way from Ei-chan’s brand of rock – is available from today as “chaku-uta” mobile phone download. A mini album is scheduled for release at the end of October, with a debut single likely in early 2009. Yoko is said to have first aspired to a singing career in her early teens, when she spent six years in Los Angeles. At that time she received voice training lessons from Seth Riggs, the vocal coach for such stars as Madonna and Ray Charles. She returned to Tokyo in 2004 to study at Sophia University but continued to perform and record demos. Quite a different start from that of her father, who arrived in Tokyo from Hiroshima in 1968 with a guitar and ¥50,000 in his pocket.

• Actress Sendo Akiho (39) has had her first child. She announced yesterday on her official website that she gave birth to a baby girl on Monday. She and her husband (35), who is also the president of her management agency, have been married since 2000.

It’s no surprise to see that young Johnny’s Jimusho idol group Hey! Say! Jump are on top of the latest Billboard Japan singles chart with their third release, “Your Seed/Bouken Rider.” The single has been used in the local tie-up with the hit Dreamworks animated feature “Kung Fu Panda.” And it was announced this week that four of the group’s 10 members are to share the top of the bill on a TV drama series for the first time. Nakajima Yuto (14), Chinen Yuri (14), Yamada Ryosuke (15), and Arioka Daiki (17) will reprise their high school student roles from the NTV spring special “Sensei wa Erai” in a season-long series starting in October. Provisionally titled “Scrap Teacher,” it has the same storyline of the group of students who help turn around the fortunes of failing teachers. Johnny’s acts, including SMAP and Kinki Kids, have dominated the male idol scene for a generation, turning out group after group with a monotonously successful track record.

• Meanwhile, Amuro Namie (30) is back on top of the charts. Her first hits collection in six years, “Best Fiction,” has entered the latest Oricon chart at No.1. With over 680,000 copies sold already, it’s the strongest start by an album this year and is likely to reach the one million mark. Meanwhile, y

Popular mangaka Akatsuka Fujio died of pneumonia on Saturday afternoon. He was 72. The creator of such famous manga as “Tensai Bakabon” and “Osomatsu-kun,” Akatsuka was considered the pioneer of the so-called “nonsense gag manga.” Born in Manchuria to a soldier and a former geisha, he reurned to Japan after WWII. Influenced by Tezuka Osamu’s manga “Lost World,” he decided to move to Tokyo to take up the profession. From 1962 he wrote manga for the “Shonen Sunday” magazine and had his first major success with “Osamatsu-kun” (photo). He went on to win many top manga awards, and was recognized by the government for his cultural contributions in 1998. Never one to take himself or his work very seriously, that same year he famously enjoyed a glass of whiskey during a press conference to announce that he had cancer. The jokes couldn’t hide that he was an alcoholic, who refused to give up drinking even as he was diagnosed with stomach cancer. But in the intervening ten years he outlived two wives, his first wife passing away just a week ago. Their daughter Rieko is said to be totally devastated by the loss in quick succession of both parents. Akatsuka’s second wife, Machiko, nursed him following a stroke in 2002, but herself died suddenly of a brain hemorrhage in 2006. Akatsuka had friends across a wide spectrum of the showbiz community, and famously first introduced top comedian Tamori to the world of afternoon TV.

• TBS announcer Aoki Yuko (25) has reversed her decision to quit the network. She said during her regular slot as assistant on the “Sunday Japon” morning show that, though she had spent the last month stressed and worried about the decision, she has decided to stay on. Asked whether a magazine story, due to be published today, about an extra-marital affair had anything to do with her stress, she refused to comment. The story claims she’s been having an affair with a married TBS director, and as we reported here last week it wouldn’t be a first for Aoki.

• Singer Kitade Nana (22) made another overseas appearance on Saturday, this time at the AniMagic convention in Bonn, Germany. She performed eleven songs, including her latest “Punk&Babes,” for an audience of about 3,000. The singer, known for her Gothic Lolita (Goth-Loli) fashion, has performed at similar events in Hong Kong, Baltimore and Paris the last four years. She made her European CD debut last month, releasing the album “Cutie Bunny.”

• Hip hop unit Kick The Can Crew made their first appearance in four years at the weekend’s Rock in Japan Festival. During the solo performance by member Kreva (32), he was joined on stage by Little (32) and MCU (35) and the trio performed a couple of their hits.