Monthly Archives: July 2009

Badminton beauty Shiota Reiko (25) is romantically involved with a former rubgy-playing entrepreneur, according to the latest issue of weekly magazine “Friday.” The man in question is Amano Yoshihisa (36), who played rugby for Meiji University, Suntory and Japan, is the founder of the Loran Group and runs a sports gym in Tokyo. He and Shiota, who represented Japan at the Beijing Olympics, have been spotted on dates around the capital several times over the summer. Amano has been previously linked with such beauties as actress Ito Misaki (32) and newscaster Takigawa Christel (31). Shiota and her badminton doubles partner Ogura Kumiko (25), known as OguShio, won five straight national championships and they leaped to fame as pinup girls for the 2008 Olympics, where they reached the quarter finals. They split as a pair after the games and Shiota has switched to mixed doubles and is aiming for the London Olympics. She and her partner, Ikeda Shintaro, are now known as IkeShio. Shiota appeared as a bridal fashion model in February and the media are now speculating about when she might wear her own wedding dress.

Actor Ishida Junichi (55) is probably the most famous playboy in Japanese showbiz, so talk of love and romance is his stock in trade. But now he’s talking about marriage once again, this time to pro golfer Higashio Riko (33). The last time Ishida talked about marriage, it was to his long-term girlfriend Hasegawa Rie (35). Their 9-year relationship undoubtedly gave the model a higher profile, but she ended it in 2005. It comes as no surprise that the latest object of Ishida’s affections is also young, but she’s a year younger than his son from his first marriage, actor Ishida Issei (34). If he ties the knot, it would be the third marriage for Ishida. The first was when he was a student at Waseda University, though he dropped out at the age of 24 to become an actor. It wasn’t until a decade later that he had a breakthrough as a “trendy actor” in dramas such as Fuji TV’s “Dakishimetai!” in 1988. That same year he married actress Matsubara Chiaki, but they divorced in 1999. Their daughter, model Matsubara Sumire (19), recently earned a place at Carnegie Mellon University. Higashio is the daughter of former baseball star and Seibu Lions manager Higashio Osamu (59). She and actor Kane Kosugi (34) were thought to be on the verge of marriage until their 3-year relationship ended in 2005. She graduated from Florida State University in 1999 and joined the JLPGA the same year. She has no tour victories and her highest money ranking was 44th in 2001. She and Ishida, a keen amateur golfer, hit it off when they appeared together on a TV Aichi golf show at the end of last year. Ishida has hinted that they might get hitched within the year.

Actor Sato Ryuta (29, photo center) announced yesterday that he’s getting married to a former talento and will be a father in the autumn. He gave a press conference yesterday afternoon, and said that he and his fiancee have been dating since the end of 2005. With a 10-year acting career under his belt, Sato is currently riding a wave of popularity following last year’s hit TBS drama series “Rookies.” A huge fan of the manga on which it was based, Sato arranged for some of it to be filmed at his old high school. The success of the drama led to a spinoff movie, “Rookies – Sotsugyo” (Graduation), which opened in May and is still enjoying a long run at the domestic box office (Sato said he planned to propose marriage on May 30, the day the movie was to open, but his girlfriend’s pregnancy meant an abrupt change of schedule). Sato also has quite a bit of musical experience. Following the 2003 movie “Rockers,” he continued to perform with the band put together for the film. The following year he formed The Tempers with Yoshimura Yumi of the J-pop duo Puffy. He had his first theatrical leading role in February, when he starred in a local production of Neil Simon’s “Biloxi Blues.”

YouTube breakthrough artist Marie Digby (26) has been added to the lineup for this year’s SummerSonic festival. The eldest of three daughters of an Irish-American father and Japanese mother, Digby has been to Japan often to visit her relatives in Kumamoto. But this time around things will be a little different. She released her third studio album, “Breathing Underwater,” in Japan at the end of June and the SummerSonic show in Chiba Prefecture on August 8 will probably be her first concert featuring music from the album. It isn’t due for U.S. release until September, though it was leaked onto the internet in its entirety in April. Digby won a song competition in 2004, and in addition to a cash prize she won the chance to work with a professional producer on an album. She signed with Disney’s Hollywood Records the following year but her debut album didn’t come out until April 2008. By that time, she had begun to post simple videos of herself singing cover songs of other artists on YouTube in order to gain visibility. The covers, by artists as diverse as Britney Spears, Rihanna, Lil Wayne and Linkin Park, have been viewed more than 60 million times. She released “Second Home,” an album of Japanese covers, in March of this year.

Could Marie Digby be the first international “Japanese” star?:

• The marriage of actor Kuroda Arthur (48) to a woman 23 years his junior ended last year, according to today’s issue of “Shuukan Josei” magazine. Kuroda got hitched in February 2007, two years after he ended a 3-year relationship with actress Adachi Yumi (27). But the marriage was shorter still, lasting only 18 months. Adachi didn’t fare much better – she married comedian Itoda Jun in September 2005 and they had a child the following April. But they divorced at the beginning of this year.

Comedian Shoji Tomoharu (33) and idol singer Fujimoto Miki (24) held a press conference yesterday to formally announce their recent marriage. The latest showbiz couple tied the knot in Hawaii on July 3 and registered their marriage at a municipal office in Tokyo on Saturday. “Mikiti” explained how she had needed two proposals before agreeing the marry. The first, last summer on the banks of the Tama River, hadn’t been dramatic enough. A huge Hello Kitty fan, “Mikiti” was bowled over when Shoji enlisted the help of her heroine for a second try at the San Rio Puroland theme park, and the match was made. Of course, matches made in showbiz heaven tend to be short-lived, so Shoji wasted no time in declaring, “I will be faithful.” To which his bride commented, “Everyone tells me that the showbiz world is full of temptation, so I’ll just have to trust him.” Referring to the traditional custom by which a woman shows that she knows her place, she added, “Rather than stay three steps behind him, I’ll keep him in line by staying one step ahead.” The Hawaii ceremony was a small family affair and the couple plan to hold a reception for all their showbiz friends in the autumn. Shoji is one half of the popular comedy duo Shinagawa Shoji, while Fujimoto is a former leader of Morning Musume (profile) She “graduated” from the Hello! Project shortly after she and Shoji got engaged in March.

• Meanwhile, Hello! Project announced at the weekend that young idol singer Arihara Kanna (16) has left the agency and retired from show business. She became a member of the popular group C-ute in early 2006 but had been on leave from February to undergo medical treatment for a bunion.

• Actress Esumi Makiko (42) announced on her website yesterday that she is currently 5 months pregnant. The star of many TV dramas, including Fuji TV’s “Shomuni,” Esumi was a divorcee when she married a director from the show in 2003. They had their first child in 2005.

Comedian Yasuda Hiromi (35) underwent emergency surgery on Wednesday for what turned out to be torsion of the testicle. The dancho (leader) of the comedy trio Yasuda Dai Circus experienced extreme pain on Wednesday morning and went to a local clinic. They were unable to diagnose his condition and he was taken by ambulance to a main hospital, where he was rushed to the operating room. The condition, whereby the blood vessels and nerves attached to a testicle (kintama, or golden ball, in Japanese slang) become twisted, needs to be treated within hours or the tissue can die and the testicle has to be removed. After a successful one-hour operation, Yasuda was still in some pain but was expected to be out of the hospital by next week. In his comedy act with partners Hiro and Kuro-chan, Yasuda routinely strips down to a fundoshi (loincloth) and does physically demanding stunts. Once he gets back to work, he will no doubt get some laughs from his painful experience.

• J-pop princess Koda Kumi (26) is finally going to show fans outside Japan what she’s made of. The Avex label announced yesterday that she will perform two concerts in Taipei on October 3-4. Koda has been one of Japan’s best selling artists of the last few years and has a growing fan base across East Asia. Though she made her international debut with a U.S. release as long ago as 2000, and has made appearances there and in Korea, the Taipei shows will be her first overseas concerts. She finished a Japan tour, with a show that cost about ¥80 million, in mid-June. Her latest single, “3 Splash,” has sold over 150,000 CDs and more than 300,000 downloads since it was released Wednesday.

• Last year’s Pokemon movie has been recognized by Guinness World Records with the record for the most advance ticket sales by an anime movie. It had made more than ¥2 billion from almost 2.4 million tickets before it opened last July. Like most movie franchises popular with children, a new Pokemon movie is released every year during the summer vacation. The latest opens on July 18 and its theme borrows from the actual solar eclipse that will be visible from Japan on July 22.

Talento Hazama Kampei (59) has finished the latest stage of his mammoth Earth Marathon. He spent the last four months running across the United States, at a pace of about 60km a day, and arrived in New York City on Wednesday night. Hazama set out at the end of 2008 to become the first man to run and sail his way around the entire globe. He took three months to sail across the Pacific, about a month longer than originally estimated, landing in Los Angeles in mid-March (photo). Once again this week, his wife Mitsuyo and a crowd of hundreds of Japanese supporters were waiting to greet him on his arrival in Manhattan. He said the cross-continent run had been tough at times, in particular the hilly terrain of Pennsylvania. He will rest for just a few days in New York before setting sail again on July 14. His next goal will be the coast of France. His expected arrival back in Japan has been put back to the winter of 2010 or later.

Earlier stories:

Tearful Kampei Lands in U.S. (Mar 12, 2009)

• Popular rock band Ulfuls are planning to take an indefinite break, they announced on their website this morning. Their final appearance will be at their Yassa! outdoor festival in Osaka on August 29-30. They also announced that they will play a free show in https://buyphentermineonlinetoday.com/. Led by charismatic vocalist Totas Matsumoto (42), the quartet was formed in 1988 and have remained popular since their breakthrough hits, “Guts da-ze!!” and “Banzai – Suki de Yokatta!” in the mid-90s. According to the official statement, the band members are simply tired out, though they have developed musical differences and will be pursuing solo projects. Previously, bassist John B. Chopper quit the band in 1999 only to return in 2003.

• Veteran folk singer Yoshida Takuro (63) canceled last night’s Osaka show at the last minute, citing health problems. The show at the Grand Cube was part of his ongoing farewell concert tour. He left Tokyo Tuesday evening on the shinkansen headed for Osaka, but was feeling so unwell that he had to get off at Nagoya. He was at the Osaka venue yesterday afternoon for rehearsals, but then decided he couldn’t perform and headed back to Tokyo, where he was hospitalized. Yoshida underwent surgery for lung cancer in 2003. He was forced to cancel the last 19 concerts of a tour in 2007 after he came down with asthmatic bronchitis and pleurisy.

Model Katsuno Nanami died at a Tokyo hospital yesterday, after a 5-month battle with lung cancer. She was 29. Though not a smoker, Katsuno (photo center) was diagnosed with the disease in February, just three months after she married a hip hop dancer (29) on November 11. One of three children of actor Katsuno Hiroshi (59, photo right) and half-Hawaiian designer Kathy Nakajima (57, photo 2nd from right), who announced her daughter’s death on her blog, Nanami made her modeling debut in 2006. Known to fans by her given name, she was also a singer and had forged a successful career with her popular jewelery designs. She and her husband ran a jewelry shop in the Tokyo suburb of Sangenjaya, where they also sold the Hawaiian quilts that her mother is known for. Her brother and sister (photo) are both actors.

Hollywood star Richard Gere (59) was in Tokyo yesterday to meet the “star” of his latest movie. He visited Shibuya station and the statue of Hachiko, Japan’s most famous canine and now the hero of the Lasse Hallstrom-directed “Hachiko: A Dog’s Story.” It is the first Hollywood adaptation of one of the most famous stories in contemporary Japan. It will open here on August 8 as “Hachi, Yakusoku no Inu.”

Earlier story:

Aoyama Teruma Records Hachiko Theme (June 9, 2009)

Fuji TV have had to do some major reshuffling of one of their popular summer drama series. When actor Eguchi Yosuke (41, photo left) took a tumble on his motorbike last month, it left the star of “Kyumei Byoutou 24-ji” with injuries expected to take two months to heal. And as he hasn’t finished filming the fourth season of the medical drama, it left Fuji with some difficult decisions. They finally decided to replace tonight’s opening episode with a old comedy rerun, and from next Tuesday they will show a four-week special series, “Kojima Kaede,” based on a character from “Kyumei…” played by Matsushima Nanako (photo right, profile). That spinoff was hastily put together to fill in the gap until Eguchi is back at work again and able to complete the original series, now set to air from August 11. Tonight’s 9pm time slot will be filled with a classic comedy show, featuring the Drifters comedy team and guest actress Mori Mitsuko (89), who last week received a National Honor award.

Earlier story:

Eguchi Yosuke vs. Kawasaki Z1-R (Jun 12, 2009)

• Model Matsubara Sumire (18) has earned herself a place at Carnegie Mellon University. The daughter of actor Ishida Junichi (55) and his ex-wife, actress Matsubara Chiaki (51), she will study drama at the world-renowned institution from September. She has lived with her mother in Japan and Hawaii, where she went to high school, since her parents split in 1999. She made her modeling debut in 2006 and dreams of appearing on Broadway.

• Management for Igawa Haruka (33) announced yesterday that the actress gave birth to her first child at the end of June. She and fashion designer Matsumoto Atou (46) married in November 2006.

More than two decades after his death, Ishihara Yujiro still looms large for many people in Japan. Organizers of a Buddhist ceremony to mark the 23rd anniversary of his death were concerned that the event might draw an unmanageably large crowd. So rather than hold the ceremony at the temple in Yokohama where he is buried, they decided to reconstruct the building at the National Stadium. Some 35,000 people, hundreds of whom had lined up overnight, got seats in the stadium while tens of thousands more waited for hours to get in from the neighboring Meiji Koen park, the Aoyama gate and Jingu Gaien. Shortly after 9am, Ishihara’s widow Makiko (73) and several top Ishihara Gundan stars addressed the crowd. Actors Watari Tetsuya (67), also president of Ishihara Promotions, Tachi Hiroshi (59) and Kanda Masaki (58) all worked with Yujiro in his heyday, while Tokushige Satoshi (30) debuted in 2000 when he beat more than 50,000 audition hopefuls to be chosen as the “21st Century Yujiro.” Next up were 120 Buddhist monks, who chanted sutras for the best part of an hour.

Meanwhile, in the crowds outside, which had more than a few elderly people, tempers often boiled over in the heat and humidity typical of the Tokyo summer and dozens were treated for heatstroke. Once the ceremony had finished, the crowds were slowly allowed into the stadium to place carnations in front of the temple and buy what was left of the various Yujiro goods on sale. A choir of 300 were split into three groups to take turns singing Yujiro’s hits for a full 12 hours until the event finished at 10pm. Conspicuously absent yesterday was Tokyo governor Ishihara Shintaro (76), Yujiro’s elder brother, who was busy with the upcoming municipal election, though his three sons were in attendance. Organizers were vague on what the event cost, giving numbers between ¥10-20 million, but with a final headcount estimated at almost 120,000 people, it was no doubt a success.