Category Archives: Entertainment News

Talento Asagi Kuniko (46, photo left) is at the center of perhaps the first Japanese celebrity scandal to break out on Twitter. Late Sunday night a post on the Twitter account of talento Omomo Miyoko (45, photo right) named Asagi as having had an affair with her ex-husband (49). Omomo and her husband divorced in November 2009 but the reasons were never discussed publicly. Omomo’s management have declined to comment on the report, telling the media that she is currently resting overseas and not expected back in Japan until early next week. Asagi is scheduled to make a regular appearance on the TBS morning show “Hiruobi” tomorrow, so the media will be watching for any mention of the story.

The first tweet that drew attention to the story was on Sunday night when Omomo said that her happy event of 2010 was joining Twitter and connecting with new people. But the shocking event was when she learned of Asagi’s affair with her ex, a director at a TV production company. The couple married in 2003, thanks largely to Omomo’s relentless pursuit and marriage proposal. Asagi is also a divorcee. She married musician and old friend Matsumoto Akihiko (47) in 1994 and they had a daughter soon after. But differences between the two led to divorce in March 2006.

Johnny’s Jimusho aidoru group Arashi are still the country’s biggest selling pop artists. For the second year running they have topped Oricon’s rankings of the best-sellers of combined music and video content, based on sales from almost 40,000 stores across the country. The group had combined sales of almost ¥17.2 billion, an increase of ¥2.5 billion from last year’s total. They are the first Johnny’s act to top the rankings in two consecutive years, and the first artist to do so since Inoue Yosui (62) did it in 1974-75. Arashi also ranked top in a record seven different categories.

2010 was a big year for Arashi in many different ways. In September they became the first act to play 4 consecutive nights at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in central Tokyo; their ongoing national tour is their biggest yet, with 16 shows for 860,000 fans; members of the group have been active in a wide variety of TV shows, commercials and movies; their CD “Boku no Miteiru Fuukei” is the only album to sell more than a million copies this year; their concert DVD “Arashi Anniversary Tour 5 x 10” had a record-breaking first run of 477,000 copies; all six of their singles released during 2010 made the annual sales ranking Top 10. And to top it all off, the group will be emcee for the first time for NHK’s annual “Kohaku Uta Gassen” concert on New Year’s Eve.

Aidorugroup AKB48 are everywhere these days. Yesterday they were named as the new “image characters” for major travel agency HIS. Wearing colorful cabin attendant-style uniforms, they perform a variation on their hit single “Aitakatta” in a new series of TV commercials that promote overseas travel. The first CM will air from December 27. The New Year is one of the busiest seasons for Japanese to travel outside the country, particularly to resort destinations such as Hawaii, Guam and Saipan.

AKB48 were also the most successful female artists this year in terms of sales. They took the top two spots – and four in the Top 10 – in Oricon’s rankings of the best-selling singles of 2010, based on sales from almost 40,000 stores across the country. The October release “Beginner” was the top seller at over 950,000 copies, while Setember’s “Heavy Rotation” was at No.2 with 713,000 sold. They are the first female artists to take the top two spots since Princess Princess in 1989 and the first aidoru group since Pink Lady in 1978.

Meanwhile AKB48 member Sakano Yumi (19, photo right) has been chosen as one of the celebrities who looks best in a wedding dress. At an event in the capital yesterday, she wore a dress and accessories valued at ¥700 million for the first “Japan Wedding Best Dresser Awards.” Sakano, who was chosen in the “aidoru” category, said she hopes to marry by the age of 30 and would love to have her wedding in Hawaii. Marie (23) was selected to represent Japan’s models, while Minami Akina (21) was chosen in the talento category.

Studio Ghibli this week announced the first details of its next anime feature. Producer Suzuki Toshio (62) held a press conference at the Tokyo headquarters of the Toho movie studio on Wednesday. He said the movie, scheduled for a summer 2011 release, will be based on Takahashi Chizuru and Sayama Tetsuro’s manga “Kokurikozaka Kara” (photo, left). The project is being overseen by Miyazaki Hayao (69), who also drew the official poster (photo, right), but will be directed by his son Goro (43). It will be just the second project undertaken by the younger Miyazaki, who got mixed reviews for “Gedo Senki” (Tales from Earthsea) in 2006. The theme song for that movie was performed by Teshima Aoi (23), who has been signed up again for the new project.

The original “Kokurikozaka Kara” manga, which appeared in the girl’s magazine “Nakayoshi,” was set in a fictional location in the 1980s, but the movie will take place in a Yokohama high school in 1963. It was the year before the Tokyo Olympics and a period of rapid economic growth in Japan. It was also the year singer Sakamoto Kyu had a huge hit with the song “Ue wo Aruite Arukou” (Sukiyaki), and that optimistic title (literally, “Let’s walk with our heads held high”) was chosen as the catch copy for the new movie.

Pop duo Kobukuro (photo left) and musician couple Imai Miki (47, right) and Hotei Tomoyasu (48, center) have made a cash donation of more than ¥10 million to Miyazaki Prefecture, it was announced yesterday. The artists collaborated on the song “Taiyo no Melody” and donated earnings to support people in the prefecture who suffered financial damage due to this year’s outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the local cattle population. Imai, a former idol singer who is married to former Boowy guitarist Hotei, is a native of the Miyazaki town of Takanabe, while Kobukuro’s Kobuchi Kentaro (33) hails from Miyazaki City.

April’s foot-and-mouth outbreak, the worst the country has ever seen, made national headlines and was a major blow for Miyazaki’s meat industry and the economy of the region. The prefecture’s popular governor Higashikokubaru Hideo declared a state of emergency, asking people living in the affected and surrounding areas to refrain from going out unless absolutely necessary. Hundreds of thousands of livestock were killed by the disease or slaughtered in containing it.

Some bookstores opened extra early this morning to deal with demand for the debut novel by actor Mizushima Hiro (26). Written using the pen name Saito Tomohiro, his real name, the award-winning “Kagerou” is a guaranteed best seller and thought likely to even outsell the third installment of “1Q84,” this year’s hugely anticipated release from Murakami Haruki. Publisher Poplar said that pre-release orders for the novel had been huge after it won the ‘taisho’ (top prize) winner in their 5th annual awards and the identity of the author was revealed for the first time. They have distributed a first run of some 430,000 copies, a rare feat for a first printing. One commuter who picked up the book at a Tokyo bookstore this morning said, “The novel has been a popular topic on TV and I was curious to read it for myself.”

The novel tells the story of a former company employee who, unemployed and broke, decides to commit suicide. But involvement with an underground group that deals in the sale of human organs leads him to a renewed realization of the value of life. The story is a far cry from the many successes that Mizushima has enjoyed in a relatively brief career. He married singer Ayaka in 2009 but earlier this year announced his decision to quit acting to focus on writing and his private life.
Related stories:
Mizushima Hiro Gets Award for Debut Novel (Nov. 1, 2010)
Mizushima Hiro Quits Acting to Write (Sep. 22, 2010)
Mizushima Hiro, Ayaka Married (Apr. 4, 2009)

If you’ve already learned more than you ever wanted to know about Ichikawa Ebizo’s bar brawl, stop reading now. Otherwise, here’s an update.

Metropolitan Police arrested Tokyo resident Itoh Rion (26, photo right) on December 10 for last month’s assault on kabuki star Ichikawa (33, left). But conflicting reports continue to emerge about what actually happened in the early hours of November 25. Itoh – a former “bosozoku” (street gang) leader – has admitted punching Ebizo in the face at a bar in Tokyo’s Nishiazabu district. He is accused of repeatedly punching and kicking Ichikawa in the face and head, leaving him with severe injuries including a broken cheek bone, which are expected to take six weeks to heal. But while the actor has insisted he never threw any punches or provoked the violence, police are investigating claims to the contrary by witnesses. And at his recent press conference, the actor looked in considerably better condition than reports had led people to believe.

After a night of socializing with kabuki colleagues, Ebizo ended up in a 6th floor bar after 4am, where he was seen drinking with a 29-year-old former gang leader. The man was heavily drunk at the time and Ebizo is said to have been physically rough with him. Itoh and two colleagues arrived and were engaged in conversation by the actor, before all five moved to another bar on the building’s 11th floor. It was there that Itoh says that Ebizo’s behavior angered him to the point of violence. “I got furious at him and punched him at the bar. I wasn’t very drunk,” he is said to have told investigators. “I was the only one who punched him. But it was not me who picked a fight.” Meanwhile, the 29-year-old former gang leader is said to be considering suing Ebizo for assault and possibly holding a press conference this week.
Related stories:
Ebizo Denies All at Press Conference (Dec. 8, 2010)
Ebizo was “Looking for a Fight” (Dec. 1, 2010)
Warrant Issued for Ebizo Assault (Nov. 30, 2010)
Ebizo Hospitalized with Head Wound (Nov. 25, 2010)

To promote the new MTV Japan reality show “Shibuhara Girls” the focus is on the fact that it marks the ‘acting’ debut of model Akimoto Kozue (23). Which is significant mainly because she is the daughter of sumo legend Chiyonofuji (55), now a sumo elder and known as Kokonoe “oyakata” (stablemaster). In his heyday as the most dominant sportsman of his generation, he was known as “The Wolf.”

The new MTV show will air late Saturday nights from January 8, and the network has already agreed to show it in 16 countries and regions across Asia. Modeled on “The Hills” and billed as a “reality drama,” it focuses on the daily work and private lives of Akimoto, local singers Ishikawa Marie and Miyawaki Shion, and Chinese model Sun Wei. All of whom, of course, are very pleasant on the eye. The name is an amalgamation of the neighboring Shibuya and Harajuku districts of Tokyo that are a fashion and cultural mecca for the youth of the capital.

Kabuki star Ichikawa Ebizo (32) held a press conference at a Tokyo hotel yesterday evening to give his side of the story of his recent assault. About 500 reporters and cameramen gathered at the Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa for a chance to ask questions about the November 25 incident. Ichikawa, dressed in a simple black suit and tie, bowed deeply and often in apology and repeatedly expressed his remorse to kabuki fans, his theater colleagues and, though not directly, his commercial sponsors. Though his left eye was clearly bloodshot and his face did appear a little swollen, he didn’t look as beaten up as the media have been painting him. He is said to have undergone “major” surgery on his facial injuries, but there were no signs of scars or other after effects. But during the course of the press conference, which ran about 30 minutes over the planned one hour, he painted himself as an innocent, if drunken, victim. He said he had feared for his life and repeatedly denied all of the accusations that have been made against him.

Associates of the former “bosozoku” gang leader for whom an arrest warrant has been issued have insisted that Ichikawa gave as good as he got in the early-morning fight at a karaoke bar in the central Tokyo district of Minami Aoyama. A doctor who recently treated the 26-year-old man said yesterday that he claimed the actor hit him in the face with an ashtray. The man is said to have been angered at the aggressive treatment Ichikawa dished out to another, more senior former gang boss, including forcing him to drink tequila from an ashtray, pulling him by his hair, and throwing alcohol in his face. Ichikawa has denied all those claims and insists he was simply trying to look after the man, who was too drunk to stand.

It remains to be seen whether yesterday’s appearance and statements will turn out to be true and whether Ichikawa will be able to fully recover from the damage that has been done to his personal and professional reputation. Meanwhile his wife, freelance newscaster Kobayashi Mao (28) is to return to work. Since she and Ichikawa married in March she has been supporting her husband’s career and has spent the last two weeks in hospital with him. But she will soon return to the Fuji TV studios to record a pair of episodes of the show “Kiseki Taiken! Unbelievable.”

Related stories:
Ebizo was “Looking for a Fight” (Dec. 1, 2010)
Warrant Issued for Ebizo Assault (Nov. 30, 2010)
Ebizo Hospitalized with Head Wound (Nov. 25, 2010)

Talento Hazama Kanpei (61) is scheduled to finish his earth Marathon on January 21, it was announced yesterday. The Yoshimoto Kogyo comedian has spent the last three years running and sailing around the world, continuing even when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer along the way.

Now on Day 720, he has covered about 38,600 km so far and is currently running across China. He will sail from Qingdao to Fukuoka, where he is expected to set foot on Japanese soil on January 4. He will then run the remaining 650km or so to the Osaka Castle Hall, where he will cross the finish line in a special event. Tickets for the event are free and will be distributed from tomorrow morning by the Yoshimoto ticket agency.
Related stories:
Despite Cancer, Hazama Vows to Finish Earth Marathon (Apr. 16, 2010)
Related stories:
Even Cancer Can’t Stop Kampei’s Earth Marathon (Jan. 14, 2010)