Category Archives: Entertainment News

What do you do with your life if your mother is one of Japan’s top actresses and your father is perhaps the country’s most recognizable comedian? Enter show business, of course. And so with much fanfare, Imalu (19) made her first public appearance yesterday. The daughter of actress Ohtake Shinobu (51) and comedian Akashiya Sanma (53, profile) actually debuted as a magazine model last month but the media had never been able to use anything other than still photos and soundbites. She spoke to fans at an FM Yokohama event held at the Queen’s Square mall, and the appearance of music producer Tago Kunio (35) made it clear that her career will move in that direction, too. She said that she has been taking voice lessons a couple of times a week since last autumn. Her choice of career, common enough for the children of celebrities, has led to a mixed reaction. There has been quite a bit of online criticism, saying the world can do without more so-called “ni-sei,” or second generation, celebrities. After finishing junior high school in Japan, Imalu graduated from a high school in Victoria, Canada last June.

Actor Oizumi Yo (36) announced on Friday night that he and Fuji TV producer Nakajima Kumiko (39) tied the knot earlier in the day. The two first met in 2006 when Oizumi made his national network debut in the medical drama series “Kyumei Byoutou 24jikan” (Emergency Room 24 Hours). They were reunited for last year’s drama series “Loss:Time:Life,” and romance bloomed. They timed their marriage for after Oizumi and the Team NACS theater group, which he formed while at university in his native Hokkaido, ended a nationwide run in April. Though hardly known outside of Hokkaido, Oizumi was one of the biggest names in northern Japan in the late 1990s and early 2000s due to the popularity of his show “Suiyo wa Doudeshou” (How Do You Like Wednesday?). As sales of the show’s DVDs spread south to Tokyo (my wife was an early fan!), he developed a growing cult following and started making appearances on the national networks. He quickly landed big roles in TV dramas and movies such as “Gegege no Kitaro” and “After School.”

Earlier stories:

A Star in the Making (Sep 19, 2005)

Rock singer Imawano Kiyoshiro died of cancer of the lymph nodes at a Tokyo hospital yesterday. He was 58. He revealed on his website in July 2006 that he had thyroid cancer, and doctors recommended throat surgery. But with the risk of it bringing his singing career to an end, he elected for radiation therapy. Just a year and a half later, he had recovered enough to take part in a John Lennon memorial concert in December 2007. A couple of months later, he was able to perform a full comeback concert at the Nippon Budokan in February 2008. He broke down in tears when his son Tappei (20) and daughter Momoyo (17) presented him with flowers on stage. But last July the cancer was found to have spread to his pelvis and he was back in hospital. His wife Keiko (53) and children were with him at the end. Sometimes called the Japanese King of Rock, he was known for the phrase “Ai shiaterkai,” which roughly means “Are you loving each other?” He formed the rock band RC Succession while a high schooler and drew media attention with his makeup and colorful stage costumes.

X Japan do like to play publicity games, and I have to wonder if their hugely loyal fans treat it as a game or not. Yesterday, just two days before they are scheduled to play two nights at Tokyo Dome, the band finally announced that bassist Heath will take part. Any issues between Heath and the other members of the band – they are all with separate management – have been put aside for the moment. The official story was that he was having an “internal struggle about the direction of his musical career” and he cut himself off from everyone. One real casualty of this was a pair of scheduled shows in Korea on March 21-22, which were indefinitely postponed. With the show said to be costing ¥3 billion to stage and all 100,000 tickets selling out within minutes of their release in March, a cancellation would have sent fans into a frenzy. Meanwhile, the worst-kept secret in J-rock was put to rest as former Luna Sea guitarist Sugizo (photo, right) was formally announced as the official sixth member of the band. The first stage of his integration was in March last year, when he was a support member for their reunion gigs at the Dome. And in April he stood in for sick band leader Yoshiki at a press conference. He has big boots to fill, with the late guitarist Hide still idolized by fans, but he has been part of the X Japan “family” since Luna Sea’s debut in 1992.

A couple of examples today of middle-aged women showing they’ve still got what it takes. Dancer Atsushi (30, photo left) has acknowledged for the first time his romantic relationship with actress You (44, photo right). He spoke yesterday at the opening of his “Power of Life” charity photo exhibition at Tokyo Hipster’s Club. Romance between the two has been rumored since a weekly magazine ran a story in 2006, but they have steadfastly refused to comment. Asked if they had plans to marry this year, Atsushi laughed and said, “I don’t know.” He is a dancer with rock band Dragon Ash (profile). You, who looks and sounds a lot younger than her age would suggest, is a former pop singer who won critical acclaim for her role in the 2004 movie “Dare mo Shiranai” (Nobody Knows). She debuted as a singer in 1985 and fronted the pop band Fairchild from 1988-93. She has been married twice, to a guitarist and an actor.

Meanwhile, singer Iwasaki Hiromi (50) announced that she and stage actor Kon Takuya (40) got hitched on Wednesday. The two first met when they appeared in “Les Miserables” in 1998 and have been living together for the last seven years. Sentimental types that they are, they decided to get married last November 12, their shared birthday, and registered their marriage at 11:12am. Iwasaki, who became a star in the mid 1970s while still in high school, was married from 1988-95 and her two teenage sons are being raised by their father. She released a new album in April and will make her return to TV drama for the first time in ten years later this month.

High school baseball movie “Rookies – Sotsugyo” looks likely to be the hot movie ticket of the summer. Distributor Toei said yesterday that advance tickets sales have reached 180,000 since March 8, surpassing those at the same point for last year’s “Hana Yori Dango – Final.” That movie went on to make &yen7.7 billion and became the biggest Japanese box-office success of 2008. The two movies seem to have been born from the same formula: they are both adaptations of TV series that ran on the TBS network, and bring to a climax the story that played out on TV; they both made the leap to the big screen because of high audience ratings; and they both feature a cast of handsome young actors. Mind you, though the story revolves around a high school baseball team aiming for the national championships, all the actors are in their 20s. Yesterday, they took on a real team of elementary schoolers in Futagotamagawa, the Tokyo suburb where their fictional school is located, and beat them 6-2. They then led a parade through the local shopping district, where 1,000 fans turned out to cheer them on. The movie is scheduled to open on May 30.

In what is believed to be the first case of its kind, an actress and a former company president have been arrested for distributing indecent materials in a so-called “image video.” Actress Goto Mai (36) and Fujiyama Masanori (40), former president of the DVD production company Kingdom, were arrested in connection with sales of the “Senya Ichiya no Yume” (Arabian Nights) DVD last year. According to the police Public Morals and Safety Division, the video was filmed in the United Arab Emirates in March 2008 and sold on the Internet from the end of last year. The DVD was featured in a weekly magazine, which brought it to the attention of the police and they searched the offices of Kingdom in February. Goto began her show business career when she was runner up in the annual Clarion Girl contest. She worked as a reporter for the raunchy late night show “Tonight 2” and as a race queen. She has been appearing in videos and photo books for Fujiyama for about ten years. Though she appears alone in the videos, the content has been overtly sexual. When first introduced, image videos went no further than to feature swimsuit-clad young idols, but the trend has increasingly been towards more borderline pornography in recent years. Roughly a quarter of the 50-minute video features images where Goto’s genitals can be seen uncensored. 5,000 copies of the DVD were produced and were sold out early this year, with the company making ¥9.68 million. Goto was paid about ¥5 million for the DVD appearance and two other projects shot while in the UAE. Copies have been traded on the Web for more than ¥20,000 each. Article 21 of the Japanese Constitution guarantees freedom of expression and prohibits formal censorship. But this arrest was based on Article 175 of the Criminal Code of Japan, which these days is interpreted to require all pornography to be at least partly censored. Such arrests have been very rare. Fujiyama is said to have confessed to the charges against him, while Goto says she worked under the impression that what she was doing was not indecent.

Yesterday was a day for tearful press conferences in Osaka. Veteran actress Kyou Utako (81) was allowed out of hospital to talk to reporters at a hotel in the city. She cried as she explained how medical problems have forced her to drop out of a production at the Osaka Shochikuza theater next month and cancel all work commitments from June. “I’ve been in show business for 64 years and I never dreamed it would come to this.” Experiencing leg pains in January, she had an MRI which revealed she had a fractured vertebra. She was told that it would heal in a couple of months, and she continued working with the help of a corset. But earlier this month her pain returned and she was told that she had developed a condition known as degenerative spondylolisthesis in two other vertebrae. Though she was told it will take at least three months to heal timbermen.org, she took to the stage in a wheelchair for a one-week production at the Meijiza Theater in Tokyo last week. Doctors had to force her not appear on the closing night last Saturday. “I love the stage,” she said. “I’ve often said I’d like to die on stage, and really that would be the happiest way for me to go. But I suppose I have to look after my health.” Kyou is perhaps best known for her role in the long-running TBS drama series “Wataruseken wa Oni Bakari.” In the late 1950’s she formed a popular manzai comedy duo with her former husband Ootori Keisuke (1923-94), and the duo were inducted into a showbiz hall of fame just last year.

Meanwhile, popular talento Kitano Makoto (50) gave a press conference at the Westin Hotel in Osaka to apologize for the verbal gaffes that may yet end his career. Long known as a straight talker, he has a history of upsetting people with the things he says on his radio show. He bowed repeatedly to reporters and said that he had allowed his image as a “dokusetsu” (poison tongue) talento to become his “curse.” Neither Kitano nor his Shochiku Geino management have clarified exactly what he said that caused the latest uproar, but they denied Internet rumors that his target had been either a certain religious organization or show business management agency (the strongly politically affiliated Soka Gakkai organization is sometimes referred to as a cult, while the Burning agency is said to be a front for the yakuza). Kitano was in tears as he talked about his family and how he had asked them to be patient with him until he got his career back on track. He has been dropped from all his regular radio and TV shows, the last one having been broadcast on Monday. His forced sabbatical is open-ended but he insisted yesterday that he doesn’t want to quit show business and will aim to get back on the air someday.

• Among those recognized by the government this spring for their contributions to society and the arts are veteran actresses Mizutani Yaeko (70) and Asaka Mitsuyo (81) and Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood (78). The Emperor and Prime Minister will present the various decorations at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on May 8. Mizutani will receive the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold Rays with Rosette; Asaka gets the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays; and among the 70 overseas recipients, FIFA president Sepp Blatter (73) is to receive the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun, while Eastwood will get the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon.

Song lyricist Sonoda Ryoji (33) has been arrested for use of “kakuseizai,” or stimulant drugs, the Azabu department of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police announced today. Sonoda was recently detained and formally arrested yesterday after urine tests were positive. He is said to have admitted to using the drugs. Though he has his own singing career since 1995, he is best known as a lyricist of such hits as SMAP’s “Kimi wo Suki ni Natte” and BoA’s “No.1” He has also penned hits for Misia and Korean vocal group Tohoshinki. Though no connections have been mentioned, the arrest is more unwelcome news for SMAP following the arrest last week of member Kusanagi Tsuyoshi (34).

Meanwhile, last night’s edition of the weekly Fuji TV variety show “SMAPxSMAP” saw a noticeable drop in its audience rating. TV viewers are well used to how the networks operate and knew not to expect any mention of last week’s arrest. predictably, the show was heavily edited to include past segments and totally remove any signs of Kusanagi. It drew an audience rating of 13.7% in the Kanto region, well below its 16% average for the last four weeks.

Management for singer and actress Nishikawa Mineko (50) said yesterday that her divorce is finally complete. She met her husband, Murakami Takashi (44), in November 2000 when he was her guide for a travel show on the small island of Okishotou in Shimane Prefecture. The couple married seven months later and split their time between her house in Tokyo and Murakami’s family home on the island, where his role as grave keeper for the exiled 12th century emperor Gotoba drew additional media attention. He was elected to the local town council in 2002 and also opened a bar in Tokyo the same year. But after he had an affair with a woman he met at the bar and became verbally abusive towards Nishikawa, she filed for a divorce. Her lawyers initiated divorce arbitration in January 2008 but Murakami failed to show up in court. The lawyers filed again in June, and the following October Murakami admitted to the affair and the court issued the divorce. But there remained the matter of money Nishikawa had put into the building of a luxury house on Okishotou. After negotiation, it was decided that Murakami’s parents would pay his half of the outstanding mortgage. The first payment was made at the end of March, finally bringing closure to the divorce. Nishikawa is to give a press conference today. She won a national song contest in 1973 and became an overnight star when her debut single was a big hit the following year. She had a string of hits before switching to acting in 1979. She made the news in 1993 following the publication of a nude photo book, and again in 1998 when her newly built holiday home in Nasu Kogen was destroyed by a typhoon.