Latest News from Japan Zone & Japan Store

Former Morning Musume Member Tsuji Nozomi (19, photo left) has a new image. She is now a member of the female trio “Gyaruru”, who played their debut show in Ibaraki Prefecture yesterday. The trio have taken on the “gyaru” (gal) look that is for some reason still popular among today’s teens. With “ganguro” makeup and an extreme fashion sense, these kind of girls can be seen walking the streets of any center of youth culture, such as Tokyo’s Shibuya or Harajuku shopping districts. One of their fashion leaders is Gyaru Sone (21, center), who joins Tsuji and singer Tokito Ami (19, right) in the new trio. Despite her petite figure, Sone is known for her incredible appetite and has won several speed eating contests. Yesterday was her debut as a singer. Tsuji left “Momus” along with Kago Ai (19) in August 2004 to form the duo W. But after being caught smoking underage not once but twice, Kago was finally fired last month. Like Momus, W and many other groups, Gyaruru is the brainchild of producer Tsunku (38), who has them perform the “parapara” style of dancing to their Eurobeat sound. Their debut single, “Boom Boom Mecha Macho” is due for release on June 20.

KAT-TUN member Akanishi Jin (22, photo second from left) has returned to the Johnny’s fold. Having shocked fans in October of last year by announcing he was going to study English in Los Angeles, he took them by surprise again at the weekend when he appeared on stage with the rest of the group. He returned to Japan on April 19 and made his first concert appearance in almost a year at the show in Miyagi Prefecture. The group’s second album, “Cartoon, KAT-TUN II You”, entered the Oricon chart this week at No.1. Including singles and DVDs, this is the 10th straight release since their 2001 formation to enter at the top of the charts, an Oricon first. Akanishi is due to make his full return to the lineup for their concert at the Tokyo Dome in June.

• Pop duo Le Couple will probably have to change their stage name. Fujita Ryuji (43) and Emi (43) revealed on their official website this week that they divorced in February after 17 years of marriage. They are best known for the 1997 smash hit “Hidamari no Uta”, which was the theme for a popular TV drama series.

• Actress Mizuno Miki (32) and actor Kitamura Yukiya (32) have split up, according to the latest issue of weekly magazine “Shuukan Asahi”. Their romance started last summer and was made public when bedroom photos of the couple were found on a mobile phone lost by Kitamura. And it may have been that revelation that led to the split. Because although the media portrayed them as a serious couple with possible wedding plans, it turns out that they broke up about six months ago. Mizuno, who in the past has had relationships with Ito Hideaki (31) and Odagiri Jo (31), has other things on her plate these days. She stars in the upcoming movie “Kuchisake Onna” and next year’s Hong Kong flick “Sasori”.

First Spiderman, now Harry Potter is coming to Tokyo. “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”, the fifth installment of the hugely popular movie series, is the latest Hollywood blockbuster to have its world premiere in Tokyo this year. The event will be held at the Roppongi Hills Toho Cinemas complex on June 28. Star Daniel Radcliffe (17) has long been keen to make his second visit to Japan, and he’ll be here from June 27 to 30 to promote the movie in Tokyo and Osaka. The series is the only one in which each movie has grossed over ¥10 billion in Japan, but box office totals have been dropping since the first movie made over ¥20 billion in 2001. Warner Brothers is aiming to clear over ¥100 billion in Japan for the entire 7-episode series and creating maximum hype for the latest movie is seen as the key. It’s the first time for a Harry Potter movie to premiere outside the U.K. and tickets for the events will be like gold dust. Promoters say that only 900 lucky fans will be chosen by lottery for entry to an event, separate to the movie screening, in the Roppongi Hills Arena. “Order of the Phoenix” is scheduled for theatrical release on July 21.

• Talento Hosokawa Fumie (35) may (or may not) have had a tropical wedding earlier this month…to a married man, according to the weekly gossip magazine “Flash”. After a six-year relationship with an American street performer ended in 2005, Hosokawa said she had a new boyfriend. Flash reported that she and 44-year-old “A-san”, owner of a real estate company, held a wedding ceremony on the island of Saipan on April 7. But it turns out that he already has a wife. In response to inquiries from a reporter, he said the event had not been a wedding (though Hosokawa wore a wedding dress), while she reportedly called her parents in Japan to tell them she’d just got married.

• The 17-year wait is over for fans of “visual kei” rock band D’Erlanger. The group performed an open-air concert for over 3,000 fans last night at Hibiya Park in central Tokyo.

Actress Wakamura Mayumi (40) has lost her husband after less than four years of marriage. It was revealed yesterday that Ono Kanehiro died at their Tokyo home of sudden liver failure on Wednesday. He was 54. Wakamura returned from filming to find her husband on death’s door. He had been in poor condition since February but his sudden death came as a huge shock. “It’s just so out of the blue that it hasn’t sunk in yet”, she said in a fax sent to the media. Ono was the chairman of Syakusonkai, a fringe Buddhist religious organization. With his background – and huge physical girth – her fame and beauty, and the 14-year age difference, they had the media buzzing in early 2004 when they announced that they had married the previous September.

Celebrities were among the thousands who attended a funeral for one of Japan’s great fighters yesterday. The event, held at a temple in downtown Tokyo and attended by 3,000 people, was to offer up the soul of Raoh, a leading character in the hugely popular manga “Hokuto no Ken” (Fist of the North Star). It is part of the PR campaign for the latest in a series of anime movie adaptations, “The Legend of Raoh II: Fierce Fighting Arc”, which opens in theaters on April 28. But the ceremony – at a cost of several tens of million yen – was performed in all seriousness, with Buddhist sutra chants, telegrams of condolence, and the burning of incense. Singer Tanimura Shinji (58), a long-time fan of the manga, presided over the event. Also in attendance was actor Ukaji Takashi (44), who provides the voice of Raoh. The original manga was a hit in the mid-1980s and has led to many anime and live-action spin offs.

• Young singer Ayaka (19) is the first female artist in several years to have a million-selling debut album. Released last November and with 1.2 million copies shipped, “First Message” finally broke the 1 million barrier in the latest Oricon sales rankings yesterday. She said, “Wow! This has given me a lot of confidence and energy to make my own way.” She is scheduled to release her next single, “Jewelry Day”, on July 4. The only other album to sell a million copies so far this year is Mr. Children’s “Home”. The last female artist to achieve it with her debut release was Nakashima Mika with “True” almost four and a half years ago.

It’s a battle between American and Japanese comic heroes in the upcoming Golden Week holiday period. The two most anticipated movies set to open during GW are Hollywood blockbuster “Spiderman 3” and local manga adaptation “Gegege no Kitaro” and both are expected to do very well at the box office. Sony Pictures hosted a press conference in Tokyo yesterday for the visiting director and cast of the latest Spidey flick, which had its world premiere in the capital on Sunday. Sony are aiming to beat the ¥7.5 billion box office of the first Spiderman movie (the first sequel drew ¥6.5 billion), and have pulled out all the stops and spared no expense for this week’s PR. Yesterday’s event drew 450 reporters, 40 TV cameras and 1,000 photographers, thought he movie doesn’t open until May 1. Meanwhile, the latest live-action adaptation of “Gegege…” will have a bit of a head start, at it’s scheduled to open on April 28 at 350 theaters nationwide. This beats the 320 screens that started showing “Tokyo Tower” a week ago, and that movie is on course to make over ¥4 billion. Based one of Japan’s most popular mangas, “Gegege…” is a fantasy tale of spirits and monsters from Japanese folklore and stars Wentz Eiji (21) as Kitaro, Inoue Mao (20) in the heroine role, Tanaka Reina (26) as Neko Musume, Oizumi Yo (34) as Nezumi Otoko, Hazama Kampei (57) as Konaki Jijii, and Muroi Shigeru (46) as Sunakake Babaa.

• Comedian Tanaka Yuji (43) hit the jackpot yesterday. A horse racing fan for some 20 years, he won just shy of a whopping ¥8 million on the major Satsukisho, the first leg of Japanese racing’s triple crown. He said he plans to share his winnings with comic partner Ota Hikari (41) and the two dozen staff of his management agency. One half of the comedy duo Bakusho Mondai, he is a host of several regular weekly shows, including “Sunday Japon”.

The stars of “Spiderman 3” were in Tokyo yesterday for the movie’s world premiere. Tobey Maguire (31), Kirsten Dunst (24), James Franco (28) and director Sam Raimi (47) walked the red carpet at the Roppongi Hills complex and greeted some 700 fans who were lucky enough to attend the event. Thousands more fans braved the rain to catch a glimpse of the stars and superhero. The event included a performance by a spider-suited stuntman on a 20m high rope and is said to have cost in the region of ¥300 million. Maguire said that if a fourth sequel is made, he hopes to see Spiderman flying through the skies of Tokyo, describing the capital as “the perfect city” to premiere the movie. Spiderman 3 is due for theatrical release on May 1, though fans can get a taste of Spidey’s world now at an exhibition of mannequins and movie paraphernalia at Roppongi Hills until May 20.

Traditional storyteller Hayashiya Shouzou (44) has been nabbed for tax evasion. The popular rakugoka gave a press conference at the NHK studios in Tokyo yesterday to apologize for the case, which involved some ¥120 million in undeclared earnings. He gave no details of the tax bureau’s investigation other than that it was settled last year, and told reporters to direct further questions to his tax accountant. When asked how he would “explain” the matter to his late father, legendary rakugoka Hayashiya Sanpei, he replied, “Well of course he’ll be furious.” For many years a regular on the variety show circuit and a noted jazz fan and critic, he became the 9th-generation Hayashiya Shouzou when he succeeded to the name in March of 2005 (his previous stage name was Kobuhei). He has been more focused on rakugo since his succession, a major event in the traditional entertainment world marked by a parade in Ueno attended by 140,000 people and a series of some 60 events across the country. At the time, he received a huge volume of monetary gifts from fans, fellow performers and politicians. When money is given as a gift, it is placed in special envelopes known as “shuugibukuro”, and it was these empty envelopes that the tax authorities discovered in the basement of his home last summer. An investigation found further irregularities in his tax returns for previous years and the authorities sought some ¥40 million in taxes and penalties.

Be a smackdown queen or a cradle snatcher, that’s what it takes to make a marriage work. Or at least so you might think looking at the two couples chosen as this year’s “Nice Couple” award winners, announced at an event in Tokyo yesterday. In the blue corner we have semi-retired pro wrestler Jaguar Yokota (45) and her mousy husband, Kinoshita Hirokatsu (39). They married in 2004 when Kinoshita was working as a ringside doctor on the Smack Girl circuit. They have been regulars on the variety show circuit for the last couple of years and received huge media attention when Yokota had a baby in Hawaii at the end of last year. Just three months later, she was back in the ring for an event to mark the 30th anniversary of her debut.

The other award winning couple are musician Takahashi Joji (48, photo) and Mifune Mika (24, photo). The rockabilly singer kicked up a media storm when he married the daughter of screen legend Mifune Toshiro at the tender age of 16. Mifune shed tears as she remembered the early days of their marriage, when media pundits gave them no chance of staying together. But Takahashi is always ready to profess his love for his wife on variety shows, something not many Japanese men his age feel comfortable doing. He said yesterday they’d like to take their young daughter to Hawaii before she becomes fare-paying age, and maybe get started on a younger sibling for her while they’re there.

Comedian Udo Suzuki (37) wrote off his car in a traffic accident in Tokyo yesterday. He collided head on with a car turning right at an intersection in front of the Fuji TV headquarters in central Tokyo shortly after 1pm. The 54-year-old female driver of the other car suffered some bruising and was taken to hospital by ambulance, but returned later in the afternoon to assist with the police investigation into the cause of the crash. Udo was characteristically humble and apologetic, though he says he was driving under the speed limit and had the right of way. The woman, on the other hand, claims he ignored a red light. Udo was unharmed in the accident, which came the day after his first wedding anniversary, and left the scene to attend an event planning meeting at Fuji TV. One half of the comedy duo Kyain, he has been a regular face on the variety show circuit for many years. He’s easily recognizable from his dyed blonde, semi-mohican hairstyle.