Latest News from Japan Zone & Japan Store

Hollywood star Tom Cruise (43) took to the high seas yesterday. Well not quite. He’s in town to promote his latest movie, “Mission Impossible 3”, and did so in style. He arrived by private jet at Haneda Airport around 5am and attended an afternoon press conference at the Meiji Kinenkan, where Japan’s Meiji Era consitution was drawn up. In the evening he used a motorboat to make a grand entrance across Tokyo Bay, landing at the Odaiba beach area. Dressed in a white suit, he signed autographs for the 1500 fans that lined the red carpet to the movie premiere. The 10-minute trip across the bay is said to have cost ¥200 million, as all shipping had to be stopped temporarily. The stunt was based on a scene from the movie. Today he’s travelling by “private” shinkansen (bullet train) to attend a fan event in Osaka, and flies out from Kansai International Airport tonight. Cruise promised fans on his last visit in March that next time he’d bring his wife, actress Katie Holmes (23), and their new daughter Suri. But as this trip is only a day and a half, it was impractical. He reassured fans that he was still hoping to make a movie in Tokyo and that the whole family would be here for a week, a month or longer.

• Singer/actor Fukuyama Masaharu and pin-up girl Yasu Megumi are the ideal marriage partners, according to chart ranking company Oricon. With June considered by many the ideal month to get married, Oricon recently carried out a survey that asked which celebrity people would most like to marry. Fukuyama, who also topped a recent poll looking for the celebrity most people would want to perform at their wedding, appeals to many women with his laid back manner. He was followed in the rankings by three Johnny’s Jimusho stars: Kinki Kids duo Domoto Tsuyoshi (#2) and Domoto Koichi (#4), either side of V6 member Okada Yuichi (#3). And in fifth place was actor Tsumabuki Satoshi. Meanwhile, the guys chose popular pin-up girl and variety show regular Yasu, who is considered an “iyashi-kei” or “healing/stress-relieving type”. She was followed by singer Otsuka Ai, pin-up girl Yasuda Misako, and actresses Konishi Manami and Ueto Aya.

• SMAP leader Nakai Masahiro (33) missed the afternoon Fuji TV show “Waratte Iitomo” yesterday for the first time in 13 years. He has had trouble with his right eye for several days and was diagnosed with conjunctivitis, a contagious eye infection commonly known as pink eye. Nakai is resting at home and will also miss recording of several other regular shows this week.

Award-winning actress Terajima Shinobu (33) has some French romance in her life. According to today’s issue of the weekly Josei Jishin magazine, the actress is involved with a French employee of a trading company, said to be around 40 years old. The couple met through work and began dating last autumn, and Terajima is said to be studying French. The daughter of kabuki actor Onoe Kikugoro, she was seriously involved with kabuki star Ichikawa Somegoro in 1997, but they broke up after it was revealed he was the father of a 5-year old illegitimate child. Terajima was later linked with actor Omori Nao. She is currently working on a movie adaptation of the NHK drama series “Ai no Rukeichi” (Penal Colony of Love).

• Celebrities visiting the studios of Tokyo FM radio are testing the power of miracles. The Japan soccer team is said to need a miracle to advance to the second round of the World Cup, as it meets world champions Brazil in its final group match. So celebrities are challenging the football fates and promising to do a series of outlandish things if the Samurai Blue can pull it off. Talento and 80s sexy idol Aota Noriko (38) says she dress in “bodicon” style and dance in Tokyo’s Roppongi district; pop duo Yuzu say they’ll do their next recording at the home of a Tokyo FM listener; and actor Ishida Issei promises to adopt the hairstyle of a Brazilian soccer star. The station has already received some 4000 pledges from listeners and celebs alike.

• The official figures for Sunday’s game against Croatia are as high as expected. Video Research say the TV Asahi broadcast of the game had a ratings high of 68.6% in the Kanto region. With the recent increase in the number of people following games on the Internet, in sports bars and outdoor broadcasts, the figure holds up very well to those of past events. It remains to be seen if enough people believe the team still has a chance to progress in the tournament to create a similar audience for the Brazil game, which airs from 4am on Friday.

• Actress Adachi Yumi (24) made her return to work yesterday. After a busy year that has seen her marry comedian Itoda Jun (33), give birth to a baby girl, watch the media speculate over her husband’s alleged infidelities, and embarrassed by her mother’s publication of a nude photo book, she finally got back to work. Her first job since becoming a mother was to record a character for the summer’s new Anpanman anime feature. Meeting the press afterwards, she fielded the inevitable questions with good humor, saying the rumors about Itoda were simply untrue and that her mother looks beautiful for her age. She said her only worry was leaving her daughter and husband alone for the first time, but added that recent events have only served to deepen their love for each other.

Hope lives on for the Samurai Blue. The Japan soccer team flirted with disaster against Croatia at the World Cup yesterday but lived to fight another day. A series of saves, including an early penalty, by goalkeeper Kawaguchi Yoshikatsu kept the hopes of the nation alive. With the game played in searing heat, the players were reduced to the same exhaustion that was their undoing in the loss to Australia. The last 20 minutes saw a series of embarassing mistakes and missed chances by both teams. But this time the game ended scoreless, probably a fitting result and one that leaves all three teams with a chance to join Brazil in the next round. With their place secure after a 2-0 defeat of the Aussies, it’s possible that the Brazilians will field a less than full strength squad for the final group matchon June 23. And so Japanese fans still have a reason to tune in for that game, even though it kicks off at 4am local time.

Audience ratings for last night’s broadcast of the game on TV Asahi are expected to beat the 49% that NHK managed for the Australia game, and maybe even the 66.1% that watched Fuji TV’s broadcast of the Japan-Russia game in 2002. The highest rating last year was for a soccer game, Japan beating North Korea in its final World Cup qualifier, and that was also shown on TV Asahi. If the network manages to pull the highest rating for this year, it will be the first time a private network has done so two years in a row.

• Sekine Mari (21), daughter of popular talento Sekine Tsutomu (52), has made her showbiz debut. In May she graduated at the top of her class from Emerson College in Boston, where she studied Marketing Communication. She had considered joining one of Japan’s top ad agencies, but this month she joined the Asai Kikaku management agency that handles her father’s busy schedule. She got off to a busy start herself on Saturday, appearing on three different shows.

The latest collaboration by rock band Glay will feature Himuro Kyosuke (45). The former Boøwy vocalist met Glay leader and guitarist Takuro (35) on a radio show last year and the band went to visit him at his home in Los Angeles earlier this year. The resulting single “Answer”, Himuro’s first collaborative project, goes on sale August 2 and the artists will perform together at the Ajinomoto Stadium on August 5 & 6. Last year Glay teamed up with vocal/dance unit Exile and released one of the year’s biggest hits in “Scream”. It’s been more than two years since they put out an original album, and their first ‘solo’ single since December 2004, “G4”, is scheduled for release mid-July. Boøwy were one of the biggest Japanese bands of the late 80s and early 90s. It also featured legendary guitarist Hotei Tomoyasu, whose split with Himuro led to the end of the band.

• Comedienne Aoki Sayaka (33) has been chosen for this year’s “Best Swimmer Award”. Though she has released a best-selling book of nude photos, she is not the most shapely of celebrities. Her choice was due to her appearances on the TV Asahi variety show “Q-sama!!” in which she and other celebrities take part in pretty competitive swimming races. Award recipients usually turn up for the ceremony in formal wear but Aoki was true to form, arriving in a swimsuit and cap. Designed for purely PR purposes, the award is one of many handed out every year to celebrities. The list includes Best Jeanist, Best Leatherist and Megane Best Dresser, for the person who looks best in glasses, as well as more traditional titles such as Best Couple or Best Father. With Sunday being Father’s Day, the latter will no doubt be announced this weekend.

Popular all-rounder Wentz Eiji (20) is to make his “world” debut as a model. A regular on the variety show circuit and local fashion magazines, over the last year he has found a new level of success as one half of the acoustic pop duo WaT. Also an actor, he was recently at the Cannes Film Festival where he caught the eye of an editor from a top French fashion magazine. Wentz will appear in the October issue of the magazine Jalouse. He made his modelling debut at the age of four and later became a regular on an NHK kid’s show. At the age of nine, he appeared on the famous New Year spectacle “Kohaku Uta Gassen” as a backing dancer for pop starlet Moritaka Chisato. He formed WaT with Koike Teppei in 2002, and the duo performed on the streets of Tokyo for three years before landing a recording contract with a major label. They have won two major newcomer awards this year. Though he is the second son of a Japanese mother and German-American father, he’s got a lot of mileage from the fact that he’s the only one in the family who has little to no English ability.

• The pop artist most young people would like to have perform at their wedding is Fukuyama Masaharu. He was followed in a recent survey by rock group Mr. Children and pop duo Dreams Come True, a particularly popular choice among females. The fourth most popular choice is Amuro Namie and crooner Hirai Ken is fifth. A bit quiet for the last couple of years, singer/actor Fukuyama’s continued appeal was confirmed when his recently released new single “Milk Tea” entered the Oricon charts at No.1.

Japan’s No.1 pop group are going back on the road again. And when the boys of SMAP go on tour, it’s a very big deal. Starting at the Sapporo Dome on July 30, they’ll perform 21 shows at eight major venues across the country, playing to over a million adoring fans in all. Almost half that number will be attending the eight shows planned for three venues in the Tokyo metropolitan area – National Stadium and Tokyo Dome in the capital and Nissan Stadium in Yokohama. One of the biggest tours ever planned in Japan, it’s sure to make the five-member band’s new album – due for release in July – one of their best sellers yet and extend their record streak of consecutive No.1 hits.

• The NHK broadcast of Japan’s opening game at the World Cup reached a peak audience rating of 61.2%. The average rating for the 3-1 defeat to Australia was 49%, though with the game also shown on NHK’s satellite channels and at stadiums and sports bars across the country, the actual numbers were quite a bit higher. The 49% figure is higher than the 43.4% for the World baseball Classic final win over Cuba in March but lower than figures from the last two World Cups. Over 10 million households in the Kanto region were tuned in to the event despite the 10pm kickoff time. As the game entered the second half with Japan leading, fans probably expected to head to bed in a jubilant mood. But three goals conceded in quick succession left many supporters facing a depressing trip home.

• Former Fuji TV announcer Ariga Satsuki (40) and Wada Kei (53), a commentator with the network, have ended their 4-year marriage. It was revealed yesterday that the couple filed for divorce in mid-May. Ariga retains custody of their 3-year-old daughter.

• Singer Hirahara Ayaka (22) finished off her national tour yesterday with a show at the Nippon Budokan. She performed her smash hit debut song “Jupiter” accompanied by a 24-piece orchestra that included her father, Hirahara Makoto (54), on sax. She also gave the 8,000 fans their first chance to hear her upcoming double-A side single “Voyagers/Kokoro”, due for release on July 19.

Some of the best tickets for Madonna’s shows here in September will be sold on an online auction, Ticket Pia announced yesterday. The Queen of Pop will be playing in Japan for the first time in 13 years with her “Confessions” tour, and has shows set for Osaka Dome (Sept. 16) and Tokyo Dome (Sept. 20). Of the 3,000 Premier seats closest to the stage for each show, 500 will be put up for auction as “platinum tickets” between July 9-18. The face value of the tickets is ¥50,000. Pair tickets for shows in the U.S. have already fetched over $5,000 in auctions, and similar prices can be expected here. The measure is also partly an effort to deal with “dafuya” or yakuza-connected ticket scalpers, always a problem for popular shows.

• The second album from Def Tech has repeated the accomplishment of last year’s eponymous debut. “Catch the Wave”, released on April 26, has managed to stay in the charts and finally broke through the one-million barrier this week. The feat was achieved just over a year since “Def Tech” became just the second indies album to sell a million copies (the first was Mongol800’s “Message” in 2002). “Catch the Wave” is the second album this year to go quadruple-platinum, after Koda Kumi’s hits collection “Best – Second Session”. In Japan, the threshold for platinum status is 250,000 copies, compared to 1 million for the U.S.

• Rock group B’z have extended their own record with their 42th single, “Splash”. Needless to say it entered the Oricon charts at No.1, the 38th time in a row they’ve done it. The record stretches back to their 5th release, “Taiyo no Komachi Angel” in June 1990. Their 4th single, “Be There” released in May 1990, made the Top 10. So their string of consecutive Top 10 hits is now at 39, putting them in a tie for first place with SMAP.

Seiko’s back on the road. Matsuda Seiko, the perennial “burikko” idol, is still on top of her game at 44. Sporting the shortest possible shocking pink miniskirt, she performed 25 songs – one for every year that she’s been in showbiz – in a two-and-a-half hour set for 15,000 fans at the Saitama Super Arena on Saturday. The show kicks off her annual summer tour of the country, which this year takes in 8 cities across Japan. She wore five different outfits on Saturday, including one based on the popular sailor uniform worn by many of Japan’s schoolgirls that just reinforced Seiko’s image as the pop idol who refuses to act her age. Also in attendance was Seiko’s daughter Sayaka (19), whose brief entertainment career is still on hold. She and her mother had a spat last year, with Sayaka claiming that she wanted to break away from her mother’s control, and this was the the most public show yet that they have made up.

• Comedian Ueda Shinya (36) is a father. One half of the popular duo Cream Stew, he revealed on the NTV talk show “Oshare-ism” last night that his wife gave birth to their first child, a baby girl, on June 7. He and his wife, both of whom are from Kumamoto Prefecture, married in 2004 after a 15-year relationship. Ueda’s comic partner Arita Teppei is known as one of showbiz’s more prolific playboys.

• Ditzy talento Yamaguchi Moe (29) and company president Ozeki Shigeo (31) finally held their wedding ceremony and reception at a Tokyo hotel yesterday. The couple registered their marriage last November. Ozeki is CEO of the apparel company Zeel.

Little known actor Ishibashi Masataka (27) is staying mum on his romantic relationship with divorcee singer Koyanagi Rumiko (photo, 53). Yesterday he made his first public appearance, at a PR event for the German fountain pen maker Mont Blanc, since news of the relationship broke. He refused to give a comment to the gathered reporters. Koyanagi had a very public and messy divorce from her former backing dancer, Osumi Kenya (40), in 2000 after the press got word of his extra-marital affairs. The former Takarazuka star has a clear preference for younger men. She married Osumi in 1989, when he was 23 and she was still in her 30s and looking good. Even now in her 50s she does still have the legs of a Japanese Tina Turner, but Ishibashi is generally thought to be looking for a bit of free publicity.

• Comedian Matsumoto Kouta (27) of the popular duo Regular is set to get married at the end of the month. He will marry Kitamura Megumi (29) – described as a “home helper” – to whom he proposed on stage at the end of May. Regular are best known for their lively “Aru Aru Tankentai” routine.

• Popular Korean group Shinhwa performed their first song in Japanese for fans at three events across the country yesterday. Split into three pairs, they attended events in Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka. “Bokura no Kokoro ni wa Taiyo ga Aru” (The Sun is in Our Hearts) will be released on June 14. They also predicted a successful World Cup for the South Korean team. The group are in the middle of a 5-nation Asian tour. They will play the Nippon Budokan on September 24 and Osaka Castle Hall on the 26th.

Guys, you still have a chance. Actress Tokiwa Takako (34) says she has no plans to get married. She appeared yesterday at a PR event for the movie “Fudeko, Sono Ai”, a biopic about the famous Meiji Period educator Ishii Fudeko (1865-1944). Filming will take place in Okayama Prefecture in July and August and the film is set to open in November. In the movie Ishii marries twice but when asked if she had any such plans in real life, Tokiwa answered, “I guess it’s true what they say that wearing a wedding dress will mean you get married later. I haven’t considered marriage at all.” Japan Zone reported on her romance with actor Nagatsuka Keishi (30) last August, but things don’t seem to have become more serious between them yet. Ishii was the first person to set up an educational establishment for the disabled in Japan. A member of a politically influential family at a time of great change in Japan, she was the first Japanese woman to study abroad following the Meiji Restoration.

• Popular comedian Razor Ramon HG (30) is to appear in his first overseas Yoshimoto Kogyo production. Hard Gay, as he is best known, will take part in the event “Suggoi Yoshimoto Shinkigeki, L.A. & Japan Tour” on July 1 at the famous Kodak Theater in Hollywood, home of the annual Academy Awards. Yoshimoto comedians have toured in the U.S., U.K. and Asia before, but the last event was in Shanghai in 2002. Other big names set to appear include Imada Koji (40), Higashino Koji (38), and Fuji Takashi (34). Not on the biull this time is Kazama Kampei (56), whose lewd behavior on previous tours drew criticism. Hard Gay is likely to take the reins in that department and should turn a few heads with his black leather outfit and hip thrusts.