Latest News from Japan Zone & Japan Store

Yamane Yoshiaki (photo left, 29), one half of the comic duo Ungirls, has been romantically linked with popular talento Yamakawa Erika (23). The two first met on a variety show in May where they were paired together to do a bit of ballroom dancing. Ungirls have been one of the more unusual comic acts to enjoy the recent comedy boom. With Yamane and his partner Tanaka Takushi (29) both being tall and incredibly skinny, their visual impact and general nerdiness has made them hugely popular, especially with young girls. But not many would imagine Yamane as a romantic partner, so this latest showbiz couple is sure to turn lots of heads.

• Veteran actor Watari Tetsuya (63) has made his debut as a voice actor. He provided one of the voices for the upcoming new Sega action-adventure game for Play Station 2, “Ryu ga Shiku.” The cast also includes actress Mihara Junko (40) and former wrestler Fujiwara Yoshiaki (56). The game cost ¥2.4 billion to develop and is due for release this winter. Watari and Sega chairman Satomi Hajime were classmates at Aoyama Gakuin University and have been friends since. Sega and Watari, as president of the Ishihara Promotions agency, have also cooperated on supporting cancer charity work.

• Hamasaki Ayumi‘s latest TV commercial for Panasonic will feature the pop diva dressed as a maiko (apprentice geisha) in a striking red kimono and speaking in the distinctive Kyoto dialect. Ayu (26) has appeared in a long series of ads for the company’s digital cameras, the latest of which is the Lumix. She also wrote a new song for the commercial, “Will,” which goes on sale on September 14.

Singer Amuro Namie (27) has won parental rights to her 7-year old son. She divorced TRF dancer Sam (43) in July 2002 after five years of marriage, at which time Sam was given “parental authority” over their son, while Amuro had the “upbringing authority.” Following an arbitration by the family court, Amuro now has both. Both Amuro and TRF are with the Avex record label and are said to remain friends.

• The Korean entertainment boom is still alive and well. Singer/actor Park Yong Ha (28) yesterday became the first Korean artist in more than 20 years to play solo at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, something of a hallowed ground for musicians. He sang 23 songs, including one in Japanese and the theme to the hugely successful drama series “Winter Sonata.” With most of the 10,000 tickets going for a pricey ¥10,000, the concert pulled in about ¥100 million. Park will play the Osaka Hall on August 28. The success of the Budokan gig will be good news for other Koreans lined up to play the venue this year: R&B singer P (23) and singer-actor Ryu Siwon (32) will play two concerts each during the autumn.

• Veteran actress Nakamura Tamao (66) is said to be recovering well following her recent surgery. The ditzy widow of legendary actor Katsu Shintaro was forced to drop out of a planned September theater role when a polyp was discovered on her vocal chords.

The divorce of actress Sugita Kaoru (40) and wealthy heir Ayukawa Junta (44) doesn’t look like fading from the media glare after all. Early statements suggested that the couple would just put it all behind them. But now it seems that there’s going to be a war of words and a court case. Ayukawa’s lawyers have hinted at a libel suit against Sugita following claims of violence and harassment that she made in last Friday’s edition of a weekly magazine. Sugita certainly seemed to want to have her say on the air on a radio show at the weekend. But time and the show’s producers stopped her. You can expect this story to be around at least until something bigger comes along, like the September 11 election.

• Singer Matsuda Seiko (43) played her first ever overseas concert at the weekend. Seiko, in her 25th year in showbusiness, played for 5,000 fans in Taiwan — including about 600 who had made their way from Japan — to finish off her anniversary concert tour.

• Hollywood star Johnny Depp (42) is to make his first trip to Japan in ten years. Depp will arrive on September 3 to promote “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” his latest collaboration with director Tim Burton. It will be his second trip to Japan.

One of Japan’s most beautiful women is to make a long-awaited return to the small screen. Former actress Goto Kumiko (31) will make her first appearance on TV in five years as a special guest on NTV’s “Tokyo Bijin Monogatari” on Sunday night. She now lives a “celeb” lifestyle in Geneva with her husband, Formula One driver Jean Alesi (41), and their two children. On the show she will show her old friend Mauyuko (daughter of actor Tsugawa Masahiko) around their second home, a sprawling chateau near Avignon in France. The show is sponsored by cosmetics maker Shiseido and features Tokyo-based beauties, including Ito Misaki and Shinohara Kyoko, interviewing famous women around the world, such as Yoko Ono and Korean actress Choi Ji Woo.

• Nishikawa Takanori (34), drew a huge crowd on the streets of Shinjuku yesterday but only got to play one song for them. Nishikawa, who goes by the name of T.M. Revolution, was to play two songs in a “guerilla live” PR event for his new single “Vestige.” He turned up 10 minutes late, arriving in a ¥70-million Lamborghini Diablo – the only one in Japan – and surrounded by huge black bodyguards (there seems to be a stereotype in Japan that black bodyguards are more intimidating). By this time 5,000 people had stopped to see what was going on and police decided to limit him to just one song.

• Busty talento Megumi (23) is back to work today after last month’s traffic accident. She’s in Nagano for filming of an ongoing drama series. She was returning from the same location last month when the car driven by her manager was hit by a bus. She suffered a fractured hip and has been undergoing rehab.

Singer and actress Chinen Rina (24) announced that she recently married model Nakamura Kentaro (22) and is carrying his baby. She said in a statement that she is expecting the baby next April and will step down from her planned role in the December musical “Jekyll and Hyde.” Her place will be taken by Suzuki Ranran (30). A representative for Chinen and Nakamura registered their marriage at a city hall on August 10. The couple are living separately but are said to be looking for a new home. Chinen plans to take maternity leave as soon as filming of her current TBS drama series finishes. She says she will continue to work after becoming a mother.

• We seem to be having more than our usual share of earthquakes and heavy rain recently. A quake struck off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture in northern Japan yesterday afternoon, leaving about 60 people injured and stranding many on shinakansen (bullet trains) for hours. Among them was popular young model and singer Uehara Nami (14), who was stuck on the Tohoku Shinkansen for more than six hours. The cover model for teen magazine “Hana*Chu” was travelling between PR events for her new single “Real Me.”

• Fujita Susumu (32), president of IT company Cyber Agent, last night made his first TV appearance since his July 22 divorce from actress Okina Megumi (25). He appeared on the Fuji TV “Sora Tobu Guutan” variety show, which focuses on pseudo-psychoanalysis, usually of women. The show is hosted by popular female talento Yuka and actress Shinohara Kyoko. Fujita didn’t do too well in his analysis of several women on video, and admitted that the divorce has robbed him of his confidence in dealing with the opposite sex.

Actress Sugita Kaoru (40) has finally put her brief and unhappy marriage behind her. She refused to speak to the media at the weekend but her lawyers issued a fax statement saying that her 7-month marriage to wealthy heir Ayukawa Junta (44) had ended in divorce. With her troubled past that started when she gained fame as a child actor, she was long considered destined to be a spinster. She even seemed to relish the image in recent years, as she fed off it on the the variety show circuit. So the showbiz world was taken by complete surprise when she announced her marriage to a very eligible and rich bachelor in January. But the honeymoon – and Sugita’s new image as a “celeb” wife – didn’t last long. Rumors circulated of fights between the two – who never even lived together – and Sugita started dropping bigger and bigger hints that things were not going well. During the summer she said she had returned her wedding ring (by parcel delivery!) and hadn’t even seen her husband in months. Divorce papers were submitted at the end of July and the final decision was handed down on August 11. Lawyers for Ayukawa said that there is no dispute over alimony and there will be no court case. It remains to be seen whether Sugita will use the experience to create a new “divorcee” showbiz persona for herself, or whether she’ll prefer to retire and live off whatever financial settlement she receives.

• Tanaka Misako (45) is making her comeback as an actress. She will star in the upcoming TBS drama series “Brother Beat,” her first major role in five years. It also marks her return to work after she had a baby girl in 2002. She will play the mother of three handsome sons in the so-called “home comedy.”

It was revealed recently that popular actress Tokiwa Takako (photo, 33) is romantically involved with actor Nagatsuka Keishi (30). The two met when they both appeared in the movie “Geroppa!” in 2002. Romance bloomed when Tokiwa took on her first stage role in May. Nagatsuka – the son of actor Nagatsuka Kyozo (60) – is considered one of the leading lights of the theater world, and works as a writer, producer and director as well as acting. These two are sure to be one couple the media will be watching closely.

• The illegitimate son of actor Matsukata Hiroki (63) and singer Chiba Maria (56) is to make his acting debut. Toeda Masahi (20) was born after an affair between the two stars. His father refused to acknowledge parenthood for many years and he was raised by his mother. The debut by the son of one of Japan’s most established samurai actors will be, naturally, in the leading role. Toeda, who says that becoming an actor was his “unescapable destiny,” will play the lead in “Ai no Kizuna” which is scheduled for release in September 2006.

• Tokita Shintaro (27), the piano-playing half of the popular duo Sukima Switch, revealed on his official website that he recently got married. There were no details about his new bride except that they met four years ago. That was around the time that Tokita and vocalist-guitarist Ohashi Takuya (27) started getting serious about playing gigs in the Shibuya and Shinjuku areas of Tokyo. In April, their single “Zenryoku Shonen” made No.3 on the Oricon chart.

• Japan Zone entertainment news updates will be off until next Monday. Have a great weekend!

They won the game but they couldn’t grab the limelight on a night like this. The Yomiuri Giants beat the Yokohama Bay Stars 1-0 last night to break a four-game losing streak, but the highlight of the game was a confrontation between two Kazuhiro’s. Yokohama’s Sasaki Kazuhiro (37) came on in the second inning to face just one batter in his final game in his hometown of Sendai. He struck out Kiyohara Kazuhiro (37) in four pitches before coming off the mound for the last time. The two embraced, with Kiyohara unable to hold back his tears as he saw the stellar career of his old friend come to an end. Sasaki — known as “Daimajin” after a monster movie character — is the career saves leader for both the Bay Stars and the Seattle Mariners, where he played for four years. He has been plagued by injuries since his return from the majors, and was recently in the news for a more personal reason. He divorced his former idol star wife kaori (36) in April of this year after rumors had circulated since late 2003 that he was having an affair with actress Enamoto Kanako (24). He married Enamoto in May, less than two weeks after she had given birth to a baby boy.

• Singer songwriter Utada Hikaru (22) is to make her European debut. She debuted in the US as Utada last October, with minor success. She’ll be hoping for better sales of the same album, “Exodus,” when it goes on sale in the UK and across Europe on September 26. The single, “You Make Me Want To Be A Man” goes on sale on September 19. The promo video for the single was directed by her husband, Kiriya Kazuaki (38).

Singer Hamasaki Ayumi (26) has topped the Oricon single chart yet again. “Fairyland/Alterna” is her 11th single in row to enter the chart at No.1, dating back to “Free & Easy” in April, 2002. It’s her 23rd No.1 altogether, putting her in a tie for 3rd place with Mr. Children. Which is good news for her, after she had to pull out of Saturday’s Avex-organized “a-nation ’05” tour event in Sapporo due to acute inflammation in her nose and throat. On top of the album chart are Johnny’s boy band Arashi with “One.”

• Police sent papers to prosecutors on Mineda Kazunobu (27), vocalist of the indie band Ginnan Boyz, after he bared all at last weekend’s “Rock in Japan Festival.” Mineda was charged with public indecency after he dropped his pants twice for several minutes in front of 40,000 people during the band’s performance on Sunday afternoon. Both he and his management agency were apologetic, especially as the event was the best possible exposure (pun intended!) for a band without a major label contract. The event also featured 65 of japan’s biggest rock artists, including the first performance at an outdoor festival in 22 years by Southern All Stars, who played 14 of their summer hits.

• Ditzy talento Yamaguchi Moe (28) denied rumors that she is close to getting hitched. The prospect of wedding bells for her and Ozeki Shigeo (30), president of IT company Zeel, has reportedly been getting closer, but Moe just laughed off the question at a recent PR event.

In one of the highest-profile showbusiness divorces of recent years, Mori Masako (46) is looking for a whopping ¥750 million settlement from her ex-husband Mori Shinichi (57), according to this week’s issue of the “Josei Seven” magazine. Both are popular enka singers and have often performed as a couple for many years. But their marriage broke down in March this year at a time when both of them had been having treatment in hospital, Shinichi for hepatitis that has dogged him for years and Masako for stress and fatigue. At the time, it was said that Masako didn’t want any alimony and sought only ¥200,000 a month in support for each of their children. Given his long-term health problems, Shinichi is said to have given his wife and kids money in the order of $yen;30 million every year. He is reportedly not happy about the latest demands and intends to fight them. It could be the beginning of a long battle.

• The latest trouble for talented singer songwriter Onizuka Chihiro (24) has been a stalker, it was revealed yesterday. A 38-year old unemployed man who has repeatedly turned up at her apartment showed up datehookup.dating, this time with a bunch of flowers, on July 26. He rang her doorbell for 30 minutes until he was arrested by police. Onizuka made a name for herself with songs such as “Gekko” but has been plagued by bad luck. In February 2002, she was in a traffic accident while riding on the back of a motorcycle, and two months later was hospitalized with acute enteritis. In September 2003, she had surgery for a polyp on her vocal chords. Then in 2004, her record company and management agency both severed ties with her. She changed to a new agency, but they cut her off last January. She is currently without representation, but is still making a very good living from royalties, something in the order of ¥60 million last year.