Latest News from Japan Zone & Japan Store

NHK chief Ebisawa Katsuji (70) has finally bowed out. He announced his resignation at an executive meeting yesterday. He will be replaced as chairman by present managing director Hashimoto Genichi. Ebisawa has been under growing public pressure to take responsibility for a seemingly endless list of scandals and arrests at the national broadcaster. It’s feared that the number of households that are refusing to pay their annual subscription fees may grow to almost half a million.

• “Dare mo Shiranai” (Nobody Knows), the movie that garnered a Best Actor award at Cannes for young Yagira Yuya (photo, 14), has failed to get a nomination for the Academy Awards.

SMAP‘s first single in almost two years has taken the Oricon charts by storm. “Tomodachi e – Say What You Will” easily outsold the next-best sellers from Janne Da Arc and Morning Musume. It is SMAP’s 36th single release and their 14th chart topper. It was written by none other than Eric Clapton, while local music legend Takeuchi Mariya wrote the words.

• Post offices nationwide today started selling postage stamps with photos of locations used in the popular South Korean TV soap opera “Winter Sonata.” The drama took Japan by storm last year and made overnight stars of actor Bae Yong Joon (32) and actress Choi Ji Woo (29). Today also saw the start of Japan-South Korea Friendship Year, with opening events being held in central Tokyo. The first events will take place in Seoul on Thursday.

• The latest showbiz baby has been born to actress Ishida Hikari (32). She had a baby girl, her second, at home early on Sunday morning.

Hajime Chitose (26), the singer with the “voice in a million,” has given birth to her first child. She announced Sunday on her web site that she’d had a baby girl on Thursday of last week. She was pregnant when she married a restaurateur in January 2004, but she suffered a miscarriage shortly afterwards. She decided to take time off work and had an uncomplicated pregnancy this time around. She plans to resume her career this summer.

• NHK chairman Ebisawa Katsuji is set to announce his resignation before the end of his third term, rather than in March as he suggested earlier. He will make the anouncement at an executive meeting this afternoon. The public braodcaster has been plagued by scandals and viewer revolt for the last year.

• Singers Banba Hirofumi (54) and Hirayama Miki (55) have divorced after 27 years of marriage. Both were stars of the “new music” scene when the married in 1977 and have remained well known in the Kansai region. The main cause of the split is said to be Banaba’s affair with another woman last year.

There’s a big music trade meet going on in Cannes, France this week. And JETRO, the Japan external trade folks, and the Music Publishers Association are doing a big sell of Japanese pop music. For the first time at the annual MIDEM show, there’s a Japan Pavillion. 58 record companies and talent agencies are represented. You can listen to CDs and watch DVDs by over 100 of Japan’s top young artists, including Puffy and Moriyama Naotaro. J-pop is a ¥1.6 trillion industry (yes, trillion – that’s about $16 billion) and is second only to the US. But it exports only ¥2.9 billion and imports nearly ten times that, mostly from the US. Could this be the beginning of a wave of Japanese pop hitting the world market?

Tamashiro Chiharu (photo right, 27) of the popular Okinawan duo Kiroro announced at a concert at the weekend that she is engaged to be married this spring. The concert was a free event in their home city of Naha, where her 27-year old fiancee also lives. They played a set that included hits “Best Friend” and “mirai He.”

• The movie “Lakeside Murder Case” is looking to be a big success. Before it even opens here next month, it has received offers from over a dozen international movie festivals. Directed by Aoyama Shinji, it stars Yakusho Koji (49) and Yakushimaru Hiroko (40). There have also been foreign offers to remake Aoyama’s 2001 hit “Eureka,” which also starred Yakusho and won a couple of prizes at Cannes.

Singer songwriter Utada Hikaru marked her 22nd birthday on Wednesday with a long-overdue English message to her fans. In response to the recent tsunami disaster in south Asia, she hinted at some big personal venture she is planning in an attempt to “change the world.”

Message from Utada Hikaru

Talento Ishida Junichi was spotted with young beauties on each arm by the weekly magazine Josei Seven. The photos were taken on January 15, his 50th birthday. The once-divorced Ishida and model Hasegawa Rie (31) only recently broke up after more than eight years together.

Soma Kazuhiko, the man who changed the Japanese music world with Pink Lady in the 1970s and 80s, died this week. He was 60. A funeral ceremony was held at the Daughters of Saint Paul Church in Tokyo. Pink Lady, a pop duo made up of Masuda Keiko (Kei, 47) and Nemoto Mitsuyo (Mii, 46), became superstars under Soma’s guidance in the late 70s. They enjoyed a revival in 2003, embarking on their first national tour since they broke up in 1981.

• There has been a major leak of online data on many of the top Korean entertainment stars. The 113-page file contains embarrassing and scathingly critical information on over 100 of Korea’s best-loved celebrities, including many who are currently big in Japan. It includes claims of violence and sexual perversion as well as personal and physical faults of such people as Bae Yong Joon (photo, 32) and Lee Byung Hun (34).

• Actress Nami Etsuko (54) is suffering from a nasty form of osteoarthritis. The disease alters bone structure and causes infected blisters on the palms and soles of the feet. She is expected to undergo hospital treatment in the near future.

Singer songwriter Yoriko (20) has made her major label debut. She made her indie debut in 2002, and became known as much for the fact that she conquered cancer as a child as for her angelic voice. She took a year off when overwhelmed by her early success. With the new album “Cocoon” coming out on the Toshiba EMI label, more people will get to hear the voice that radio listeners have described as “life-affirming.”

• Yesterday, actress Sugita Kaoru (40) made her first public appearance since her marriage “shocked” the entertainment world last week. Elegantly dressed and wearing a 3-carat diamond wedding ring, she spoke to the media at a PR event for the upcoming movie “Lakeside Murder Case.” Her marriage to the wealthy Ayukawa Junta (44), a descendant of the founder of Nissan, has been described as a “tama nokoshi” wedding. The expression translates as “a palanquin set with jewels” and refers to a woman who marries into a fortune. With a history of broken hearts, alcoholism and huge debts, and an image of “the woman least likely to marry,” Sugita has certainly turned things around.

Popular actress Kiki Kirin (62, real name Uchida Keiko) has undergone emergency surgery at a Tokyo hospital, reportedly for breast cancer. She was admitted about a week ago and is still hospitalized. Her daughter, Uchida Yayako, and son-in-law, actor Motoki Masahiro have been visiting her every day. Kiki suffered a detached retina last year and lost the sight in her left eye. She also suffers from asthma and said she was worried whether she had the physical strength to undergo surgery. These days she often appears in comic roles in many TV commercials, most recently in an ongoing series for Fujicolor.

• Inoue Noriko (26), a model who has appeared in over 100 commercials, is to make her dramatic debut. She will appear in “Fukigen no Gene” on the Fuji TV network. The drama will star one of the hottest actresses of the moment, Takeuchi Yuko (24).

Actress Matsuyuki Yasuko (photo, 32) revealed on her official web site on Saturday that she and her husband, guitarist Gaku (39), have divorced after seven years of marriage. She said that the couple have both been busy with their careers and have been separated since last April. Matsuyuki retains custody of their 3-year old son.

• Another recent breakup was between actor Ishida Junichi (50) and model Hasegawa Rie (31). The pair decided over the Christmas holidays to end their relationship of over eight years, and Hasegawa confirmed the breakup to reporters at the weekend on her return from location in New Zealand. &$149; NHK has announced that it will no longer carry out its annual surveys of viewers favorite TV stars. The national broadcaster said that there are now enough private research companies providing such services. Comedian Akashiya Sanma has topped the male rankings for the last 6 years, while comedienne Hisamoto Masami has been No.1 for 3 years.