Latest News from Japan Zone & Japan Store

22 years after they broke up, Pink Lady finished their 6-month national comeback tour with a show at the Tokyo International Forum. The duo of Mii (Nemoto Mitsuyo, 46) and Kei (Masuda Keiko, 46) were one of the biggest pop acts of the late 1970s. Mii divorced her music director husband last month.

• Actress Okouchi Nanako (26) has been romantically linked with actor Nishina Masaki (21), son of vetran actress Nishina Akiko (51). Okouchi has made something of a name for herself in a recent popular afternoon soap opera.

• The Tokyo home and office of movie director Ichikawa Kon (86) was broken into recently. Police in the Shibuya district are investigating the theft of about ¥2 million in cash.

Takizawa Hideaki (22), formerly of pop group Johnny’s Junior and now one half of the duo Takki and Tsubasa, has been chosen to play the lead in next year’s NHK taiga drama, “Yoshitsune”. It tells the story of the warlord Minamotono Yoshitsune (1159-89), a major figure at the end of the Heian Period. A total of 34 veteran actors and newcomers have been named in the cast. Among the popular female stars making their taiga debuts will be Ueto Aya and and former Morning Musume Goto Maki (both 18). Others include Koizumi Kotaro, son of the current prime minister, comedian Nanbara Kiyotaka of Un-chan Nan-chan, and veteran Tanba Tetsuro.

• Former model Miwa, the wife of popular rapper Zeebra (33), recently gave birth to their second daughter. They have named the girl Rima, which is used in Spanish rap music to mean “rhyming”.

Two top female stars have just had babies. Actress Hirosue Ryoko (23) had a bouncing baby boy on Saturday, a month earlier than expected. She married model/designer Okazawa Takahiro (28) at the end of last year. Meanwhilein Paris, former announcer Nakamura Eriko (35) gave birth to her first child, a girl. She is married to Charles Edward Barthes (33), son of a French businessman.

• SMAP member and perennial most popular man in Japan Kimura Takuya (31) has been chosen to voice the lead role in the new Miyazaki Hayao (63) movie, “Howl’s Moving Castle” due for release this autumn.

J-pop queen of the 1990s Amuro Namie (26) finished up her national tour at the Tokyo International Forum on Sunday. She also announced an Asian tour that will see her play to her many fans in South Korea for the first time. She will also have her first solo event in Taiwan. The Okinawan singer is enjoying something of a resurgence in her career after a lull during which she married, had a child with and divorced former TRF dancer Sam.

Am-Glam

TV personality Nishimura Tomomi (33) is to record her first song in nine years. She will sing the title song of this summer’s animated Anpanman movie and also do the voice of the heroine Nyani. The words and music to the lullaby are by Anpanman originator Yanase Takashi. After having her first child last summer, “Tomorin” returned to work in February – the ditzy former idol singer is a regular guest on the Akashiya Sanma-hosted variety show “Super Karakuri TV”.

Veteran actor Ashiya Gannosuke died on Wednesday of heart failure in a Kyoto hospital. He was best known for his role as the traveling artist Yamashita Kiyoshi in the television series “Hadaka no Taisho Horoki”. He was 72. Following WWII, he became a comedian, forming a manzai duo with his brother. He gained popularity as an actor in the mid-1950s, but landed his most famous role in 1980. He also had a million-selling hit with his singing debut “Musume Yo” in 1984.

• The Hello! Project, which is behind such J-pop stars as Morning Musume and Matsuura Aya (17), is to hold another audition. A spokesman said that 50 or even 100 new members might be signed up. If you – or your daughter – fancy becoming an idol singer against tens of thousands of other young hopefuls, check out this site.

Actor Otsuru Gitan (35), husband of Brazilian singer Marcia (35), gave a tearful press conference yesterday at which he apologized for being such a bad husband and asked her to take him back. He admitted to having brought another woman to their apartment last December, the day after Marcia had moved into a weekly rental apartment. She came home to pick up some belongings only to find the pair together. Otsuru denies that they were having an affair. When he told how he wanted to see his 6-year old daughter, he broke down in tears. He spent the last three and a half months filming a TV show in America.

• Actress Ozawa Maju (photo, 27) is romantically involved with Karato Ryo (34), her co-star in last year’s samurai movie “Shin Kagenogundan”. the pair first acted together in 2001’s superhero movie “Gamen Rider Agito”.

Akamatsu Naoki (24), guitarist of the defunct rock trio Hysteric Blue, was re-arrested this week for aggravated sexual assault on a 20-year old woman. He was previously arrested in a similar case which took place in November of last year. At that time, he approached a high school girl on a street in the Meguro area of Tokyo and, threatening to stab her if she resisted, sexually assaulted her in nearby carpark. He later assaulted the same girl in a neighborhood park. The popular band, formed in 1998, took a break in September of last year and broke up immediately after Akamatsu’s first arrest last month.

• The celebrity with the most TV commercial on-air time for 2003 was Tanaka Rena, who totaled 151,965 seconds (over 42 hours). Football star David Beckham was in 6th place.

A box set of all 30 singles by former idol singer Ishikawa Hidemi (37) has been released by BMG Fan House. The set includes 4 CDs and a DVD. Hidemi shocked her fans when she retired after marrying fellow idol star Yakumaru Hirohide (38) in 1990. She has rarely appeared in public since then, ensuring huge demand for the new release. Hidemi made her debut in 1982, after she was chosen from 56,000 hopefuls to be the “younger sister” of pop star Saijo Hideki (48). She won a newcomer award the following year, as did her future husband as a member of the Johnny’s Jimusho boy group Shibugakitai (The Cool Kid Gang). They are now the parents of four children.

• The luxury Tokyo home of comedian Okamura Takashi (33) – the short half of the duo Ninety-Nine – was recently broken into. According to reports, nothing was stolen from the 6th-floor apartment in the fashionable Takanawa district.

Singer/actor Kimura Takuya (31) has been chosen as the most popular man in Japan for the 11th year running. The poll was taken by the women’s magazine An-an. Thirteen of the top 20 men are members of the Johnny’s Jimusho talent agency. Inagaki Goro (30) was the only member of SMAP not in the top 10. In second place for the sixth year running was Fukuyama Masaharu (35). Taking the title as most unpopular man for the fourth year in a row is TV personality Degawa Testuro (40), who recently became engaged to marry a former model and race queen.

1. Kimura Takuya (31, singer/actor)

2. Fukuyama Masaharu (35, singer/actor)

3. Kusanagi Tsuyoshi (29, singer/actor)

4. Katori Shingo (27, singer/actor)

5. Tsumabuki Masaru (23, actor)