Latest News from Japan Zone & Japan Store

TV personality and former “idol” singer Hayami Yu (38) has released a CD of English songs with her daughter, who is all of two years old! Hayami and her eldest daughter Alisa sing 24 children’s songs on “Let’s Sing Together,” which was also produced by “mama”. Most are classics like the “ABC Song” and “Humpty Dumpty” but there are also 4 original tracks, including “Alisa’s Voice.” Alisa also has a one-year old sister Karen. Hayami spent most of her childhood in the US and speaks fluent English.

• Impressionist Kurita Kanichi (46), known as Kurikan, has married actress Osawa Sayaka (31). The couple registered their marriage on March 3 but are still living separately and have not made plans for a ceremony. Kurita was divorced in January of last year.

Baseball legend Nagasima Shigeo (68) was hospitalized yesterday for a stroke. The man they call “Mister”, revered for his cavalier play in the golden era of the Yomiuri Giants in the 1960s and 70s, recently guided the Japanese Olympic team to qualification for this year’s games in Athens. His son, former baseball player and now a TV personality, Nagashima Kazushige said, “Now we leave everything to the doctors and wait for my father’s recovery.”

Godzilla is to make his last big screen appearance at the end of this year, his 50th anniversary. “Godzilla – Final Wars”, to be directed by Kitamura Ryuhei, will be the 28th movie in a series spanning the entire postwar period. Moviemaker Toho Co. announced the giant lizard’s imminent demise on Tuesday. The movie will feature a whopping ten other infamous monsters, in an effort to boost sagging fan numbers. The last two Godzilla films have been disappointing, perhaps a side-efect of the Hollywood-ization of one of Japan’s most revered characters in 1998.

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Actor Watanabe Ken (44) didn’t manage to win an Oscar, but he was thrilled just to have been the first Japanese nominated in 37 years, for his role in “The Last Samurai.” And he vowed that the Academy Awards hadn’t seen the last of him. “To be honest, I wanted the award,” he said after the ceremony. “I wanted to have a chance to stand on that stage and thank everyone in Japanese theater and movies.” The other Japanese nominee that didn’t quite make it was Yamada Yoji’s movie “Tasogare Seibei” (The Twilight Samurai) in the Best Foreign Feature category.

According to the latest edition of Flash magazine, former Morning Musume member Ichii Sayaka (20) is five months pregnant and on the verge of getting married. The couple were spotted moving to Ichii’s family home. Ichii left the mega-popular group in May 2000 and formed the trio Ichii Sayaka and Cubic Cross. Not one to avoid mixing business with pleasure, she is now hooked up with her guitarist, Yoshizawa Naoki (28). She officially retired from the music business last November.

Actress Washio Isako (35) has given birth to her second child. She and actor Nakamura Toru (38) already have a five-year old daughter. Nakamura is currently in rehearsals for a stage production to start next month. Washio regularly appears in TV commercials and magazines and plans to continue her career.

• Kabuki actor Ichikawa Ennosuke (64) has had to drop out of an Osaka production due to start next week for medical reasons. His part will be taken by Ichikawa Danjiro (35). Ennosuke was diagnosed late last year with a brain aneurism during a run at a Fukuoka theater and hospitalized for a month.

“Innocence,” the new animated feature by director Oshii Mamoru, is to go on general release in the US later this year. The film is set to open in Japan on March 6th and in the autumn in ten US cities including New York. Oshii is best known for the 1995 classic “Ghost in the Shell”. The new movie deals with a similar SciFi theme – how people interact with robots and cyborgs. There is also the possibility that the movie will be entered in the competition section of this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Oscar-nominated actor Watanabe Ken (44) is to play a villian in the 5th Batman movie. Provisionally titled Batman: Intimidation, it will star Christian Bale as the masked avenger, Michael Caine as his butler and Watanabe as Ra’s Al-Ghul, the immortal head of an international crime syndicate. The movie is to be directed Christopher Nolan, the man behind the excellent “Memento.” Production is set to begin in London next month. Watanabe is waiting to see if he can clinch the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in “The Last Samurai.” Winners will be announced on Monday morning, Japan time.

Popular young actress Yuka (23) was recently photographed by gossip magazine Friday out for a romantic drive with equally popular young actor Tsumabuki Satoshi (23). The pair, who are both with the big Hori Pro talent agency, have been reported out at restaurants and cafes together, though a romance has yet to be acknowledged. Yuka has previously been romantically linked with V6 popster Okada Junichi (23) and Matsumoto Hitoshi (40) of the comedy duo Downtown.

Actress Mizuno Maki (33), once chosen in a poll as the woman men most want to marry, is engaged to lawmaker Gotoda Masazumi (34). The couple have known each other since they were university students but it was only six months ago that Mizuno broke up with an advertising executive she had been expected to marry. Her image as the ideal wife is often used in TV commercials, and was only enhanced when she started going to a Tokyo cookery school in 2001. Her agency say she is scheduled to work through this year and a wedding date has yet to be decided.