Latest News from Japan Zone & Japan Store

Abe Natsumi (photo, 22) is the latest member of Morning Musume to announce her ‘graduation’ from the group. She is scheduled to make her debut in a starring role in a musical next February. Her ‘graduation ceremony’ will be a MM show at Yokohama Arena at the end of January. “Nacchi” is one of the most popular members of the group and is sure to be successful in her own right.

• Following the recent scandal at NTV, the company’s CEO has resigned and other senior execs have volunteered for demotion. The scandal involved a producer bribing viewers taking part in TV ratings surveys. The 41-year old producer has been fired.

• Pin-up idol turned TV personality and girl-next-door Yuka (23) has been awarded the Best Hair award for 2003.

It was revealed yesterday that TV Asahi presenter Tokunaga Yumi (28) and her producer husband divorced in September. Tokunaga was embroiled in an affair scandal this spring with comedian Uchimura Teruyoshi (39, photo, U-chan of the duo U-chan Nan-chan), who has something of a reputation as an “announcer killer.” She quit as presenter (usually called ‘announcer’, or ‘ana’ for short) of the Super Morning show following the scandal. There is also a story circulating of a rape case involving a TV Asahi employee that the company has kept covered up for the last six months. With the impending resignation of some senior NTV officials over a scandal at that station (see Oct. 29 news story), TV is in the news for the wrong reasons these days.

The celebrity couple chosen as the “Partners of the Year” for 2003 are actor and director Okuda Eiji (53) and his wife, actress and essayist Ando Kazu (55), who will celebrate their 25th anniversary next January. The couple received a matching pair of platinum rings. Okuda said it was just as well as he’d lost his wedding ring!

• According to the Wall Street Journal, the TV rights to broadcast MLB games in Japan are to increase threefold next season. The cost this year was about $13 million, and that’s set to jump to $275 million for the next six years, about $46 million a year. This is largely due to the success of such stars as Matsui Hideki ( NY Yankees) and Ichiro (Seattle Mariners).

It was announced today that singer Utada Hikaru (20) is to make her global debut under the name “Utada,” with an all-English album due out next spring. There has been a lot of anticipation about her entry into the US market over the last couple of years. It will actually be a ‘re-entry,’ as she released several singles in the US – where she was born and raised – as stop-asthma-info.com before returning to Japan with her family. She made a huge splash here at the age of 16 with her debut album First Love. In addition to becoming one of Japan’s biggest selling artists since then, she is attending Columbia University and last year she got married and signed with Island/Def Jam Records.

The animated movie Tokyo Godfathers may be the next Japanese feature to gain an Oscar nomination. With this aim in mind, the Kon Satoshi-directed feature is due to go on general release in the US in December, shortly after its release here next month. The movie tells of three homeless people who find an abandoned baby and embark on a search for her parents. Sony Pictures will be hoping for some good publicity and a decent box office return, as recent dud releases have been partly responsible for the parent company being on the skids. Kon previously directed such works as Perfect Blue (1997) and Sennen Joyu (2002), which is another possible Oscar contender.

Tokyo Godfathers site (Japanese)

Nippon TV Chairman and CEO Ujiie Seiichiro (77) has stepped down from his post in an industry self-regulatory body following a scandal that has hit his station. An unnamed “Nitere” producer was found to have bribed viewers in order to manipulate TV ratings. The 41-year old producer found out the identities of several households used by Video Research Ltd. He was able to abuse this information because it is the only TV ratings company in the country. He paid a research company ¥100,000 for information on each household and then money to the viewers to watch specific programs over a period of more than a year. The amount is said to have been ¥5-10,000 per program in the form of gift certificates.

He may not have managed to take the Hanshin Tigers all the way to the Japan Series title, but manager Hoshino Senichi (56) is still in big demand. He formally announced today that he is stepping down as manager due to health reasons, though he helped the Tigers achieve their greatest glory in 18 years in only two seasons at the helm. He expressed his thanks to his players and the fanatical Hanshin fans, to whom he will always be a hero dispite falling short at the final hurdle. It is widely believed that he will return to being an announcer for NHK, where he has spent two 4-year stints in the past. Another strong possibility is for him to make a lot of money from TV commercials.

Controversial Russian pop duo Tatu are back in Japan, this time to promote a concert in December at Tokyo Dome. As expected, there was lots of tabloid press waiting for them at Narita Airport, and of course a few publicity-generating scuffles between paparazzi and the large staff of minders surrounding the two teenage girls. The duo caused a big fuss back in June when they refused to go on air during the live TV Asahi show Music Station. They arrived on time yesterday, however, for a performance at the school festival of Bunkyo Gakuin University in Tokyo. Students were treated to the usual girl-on-girl passion that started all the fuss about the duo.

Kimura Shunsaku (photo, 24), younger brother of SMAP’s Kimura Takuya (30), has opened his own clothes store in Tokyo’s youth mecca of Shibuya. In keeping with the Japanese tendency to turn English into something unintelligible, the store is named ‘Shuip Sympathy’. Shunsaku is well known in his own right – he made the national American football team – but is always in the shadow of his ‘aniki.’

• The Japan Series is down to the wire. The series stands at three games apiece, with all games going with home advantage. Which maybe gives the Daiei Hawks the advantage for tomorrow’s game over sentimental favorites the Hanshin Tigers.

Osaka’s ABC TV came under fire from Hanshin Tigers fans after they cut to commercials during the victory speech being given by manager Hoshino Senichi (photo, 56) on both Wednesday and Thursday nights. Having come to their hallowed ground of Koshien Stadium 2-0 down in the Japan Series and evening up the series at home, Tigers fans might have been expected to be a bit more tolerant. But they’re not known as Japan’s most fanatical supporters for nothing and inundated ABC with hundreds of irate telephone calls. Hoshino has said he’ll retire after the series for health reasons. Hanshin haven’t won a Japan Series since 1985.

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