Latest News from Japan Zone & Japan Store

Beautiful young actress Fukiishi Kazue (20) is to be the first woman to play superhero Ultraman, in this summer’s movie “Ultraman Cosmos vs. Ultraman Justice.” There have been many members of the Ultraman family, including one “bi-sexual” in the early 1970s, when both a man and a woman transformed into the hero.

• “Chijo no Hoshi”, the single by Nakajima Miyuki (51) has become a million-seller after 139 straight weeks in the charts. SMAP’s latest single broke that mark in less than a week.

• Okuda Miri (41), who divorced actor Sakai Masaaki two years ago, has remarried. Her husband is a 46-year old sports and fitness advisor.

• NHK and TBS have announced that their live coverage of the opening games of the J-League season will be cancelled if the expected US-led attack on Iraq begins this weekend.

We’ve been seeing a lot of Koizumi Kotaro (24) in the last year and a half. The Prime Minister’s son entered showbusiness in 2001 and has been busy doing TV and commercial work since. Next month he is to get his own weekly show on Fuji TV, tentatively titled “Kotaro ga Yuku” (Kotaro Goes). He will seek out and interview big players in various walks of life. The first ‘target’ is baseball legend and current Daiei Hawks manager Oh Sadaharu.

• Up and coming “visual” rock band Akira were involved in a traffic accident at the weekend. Kimishima Hirotaka (18) was left unconscious and the four other band members slightly injured when their tour van was hit from behind by a refrigerator truck on the Tomei Expressway.

J-pop diva Hamasaki Ayumi was in the spotlight yet again, after making a rare appearance at the Tokyo FM radio studio in the middle of Tokyo’s trendy Shibuya district. The studio is visible to passers-by on the famous Spain-zaka street, and more than 1,000 people mobbed the area for a glimpse of the star. Some female fans were said to be in tears after such a close-up encounter with the aura of their idol.

• The latest in the recent spate of Hollywood remakes of Japanese hit movies is said to be Kurosawa Akira’s “Shichinin no Samurai” (The Seven Samurai). The movie was already the inspiration for 1960’s The Magnificent Seven, but the latest project is said to be happening under the Disney umbrella. Another movie in the works is a version of “Shall We Dance?” with Richard Gere in the lead.

Popular enka singer Itsuki Hiroshi held an extravagant 55th birthday party at the Yokohama Arena on Friday. Actually it was a concert for 12,000 fans, many of whom may well have turned up to see the impressive line up of star guests. These included Morning Musume, Da Pump, veteran actors such as Watari Tetsuya and Matsukata Hiroki, and former sports stars Konishiki and Ochiai Hiromichi.

Two new presenters have been announced for the late-night Fuji TV show “Sport!” Both are recently crowned beauty queens with no TV experience. The Sunday night job will go to Miss Japan 2003 Aizawa Reiko (left, 22), a senior at the Tamagawa University foreign language department. Honda Akiko (19), Miss Rikkyo (Uni.) will take over on Friday nights.

Onuki Ami (29) and her husband, Glay vocalist Teru (31), are the proud parents of a baby girl. Onuki is one half of the pop group Puffy who recently tried their luck with a live tour of the US, to mixed reviews. The couple married in April of last year.

The Gold Disc Award for artist of the year went to Utada Hikaru (20) for the second time. As in 2000, she accepted her prize by video at the awards ceremony, held at the NHK Hall in Shibuya, Tokyo. She joins Chage & Aska, trf and Hamasaki Ayumi as the only double winners. The award is based on sales for the previous year. Utada’s album and singles sales reached well over 6 million copies. She won six awards in all, including three for singles, one for Best Rock and Pop Album and one for Music Video of the Year. The Album of the Year award went to Korean artist BoA.

The king of 90s J-Pop is back in business. This month will see a new album “Level4” by Komuro Tetsuya’s (44) group Globe, featuring his new wife Keiko (30) on vocals, Marc Panther (30) and a new addition, former X-Japan drummer Yoshiki (36). The first single “Get it on Now, feat. Keiko” will be released March 26. Renamed Shinsei Globe, the group will play live for one night only at the Tokyo Dome in July. It will be Yoshiki’s first real live show since X-Japan broke up in 1997.

Former Johnny’s Jimusho actor Maeda Koyo (34) and former idol singer Nakamura Yuma (33) have divorced after five years of marriage. They cited career differences as the reason, but admitted things might have been different if they’d had children.

• Sports writer and former Nihon TV announcer Sekiya Ayako (38) has given birth to her first child.

• Hamasaki Ayumi (24) is to appear in a TV CM for the new Panasonic digital camera Lumix from this weekend. She will also provide the music with her single “Rainbow.”

• Her boyfriend, Nagase Tomoya (left, 24) of the boy band Tokio, is to release his second solo single under the persona of singer-songwriter Sakuraba Yuichiro. He will play his first solo gig at the end of April to mark the single launch.

Popular kabuki actor Nakamura Shido (30) was spotted at the recent Rolling Stones concert with a beautiful woman, and it wasn’t girlfriend Shinohara Tomoe (23). This was despite his recent admission that the two are seriously involved. Shinohara was working abroad at the time. Nakamura’s career is on the up at the moment. He starred in last year’s hit movie “Ping Pong”, and he is currently appearing in Japan’s first ever sitcom, “HR”, with SMAP’s Katori Shingo.

• Speaking of SMAP, sales of their new single “Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana” broke the million mark in less than a week. It is their 35th single and 4th million-seller. Last year, only Hamasaki Ayumi’s “Independent” sold more than a million copies.

• Veteran actor Nagoya Akira (72) has recently undergone surgery for a brain tumor. He was in rehearsals for a stage production of “The Little Match Girl” next month when he was hospitalized.

At the weekend Marion (22), daughter of singer Roseanna (53), made her professional debut as a fashion model for the UK brand Daks. She has been building a career over the last couple of years, doing wedding show and magazine modelling and some TV appearances last year as well as recording a single with her mother. Roseanna and her late husband Demon Hide were a popular folk duo in the 1970s. Hide died of cancer in 1990 at the age of 47.