Monthly Archives: October 2003

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.

Japanese baseball

Singer Crystal Kay (photo, 17) is to make her ‘world debut.’ The ten tracks on her upcoming eponymous album are all in English. It will go on sale in Asia next month and later in the US and Europe. The teenager, who has an American father and Korean mother, was born in Yokohama and is currently attending the American International School in Tokyo. She is scheduled to sing the US national anthem at the NBA game to be held at the Saitama Arena on November 1.

• Kurosawa Yuu (21), grand-daughter of the late Kurosawa Akira, has given birth to her second child. She is married to Sophia vocalist Matsuoka Mitsuru (32). Her parents, movie producer Kurosawa Hisao (57) and TV personality Hayashi Hiroko (44), divorced in July.

Actress Fujiwara Norika (32) has a new love in her life. She broke up with actor Kato Masaya (40) earlier this year and is now seeing Skoop On Somebody vocalist Take (34). The two have been friends since the mid-1990s but their relationship changed after Take divorced at the beginning of this year. Norika and Kato split up this spring after four years, reportedly due to Kato working long-term in Los Angeles. Take has a lot in common with his predecessor, being tall, handsome and, like Norika, a native of the Kansai region.

Chiba Shinichi (64), better known as action star Sonny Chiba, is enjoying something of a revival in his home country. He appears in the new Quentin Tarrantino film “Kill Bill” and has been busy doing TV appearances to promote the movie. The director and star Uma Thurman have also been in town. Chiba is a relative unknown for younger Japanese, though he was a peer of Bruce Lee and a pioneer in Hollywood martial arts movies way before Jet Lee or even Jackie Chan. Tarantino has called him “the greatest actor to ever work in martial arts films!” Sanada Hiroyuki, one of Japan’s most talented movie stars, got his start as a protege of Chiba.