Kajiwara Yuta (photo right, 23) of the manzai comedy duo King Kong, has divorced after just 13 months of marriage, it was announced by the Yoshimoto agency. He met his wife early last year while on a break from work due to stress. In October of last year, Kajiwara was caught leaving a hotel with pin-up girl Fujikawa Nozomi (21). He and his partner Nishino Akihiro (23) formed the duo in 1999 and have become rising stars over the last couple of years.
• Rakugo comedian Katsura Kinshi (53) has made good on his promise to marry if the Hanshin Tigers won the Central league last season. It was announced yesterday that he and Shimoma Asami (29) held a wedding ceremony on her birthday last week. She is four months pregnant, while Katsura has two children in their 20s from a previous marriage.
Recently divorced actress Sugimoto Aya (35) has released a new collection of essays with a title that translates as “Orgasm Life: My Declaration of Emancipation”. She also announced that she will soon publish her third erotic novel, “Lost Virgin”, whose storyline of a divorced actress sounds all too familiar. The self-confessed sex fiend has built a reputation as a seductress and woman with a healthy “appetite”. She says the new book is based 80% on her own experiences.
22 years after they broke up, 
Takizawa Hideaki (22), formerly of pop group 
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.
J-pop queen of the 1990s 
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 
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.
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.
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.