New teen singing sensation Tamaki Nami (15) played her first live concert in Tokyo yesterday. She performed 20 songs at the NHK Hall in Shibuya before 3,700 fans to start a brief tour. At the end of this month, she heads off to events to promote Asian entertainment in Los Angeles and San Jose. She will then take dance and voice lessons – and hopefully a trip to Disneyland – for two weeks before returning to Japan. Tamaki turned a lot of heads in the music business last year when she sold 300,000 copies of her debut single “Believe”, also used as the opening theme of the popular anime Gundam Seed.
• Fujioka Hiroshi (58), the original Gamen Raida (Masked Rider), said at a talk event yesterday that he wants to make a comeback as the motorcycle-riding superhero. Usually such statements are to generate publicity for a real project, but it seems there are currently no plans for the self-proclaimed modern “samurai” to revive his 1971-73 role as Gamen Raida #1. These days, the series is a launching pad for the careers of young “ikemen” – good-looking actors who are as popular with mothers as they are among the target audience of young boys.