Monthly Archives: May 2004

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.

The Golden Week holiday has come to an end. Here are some of the stories from the last few days.

• On Monday, a ceremony was held to commemorate the “shichkaiki” (7th anniversary of a death) of X Japan guitarist Hide (photo). The traditional buddhist ceremony is actually held six years after someone’s death. The ceremony was held at the Hide Museum in Yokosuka City, and 18,000 fans waited in a line that stretched 2km to pay their respects. Also in attendance were band members Yoshiki (38) and Pata (38). Notably absent was bandmate Toshi, who has been recently caught up in child abuse accusations.

• Mini Moni played their last gig at the Saitama Super Arena on Monday. Leader Mika (19) is off to study in the US.

• Singer Noguchi Goro (48) and his wife Mitsui Yuri (35) became parents for the second time. Mitsui gave birth to their first boy at a Tokyo hospital on Monday.

• It was revealed this week that comedian Horiuchi Ken (34) of the trio Neptune had emergency surgery in late February following the discovery of testicular cancer. The loss of a testicle is the same fate suffered by fellow funny man Tanaka Yuji (38) of the duo Bakusho Mondai in 2000.

Singer hitomi (28) generated some publicity for her upcoming tour by playing an unannounced “secret live” in the departures lobby of Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Friday. Clad in a bikini top and cowboy hat, she gave a nice Golden Week surprise to about 3,000 people in the airport. (The event brought some good publicity for the airport too, after it had to be closed down on Thursday when a loony drove his car through a security fence, buzzed around the runways and killed himself by diving into Tokyo Bay.) The hitomi tour will be her first in almost two years. It kicks off in Chiba on May 15 and takes in 16 venues nationwide, finishing with Kokaido in Tokyo’s teen mecca of Shibuya in July. hitomi married a design company employee in November 2002 and went “into hiding” for a year and a half.

TV personality Umemiya Anna (31) has denied any plans to remarry. A women’s weekly magazine recently reported on her relationship with “A-san”, a wealthy bachelor who works in the financial sector and has a luxury apartment in the exclusive Roppongi Hills development. The divorcee says that she is looking for someone who will take care not just of her but also her 2-year old daughter Momoka from her all-too-brief marriage. A-san has a reported annual salary of ¥50-60 million – enough to keep the spoilt Anna in the lifestyle to which she is accustomed? Time will tell.