Hajime Chitose (26), the singer with the “voice in a million,” has given birth to her first child. She announced Sunday on her web site that she’d had a baby girl on Thursday of last week. She was pregnant when she married a restaurateur in January 2004, but she suffered a miscarriage shortly afterwards. She decided to take time off work and had an uncomplicated pregnancy this time around. She plans to resume her career this summer.
• NHK chairman Ebisawa Katsuji is set to announce his resignation before the end of his third term, rather than in March as he suggested earlier. He will make the anouncement at an executive meeting this afternoon. The public braodcaster has been plagued by scandals and viewer revolt for the last year.
• Singers Banba Hirofumi (54) and Hirayama Miki (55) have divorced after 27 years of marriage. Both were stars of the “new music” scene when the married in 1977 and have remained well known in the Kansai region. The main cause of the split is said to be Banaba’s affair with another woman last year.