The latest addition to pop group Morning Musume was announced May 1. Niigata Prefecture native Kusumi Koharu (12) is a 7th grader and was chosen from over 20,000 hopefuls at recent auditions. She will be “presented” to fans at the Momus concert at Nippon Budokan on May 6 and will formally join the group at the Osaka Castle Hall concert on July 10. The Budokan gig will see the “graduation” of Ishikawa Rika.
• Actress Mizuno Maki (photo, 35) has given birth to her first child. She married politician Gotoda Masazumi (35) last year. The bouncing baby boy was born April 30, about two weeks late, in a Tokyo hospital.
• “Astro Kyudan,” a popular baseball manga from the 1970s, is to be made into a drama series on TV Asahi. The late-night, 30-minute show will star Hayashi Tsuyoshi (22) as the team founding member, cleanup hitter and ace pitcher Uno Kyuichi, and ‘Sonny’ Chiba Shinichi (66) as team manager J. Shuuro. The team is made up of nine players all born at 09:09:09 on 9/9/1954 (Showa 29), who take on and beat not only the dominant Yomiuri Giants but also a Major League team.