Monthly Archives: June 2005

Daishi (29, real name Kajinaga Daishi), vocalist of popular “visual kei” rock band Psycho le Cemu, has been arrested on drug possession charges. According to police in Kanagawa Prefecture, Daishi was arrested June 2 after receiving a report at the end of May that he was buying stimulants. He has denied ever using drugs. Psycho- formed in 1999 and released the first of seven major-label singles in 2002. Though dressing up is all part and parcel of being a “visual kei” band, and Psycho- have one of the more outlandish looks, Daishi looks almost normal in comparison. He was in the middle of a solo tour at the time of his arrest and a concert planned for today has been cancelled. Release of a DVD, due for June 22, has been postponed.

• A planned pre-release event for the upcoming Steven Spielberg-Tom Cruise blockbuster “War of the Worlds” has been cancelled. The world’s-first screening, planned for June 13 at the Nippon Budokan, was cancelled by distributors UIP due to concerns about videotaped copies leaking out on the Internet prior to its worldwide opening on June 29, as happened with the latest Star Wars release. Both Spielberg and Cruise were slated to appear at the event along with 7,000 lucky applicants to a magazine contest. Instead, they will both attend an arena event on the 13th at the trendy Roppongi Hills.

• Singer-songwriter Oda Kazumasa (57) started a national tour in Shizuoka yesterday. With 41 arena shows and a total of 290,000 seats, it’s a record-breaking tour for an over-50 solo artist. But Oda’s powerful performance belies his age, as he runs up 500m during the course of a single song.

SMAP announced yesterday that they are to go on a 5-city tour from July 30, their first nationwide tour in two years. They will play 21 shows at 7 venues, including the National Stadium in Tokyo. Yoshida Takuro, The Alfee and others performed at a concert there in 1985, and the stadium welcomed the Three Tenors in 1996. But this is the first time that a single group will perform at the venue, built for the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 and these days better known for hosting the national soccer team. As the name SMAP comes from “Sports Music Assemble People,” the group are selling the stadium shows as a return to their roots. They’ll kick off the tour at Sapporo Dome and finish at Tokyo Dome. They will also play four straight nights at the Yahoo! Dome in Fukuoka and Nagoya Dome, both historic firsts for the venues. The tour will also coincide with a new album, currently in production.

• Popular talento and model Yamada Yu (photo, 20) has ended her romance with actor Ito Hideaki (29), according to this week’s edition of Friday magazine. The two had been seen together a lot last month, visiting each other’s homes in Tokyo. The gorgeous Yamada is one of the most visible faces in the media these days, promoting a wide variety of products from cosmetics to Vodafone. The dashing Ito has been romantically linked to such celebs as actress Mizuno Miki and Fuji TV announcer Nakano Minako.

Heavy metal band Seikima II are to make a comeback, six year’s after they broke up on New Year’s Eve 1999. The band’s name is a pun on the expression “end of the century” (seikimatsu), so the break up and it’s timing were almost unavoidable. But vocalist His Excellency Demon Kogure (photo, 42 – though his “official birthdate is 98038 B.C.) remains popular and still always wears his trademark elaborate stage makeup. He has released three solo albums and has a successful career as a variety show guest and sumo commentator. The band plan to launch a “black mass” national tour in the autumn, as this year marks their 20th anniversary (on earth, that is). Demon is to announce more details on his live radio show on June 6 (6/6). Seikima II were the first (and perhaps only) heavy metal band to appear on Kohaku, the New Year’s Eve song spectacle on ever-so-respectable NHK.

• Manga artist Aoyama Goshou (41), who created the popular “Meitantei Conan” character, has married voice actress Takayama Minami (41). The pair tied the knot on May 5, Takayama’s birthday, according to this week’s Josei Seven weekly magazine. Aoyama has been drawing the Conan character for over ten years since it first appeared in the weekly Shonen Sunday manga in 1994. He is one of the highest earning managa artists and has been the 5th-highest taxpayer in the literary world for the last two years, paying almost ¥140 million in income taxes last year. Takayama narrates the lead character’s voice in the weekly NTV anime version of Conan on Monday evenings.

Sumo elder Futagoyama Oyakata died of cancer on Monday at the age of 55. The father of two of the most popular sumo wrestlers of modern times, Takanohana (photo) and his elder brother Wakanohana, died of oral cancer after a long period at a Tokyo hospital. His funeral will be held tomorrow and the Japan Sumo Association will hold a memorial service at the Kokugikan in Ryogoku, where all Tokyo tournaments are held. A popular ozeki (champion) in his heyday, he fought under the name Takanohana, and had a stellar career record despite being small for a rikishi (wrestler). He was perhaps even more successful as a coach, as both his sons reached Yokozuna (Grand Champion), the highest rank in sumo. Wakanohana, a sports commentator since his retirement several years ago, spoke of his father’s love, often expressed as strictness and anger as he taught the “gentler” of his two sons the fighting art. Takanohana, the better wrestler who won 22 tournaments to become the dominant wrestler of the 1990s, said he was having rtrouble accepting his father’s death. The first time he saw his father’s tears was when he became a sumo pro at the age of 15. He promised never to cry himself until his father’s death. He took over as stablemaster from his father following his retirement in 2003.