It seems like popular Okinawan duo Kiroro have to do everything together. Vocalist Tamashiro Chiharu (photo right, 28) announced yesterday that she is 3 months pregnant. Both she and the other half of the duo, pianist Kinjou Ayano (27), got married in the spring, and Kinjou announced her pregnancy in May. They will start a tour as a “foursome” on August 13.
• Some good and bad news for TV stations that had high hopes for some recent broadcasts. Fuji TV’s 25-hour TV marathon managed a high “shuukan” rating of 25.4% on Saturday night. The show also got a very respectable 22% for the finale on Sunday evening, when host Shofukutei Tsurubei (53) ended up in tears. At the other end of the scale, even the all-star games seem to be suffering from the declining interest in televised baseball. The two-game series was shown on TV Asahi on Saturday and Sunday. The first game got a poor 11.9% rating, while game 2 did even worse. Its 10.3% was the worst since monitoring began in 1994 and lower than 2001’s 11%, when it was still a three-game series.
• Actress Nakamura Tamao (66) is to undergo surgery to have a polyp removed from her vocal cords. The operation, planned for August, means that she has had to step down from her planned role in a stage show at the Meijiza Theater in September.