Fans of popular Fuji TV “pheremone announcer” Chino Shio (28) got some bad news this week – on October 1, “Chinopan” got engaged to a very eligible bachelor. The lucky guy is the 38-year old grandson of former prime minister Fukuda Takeo. An employee of a foreign securities firm, the former Keio University football star has a reported annual salary of over ¥50 million. The couple met at a dinner party two years ago and have been going out since. Chino joined Fuji TV in April, 2000 and is just one of the network’s many popular female announcers to find a rich and/or famous husband. She learned classic ballet for many years and her “charm point” is her long legs.
• Journalist and TV presenter Torigoe Shuntaro (65) has been hospitalized with rectal cancer. He made the announcement by telephone on the TV Asahi live morning show “Super Morning,” on which he’s a regular guest. He said he hadn’t been too shocked by the discovery during a routine checkup, citing the example of actor Watari Tetsuya (63), who successfully fought the same disease in the early 1990s and still has a busy career. Displaying his usual fighting spirit, Torigoe hopes to be back on the show by October 24.