Monthly Archives: June 2006

The latest collaboration by rock band Glay will feature Himuro Kyosuke (45). The former Boøwy vocalist met Glay leader and guitarist Takuro (35) on a radio show last year and the band went to visit him at his home in Los Angeles earlier this year. The resulting single “Answer”, Himuro’s first collaborative project, goes on sale August 2 and the artists will perform together at the Ajinomoto Stadium on August 5 & 6. Last year Glay teamed up with vocal/dance unit Exile and released one of the year’s biggest hits in “Scream”. It’s been more than two years since they put out an original album, and their first ‘solo’ single since December 2004, “G4”, is scheduled for release mid-July. Boøwy were one of the biggest Japanese bands of the late 80s and early 90s. It also featured legendary guitarist Hotei Tomoyasu, whose split with Himuro led to the end of the band.

• Comedienne Aoki Sayaka (33) has been chosen for this year’s “Best Swimmer Award”. Though she has released a best-selling book of nude photos, she is not the most shapely of celebrities. Her choice was due to her appearances on the TV Asahi variety show “Q-sama!!” in which she and other celebrities take part in pretty competitive swimming races. Award recipients usually turn up for the ceremony in formal wear but Aoki was true to form, arriving in a swimsuit and cap. Designed for purely PR purposes, the award is one of many handed out every year to celebrities. The list includes Best Jeanist, Best Leatherist and Megane Best Dresser, for the person who looks best in glasses, as well as more traditional titles such as Best Couple or Best Father. With Sunday being Father’s Day, the latter will no doubt be announced this weekend.

Popular all-rounder Wentz Eiji (20) is to make his “world” debut as a model. A regular on the variety show circuit and local fashion magazines, over the last year he has found a new level of success as one half of the acoustic pop duo WaT. Also an actor, he was recently at the Cannes Film Festival where he caught the eye of an editor from a top French fashion magazine. Wentz will appear in the October issue of the magazine Jalouse. He made his modelling debut at the age of four and later became a regular on an NHK kid’s show. At the age of nine, he appeared on the famous New Year spectacle “Kohaku Uta Gassen” as a backing dancer for pop starlet Moritaka Chisato. He formed WaT with Koike Teppei in 2002, and the duo performed on the streets of Tokyo for three years before landing a recording contract with a major label. They have won two major newcomer awards this year. Though he is the second son of a Japanese mother and German-American father, he’s got a lot of mileage from the fact that he’s the only one in the family who has little to no English ability.

• The pop artist most young people would like to have perform at their wedding is Fukuyama Masaharu. He was followed in a recent survey by rock group Mr. Children and pop duo Dreams Come True, a particularly popular choice among females. The fourth most popular choice is Amuro Namie and crooner Hirai Ken is fifth. A bit quiet for the last couple of years, singer/actor Fukuyama’s continued appeal was confirmed when his recently released new single “Milk Tea” entered the Oricon charts at No.1.

Japan’s No.1 pop group are going back on the road again. And when the boys of SMAP go on tour, it’s a very big deal. Starting at the Sapporo Dome on July 30, they’ll perform 21 shows at eight major venues across the country, playing to over a million adoring fans in all. Almost half that number will be attending the eight shows planned for three venues in the Tokyo metropolitan area – National Stadium and Tokyo Dome in the capital and Nissan Stadium in Yokohama. One of the biggest tours ever planned in Japan, it’s sure to make the five-member band’s new album – due for release in July – one of their best sellers yet and extend their record streak of consecutive No.1 hits.

• The NHK broadcast of Japan’s opening game at the World Cup reached a peak audience rating of 61.2%. The average rating for the 3-1 defeat to Australia was 49%, though with the game also shown on NHK’s satellite channels and at stadiums and sports bars across the country, the actual numbers were quite a bit higher. The 49% figure is higher than the 43.4% for the World baseball Classic final win over Cuba in March but lower than figures from the last two World Cups. Over 10 million households in the Kanto region were tuned in to the event despite the 10pm kickoff time. As the game entered the second half with Japan leading, fans probably expected to head to bed in a jubilant mood. But three goals conceded in quick succession left many supporters facing a depressing trip home.

• Former Fuji TV announcer Ariga Satsuki (40) and Wada Kei (53), a commentator with the network, have ended their 4-year marriage. It was revealed yesterday that the couple filed for divorce in mid-May. Ariga retains custody of their 3-year-old daughter.

• Singer Hirahara Ayaka (22) finished off her national tour yesterday with a show at the Nippon Budokan. She performed her smash hit debut song “Jupiter” accompanied by a 24-piece orchestra that included her father, Hirahara Makoto (54), on sax. She also gave the 8,000 fans their first chance to hear her upcoming double-A side single “Voyagers/Kokoro”, due for release on July 19.

Some of the best tickets for Madonna’s shows here in September will be sold on an online auction, Ticket Pia announced yesterday. The Queen of Pop will be playing in Japan for the first time in 13 years with her “Confessions” tour, and has shows set for Osaka Dome (Sept. 16) and Tokyo Dome (Sept. 20). Of the 3,000 Premier seats closest to the stage for each show, 500 will be put up for auction as “platinum tickets” between July 9-18. The face value of the tickets is ¥50,000. Pair tickets for shows in the U.S. have already fetched over $5,000 in auctions, and similar prices can be expected here. The measure is also partly an effort to deal with “dafuya” or yakuza-connected ticket scalpers, always a problem for popular shows.

• The second album from Def Tech has repeated the accomplishment of last year’s eponymous debut. “Catch the Wave”, released on April 26, has managed to stay in the charts and finally broke through the one-million barrier this week. The feat was achieved just over a year since “Def Tech” became just the second indies album to sell a million copies (the first was Mongol800’s “Message” in 2002). “Catch the Wave” is the second album this year to go quadruple-platinum, after Koda Kumi’s hits collection “Best – Second Session”. In Japan, the threshold for platinum status is 250,000 copies, compared to 1 million for the U.S.

• Rock group B’z have extended their own record with their 42th single, “Splash”. Needless to say it entered the Oricon charts at No.1, the 38th time in a row they’ve done it. The record stretches back to their 5th release, “Taiyo no Komachi Angel” in June 1990. Their 4th single, “Be There” released in May 1990, made the Top 10. So their string of consecutive Top 10 hits is now at 39, putting them in a tie for first place with SMAP.

Seiko’s back on the road. Matsuda Seiko, the perennial “burikko” idol, is still on top of her game at 44. Sporting the shortest possible shocking pink miniskirt, she performed 25 songs – one for every year that she’s been in showbiz – in a two-and-a-half hour set for 15,000 fans at the Saitama Super Arena on Saturday. The show kicks off her annual summer tour of the country, which this year takes in 8 cities across Japan. She wore five different outfits on Saturday, including one based on the popular sailor uniform worn by many of Japan’s schoolgirls that just reinforced Seiko’s image as the pop idol who refuses to act her age. Also in attendance was Seiko’s daughter Sayaka (19), whose brief entertainment career is still on hold. She and her mother had a spat last year, with Sayaka claiming that she wanted to break away from her mother’s control, and this was the the most public show yet that they have made up.

• Comedian Ueda Shinya (36) is a father. One half of the popular duo Cream Stew, he revealed on the NTV talk show “Oshare-ism” last night that his wife gave birth to their first child, a baby girl, on June 7. He and his wife, both of whom are from Kumamoto Prefecture, married in 2004 after a 15-year relationship. Ueda’s comic partner Arita Teppei is known as one of showbiz’s more prolific playboys.

• Ditzy talento Yamaguchi Moe (29) and company president Ozeki Shigeo (31) finally held their wedding ceremony and reception at a Tokyo hotel yesterday. The couple registered their marriage last November. Ozeki is CEO of the apparel company Zeel.

Little known actor Ishibashi Masataka (27) is staying mum on his romantic relationship with divorcee singer Koyanagi Rumiko (photo, 53). Yesterday he made his first public appearance, at a PR event for the German fountain pen maker Mont Blanc, since news of the relationship broke. He refused to give a comment to the gathered reporters. Koyanagi had a very public and messy divorce from her former backing dancer, Osumi Kenya (40), in 2000 after the press got word of his extra-marital affairs. The former Takarazuka star has a clear preference for younger men. She married Osumi in 1989, when he was 23 and she was still in her 30s and looking good. Even now in her 50s she does still have the legs of a Japanese Tina Turner, but Ishibashi is generally thought to be looking for a bit of free publicity.

• Comedian Matsumoto Kouta (27) of the popular duo Regular is set to get married at the end of the month. He will marry Kitamura Megumi (29) – described as a “home helper” – to whom he proposed on stage at the end of May. Regular are best known for their lively “Aru Aru Tankentai” routine.

• Popular Korean group Shinhwa performed their first song in Japanese for fans at three events across the country yesterday. Split into three pairs, they attended events in Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka. “Bokura no Kokoro ni wa Taiyo ga Aru” (The Sun is in Our Hearts) will be released on June 14. They also predicted a successful World Cup for the South Korean team. The group are in the middle of a 5-nation Asian tour. They will play the Nippon Budokan on September 24 and Osaka Castle Hall on the 26th.

Guys, you still have a chance. Actress Tokiwa Takako (34) says she has no plans to get married. She appeared yesterday at a PR event for the movie “Fudeko, Sono Ai”, a biopic about the famous Meiji Period educator Ishii Fudeko (1865-1944). Filming will take place in Okayama Prefecture in July and August and the film is set to open in November. In the movie Ishii marries twice but when asked if she had any such plans in real life, Tokiwa answered, “I guess it’s true what they say that wearing a wedding dress will mean you get married later. I haven’t considered marriage at all.” Japan Zone reported on her romance with actor Nagatsuka Keishi (30) last August, but things don’t seem to have become more serious between them yet. Ishii was the first person to set up an educational establishment for the disabled in Japan. A member of a politically influential family at a time of great change in Japan, she was the first Japanese woman to study abroad following the Meiji Restoration.

• Popular comedian Razor Ramon HG (30) is to appear in his first overseas Yoshimoto Kogyo production. Hard Gay, as he is best known, will take part in the event “Suggoi Yoshimoto Shinkigeki, L.A. & Japan Tour” on July 1 at the famous Kodak Theater in Hollywood, home of the annual Academy Awards. Yoshimoto comedians have toured in the U.S., U.K. and Asia before, but the last event was in Shanghai in 2002. Other big names set to appear include Imada Koji (40), Higashino Koji (38), and Fuji Takashi (34). Not on the biull this time is Kazama Kampei (56), whose lewd behavior on previous tours drew criticism. Hard Gay is likely to take the reins in that department and should turn a few heads with his black leather outfit and hip thrusts.

Could they big the next big showbiz couple? Media mouths are watering at the prospect of romance between singer Gackt (age unknown) and actress Yonekura Ryoko (30). The pair appeared together yesterday in Tokyo at a PR event for the new TV commercial by Takano Yuri Beauty Clinic. Takano herself pushed the issue several times, asking the pair whether there was any romance between them. This was no doubt calculated to create more buzz about the commercial, and they played along by being as vague as possible. Dressed in matching white outfits, they arrived arm in arm and admitted that they were, at the very least, good friends who sometimes go out for dinner together. They also co-starred in last year’s commercial, which featured Yonekura in a wedding dress. Following her breakup with kabuki actor Ichikawa Ebizo (28) last spring, the press have been speculating about who the next lucky guy will be. Gackt, who made his name as the vocalist of a “visual-kei” rock band, is more than a match for her in terms of looks and star status. But his very successful solo career has been as much about style as substance, and romance might hurt his usual androgynous and mysterious image.

• Actor Yanagiba Toshiro (45) is Japan’s ideal showbiz Dad. The popular actor and former singer was chosen in the entertainment category of this year’s “Best Father Yellow Ribbon Awards”, held yesterday at a Tokyo hotel. Yanagiba brought his wife and 6-year old daughter to the award ceremony. He recently moved the family to his hometown in Akita Prefecture for the sake of his daughter, who just started elementary school. He said, “The thing I enjoy most is talking with my daughter as we take a bath together”, referring to a common practice in Japan.

• The current trend in TV dramas about flight attendants seems to be continuing. Mizuki Arisa (29) will play one for the first time in the new NTV series “CA to O-Yobi!” (Call Me a Cabin Attendant!), set to air on Wednesday nights from next month. Filming began in Okinawa yesterday, with former models Mizuki, Karina (22) and Nishida Naomi (34) all in bathing suits for their first scene. The Japanese often refer to flight attendants as “succhi”, derived from the Japanese pronunciation of the word stewardess.

As expected, the debut solo single by Yamashita Tomohisa (photo, 21) has gone straight to No.1 in the Oricon chart. “Daite Senorita” is the theme of the TBS drama “Kurosagi”, in which he stars, and is the best-selling single by a solo male artist since Kuwata Keisuke’s “Shiroi Koibito-tachi” in 2001. Yamashita has had six chart toppers as a member of the Johnny’s Jimusho unit NEWS, and also released one of the biggest singles of the last six months, “Seishun Amigo”, as one half of the duo Shuji & Akira with KAT-TUN’s Kamenashi Kazuya (20). The latest single has already sold over 700,000 copies since it went on sale May 31. Yamashita also features in the new TV commercial for major beauty clinic chain TBC, which shows the singer in a shower scene.

• Oricon this week also released the overall rankings for the first half of this year. KAT-TUN’s “Real Face” is the only million seller of the year so far, followed by “Konayuki” by Remioromen (which only reached No.2 in the chart), “Seishun Amigo”, “Tada…Aitakute” by Exile, and “Supernova/Karuma” by Bump of Chicken. SMAP also have a couple of singles in the Top 10.

• Also topping the charts is the debut single from jealkb, the “visual-kei” rock band led by comedian Tamura Atsushi. “Metronome” has sold only a few thousand copies and is at No.63 in the overall Oricon chart, but that’s enough to put it on top of the indie rankings. Five of the seven band members are with Yoshimoto Kogyo, the agency that represents most of Japan’s top comedy acts. But Atsushi, best known as one half of London Boots, is clearly taking the project seriously. Using the stage name haderu, he wrote the music and lyrics for the new single and the band have a very professional website (http://jealkb.jp/). They also have top-notch support, including L’Arc en Ciel’s sleeve designer, makeup artist of the late X Japan guitarist Hide, and famous visual-kei photographer Tanaka Kazuko.

• Former Morning Musume member Yaguchi Mari (23) has broken up with actor Oguri Shun (23), according to this week’s issue of “Josei Jishin” magazine. Her agency confirmed that the two have not seen each other since April.

AKB48 may be the pop group of the moment. Yesterday all 37 members of the idol group appeared in Akihabara, the spiritual home of Japan’s geek culture and the place where offshoots like maid cafes and the concept of “moe” were born. They performed 12 songs including their second single “Skirt, Hirari”, wearing mini-skirts which they duly flashed to reveal their “bloomers” underneath. All pure schoolboy fantasy stuff that had the 1,000 fans screaming for more. The group – the AKB is an abbreviation of Akihabara – were formed in 2005 as two troupes of 24 members, though the numbers have dropped to 20 and 17. One troupe performs every day at a special theater in the district nicknamed “Electric Town”. With tickets priced at ¥1,000, the marketing concept is to have a group that fans can afford to “meet” every day. The oldest member is 22 and most are in their mid-teens. It remains to be seen whether AKB48 can have the broad appeal or staying power to become the new Morning Musume.

• Singer/songwriter Otsuka Ai (23) is making her move to the big screen. She is currently in New York filming scenes for the movie version of “Tokyo Friends”. It follows on from the DVD drama series in which she starred with model/actor Eita and actresses Kobayashi Mao, Matsumoto Rio and Maki Yoko, all beautiful people and all 23 years old. The DVD drama plot revolved around Otsuka’s character and her move to Tokyo to form a band. Eita’s character was taken on as the vocalist but he diappeared. The movie finds him living in the Big Apple where Otsuka tracks him down. The movie is due for release in August.

• Fans of Carlos Santana will probably already know of the legendary album “Lotus”, recorded live during two concerts in Osaka in 1974. The album captured Santana during the heart of their jazz-rock period and is considered one of the best live albums ever recorded. The huge 11-part album sleeve, designed by Yokoo Tadanori (69), is expected to enter the Guinness Book of World Records this month as the biggest ever. It was also hugely exensive to produce, with Japan at the time suffering from high paper prices resulting from the “oil shock”. The album is to be re-released this week on CD, with a scaled-down version of the original sleeve.