Dentist turned singer songwriter Toda Kohei (27) revealed in a recent interview that he is actually the younger brother of popular actress Toda Naho (32). He says that while she is his number one fan, she was also the one most strongly opposed to his career switch. Active in music from his high school days, he was in his fourth year of dentistry school when he first told his family of his dream to be a professional musician. They were strongly against the idea and managed to persuade him to finish school and qualify as a dentist. He did so but quit after just one month at a Tokyo dental clinic. It took a further two years of performing on the streets and in the live houses of Tokyo before he finally made his recording debut in July. His latest song, “Yo ni Mukau” has been chosen as the theme for Fuji TV’s revamped Friday night entertainment show “Kinyou Presteji”, starting this week. The same day, he will also make his first TV appearance, on “Tokyo Beat” on the TV Asahi network. Kohei includes Led Zeppelin, Blur and Inoue Yosui among his favorite artists. Toda Naho has long been romantically linked with New York Yankees star Matsui Hideki. A second sister, Toda Maiko, had a brief career as an actress but is now studying to become…a dentist!
• Comedian Yamamoto Keiichi (38) seems to have a get out of jail card. The Hakodate District Court yesterday decided to drop its prosecution following his alleged rape of a 17-year old girl in the city in July. Yamamoto and the girl are said to have reached a settlement out of court. The former member of the duo Gokuraku Tombo was dropped by the Yoshimoto Kogyo agency the day after the incident and is unlikely to be able to relaunch his showbiz career.