It seems that Kanda Uno (31) is finally about to tie the knot. The media have been hounding her for years about her marriage intentions with a string of boyfriends, but the former ballet dancer has always been coy. The daughter of a bureaucrat, she has long had the reputation as being an expensive girlfriend who enjoys the high life, and so it’s only fitting that her latest partner is extremely wealthy. Nishimura Takuro (36) is the CEO of the Nittaku group of leisure companies that includes pachinko and real estate businesses and has annual sales of over ¥200 billion. Kanda herself has proven to be a shrewd businesswoman, milking her celebrity for all its worth in starting up her own fashion business. She built a ¥500 million home in Tokyo on her earnings from an original pantyhose line. She recently put on a fashion show her range of wedding dresses and no doubt will soon be wearing one of her own designs up the aisle. She is scheduled to give a press conference at a fashionable Italian restaurant in Akasaka on November 13 and, as Kanda’s and Nishimura’s families recently met formally at a Tokyo hotel, an official wedding announcement is a given. Sources say that, unlike with many celebrity wedding announcements (including Kanada’s good friend Umemiya Anna, now divorced) no babies are on the way yet. As Kanda has another big project keeping her busy till the end of the year, a wedding ceremony next spring – possibly on her birthday on March 28 – is most likely.
• Murata Koichi, a leading illustrator with Studio Ghibli, died at a Mitaka hospital on November 7. He was 67. Real name Kiyo Teru and from Niigata prefecture, he worked on many anime projects with directors Miyazaki Hayao and Takahata Isao.