Actress Fujiwara Norika (35) finally announced the date of her wedding to Yoshimoto comedian Jinnai Tomonori (32). The media have been speculating about a date for some time since rumors of a wedding surfaced about a month ago. They held their official engagement ceremony at the Ikuta Jinja shrine in their hometown of Kobe last weekend. That made the shrine the almost automatic venue for the wedding. And indeed, sources close to the couple said yesterday that they will tie the knot there on February 25 (which just happens to be my birthday – a very good sign!). Fujiwara continued to stall on her blog yesterday, saying she herself was waiting for various details to be finalized before making an official announcement. The 1800-year-old Ikuta Jinja can hold about 200 people for a wedding ceremony, and the couple are likely to invite a lot of friends as well as family.
• An NHK director has been arrested for possession of marijuana, the latest of many scandals to hit the public network. Inose Hiroaki (46) was detained by police in the Tokyo district of Shibuya on Monday evening when found in possession of 7.1g of marijuana, which he said was for his own use. NHK say Inose was in charge of educational programming but had been on sick leave since September.It’s Official!