Enka singer Mori Shinichi (59) has been trying to make up with composer Kawauchi Kouhan (86) but with no success. Kawauchi is furious with Mori for singing an altered version of his 1971 hit “O-fukuro-san” and has refused to let him perform any of his songs or to even meet with him. Mori and his staff tried to meet with Kawauchi without an appointment at his Tokyo hotel yesterday but were turned away. Mori left a letter and said he would return every day until Kawauchi agreed to meet him. Kawauchi checked out of the hotel last night. (See earlier stories for more details)
• The online music business continues to show solid growth in Japan. Last year’s revenues from music downloads totalled ¥53.4 billion, an increase of 56% over 2005. Of the total, about 90% was downloaded to mobile phones. This was the first time the total exceeded that of CD single sales, which were at ¥50.8 billion, and it is fast catching up on revenues from DVDs and other music video recordings, which were ¥56.8 billion. Excluding download sales, the total revenue from music-related software was &408.4 billion, continuing an 8-year slide from 1999’s high of ¥607.4 billion.