Actress Shiozawa Toki died of cancer at a Tokyo hospital late Thursday night. She was 79. She had been battling the disease for most of her adult life since she was first discovered to have tongue cancer at the age of 30. She was at the peak of her popularity on the variety show circuit in 1984 when she was found to have breast cancer. She underwent a second mastectomy in 2004. In April 2006 she underwent surgery for the fourth time but the cancer had spread throughout her body. She was released from hospital in November but her health deteriorated again in February and she was re-admitted. She made her movie debut with the major Toei studio shortly after WWII and had her first and only starring role in 1954. With her outlandish hairstyles and glasses and crude humor, she shot to fame 30 years later on the Fuji TV afternoon talk show “Itadakimasu”.
• Romance has blossomed between actress Kimura Yoshino (31) and actor Iseya Yuusuke (30). The pair worked together last September on the upcoming Miike Takashi movie “Sukiyaki Western Jango”. They spent more than a month filming in a remote mountain location in Yamagata Prefecture and started dating after their return to Tokyo. They have recently been spotted shopping together for interior goods. It is the first reported romance for Kimura since her debut in 1996. Iseya was previously linked with actress Hirosue Ryoko in 1999 and with Yoshikawa Hinano in 2003.
• Movie director Kumai Kei (76) was taken to hospital on Friday after a newspaper delivery man discovered him unconscious outside his Tokyo home. He recovered consciousness later and is said to have suffered a stroke.