Members of popular Johnny’s Jimusho boy band NEWS announced yesterday that the group are scheduled to perform their first overseas concerts. They will play two shows at the Taipei Arena in Taiwan on October 6-7. The announcement came from two members of the group, the “TegoMasu” duo of Tegoshi Yuya (19) and Masuda Takuhisa (20), who were presenters on Taiwan’s biggest music awards show and played a surprise 3-song show yesterday at the Taipei youth mecca of Ximending. About 1,000 fans turned out to meet the pop duo at the airport last Friday, an indication of their solid fan base on the island. NEWS reached No.1 on the Taiwanese chart with their album “Touch” in 2005, and in April they topped the charts again with their single “Hoshi wo Mezashite”.
• Yesterday an NTV production director was arrested for drug use. Saegusa Mikinao (33) was detained at the weekend at the Shibuya police station on suspicion of using amphetamines. He was caught shoplifting on Saturday evening and a urine test turned up traces of the drug. As always seems to be reported in these cases, the news included a statement from the suspect saying “I bought the drugs from a foreigner.” It is the third criminal case this year involving an NTV employee.
• Murakami Tetsuya (36), the sunglass-wearing leader of the 5-member vocal group Gospellers, revealed on their official website yesterday that he is married. He said he and his wife held a wedding ceremony at the Asakusa Jinja shrine on June 15.
• TBS announcer Aoki Yuko (24) admitted on the live “Sunday Japon” yesterday that she is dating a former assistant director on the show. The two were photographed by one of the weekly gossip magazines, and the show’s emcees, comedy duo Bakusho Mondai, were quite happy to put her on the spot.