The first half of 2007 has been a tale of two princes. Topping Oricon’s new twice-a-year Fresh Star Rankings is young golf sensation Ishikawa Ryo (15), popularly known as “Hanikami Oji” (The Shy Prince). A first-year high school student in Tokyo, he found overnight stardom in May when he became the youngest player ever to win a professional golf tournament. Comparisons to Tiger Woods inevitably followed. But the ranking was the only good news yesterday for Ishikawa, as he failed to make the cut in the Japan Amateur Championship. Second in the rankings is Waseda University baseball pitcher Saito Yuuki (19), known as “Hankachi Oji” (The Handkerchief Prince), who shot to fame with his superhuman performance at last summer’s national high school baseball tournament. He also recently led Waseda to its first All-Japan Intercollegiate Championship in 33 years. He earned his nickname at Koshien last summer with his habit of wiping the sweat from his brow with a blue handkerchief as he led his team to the championship. The pitcher he beat at Koshien, Tanaka Masahiro (18), was ranked fourth. He turned pro and now plays for the Rakuten Golden Eagles. Topping the female rankings by a huge margin was actress Nagasawa Masami (20), followed by singer Yui (20) and U.S. import Leah Dizon (20).
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Male Rankings
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Female Rankings
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• Talento Umemiya Anna (34) has quit her management agency, it was revealed yesterday. Though she had only recently restarted her acting career, it seems she quit Stardust Promotion on June 30, the same day that her ex-boyfriend Haga Kenji (45) was arrested on extortion charges. The pair were a high profile celebrity couple from 1994 to 1999, even publishing a book of nude photos together. A pregnant Umemiya married a businessman in June 2001 but they broke up a year and a half later. Her ex-husband was convicted on illegal gambling charges in July 2004.
Meanwhile, investigators spent three hours searching Haga’s ¥300 million apartment in Tokyo’s Meguro district yesterday. Ironically, only a couple of days before his arrest, Haga had been proudly showing off the 29th-floor apartment on the TBS variety show “ObirajiR”.