Singer Utada Hikaru has reclaimed her top spot in the hearts of Japanese music fans. For the fourth time, and the first since 2004, she has topped the Oricon annual ranking of the country’s favorite artists. She took the No.1 spot back from Aiko (31), who held it the last two years. She’s had an eventful year, releasing the No.1 single “Flavor of Life” in February and announcing her divorce from filmmaker Kiriya Kazuaki (39) in March. At No.2 were the duo Kobukuro, who grabbed their first chart-topping single in April, followed by veteran rock band Mr. Children. The ranking is based on a survey of 20,000 readers of the “Oricon Style” magazine.
• ANA has withdrawn its commercials featuring talento Hayami Mokomichi (22). The problem is not with the popular young star but with the filming location of the ads, which were being aired on TV screens on Tokyo commuter trains and the airline’s website. Featuring a tiger park that is a popular tourist destination in Guilin, China, they were shown on Yamanote and Chuo line trains from the end of May. But following an international outcry caused by videos of the similar parks that circulated on the Internet, ANA received an increasing number of complaints about their ads.