Actor Kamikawa Takaya (42) is to play his first leading role in a drama on a commercial network. From October on Fuji TV, he will star as a 40-year-old office worker forced to get by on a ¥30,000-a-month allowance in “Swan no Baka”. The cast also includes Tanaka Misako (47) as his older wife and former office colleague, and Narimiya Hiroki (24) as the CEO of an IT company located in his office building. Kamikawa is often described as an “engiha haiyuu”, meaning an actor who can actually act (which doesn’t say much for the rest!). He admits that he has no experience of working as a “salaryman” but says that the gap between his own career and that of the nation’s company employees fascinates him. After dropping out of university to work in theater, Kamikawa first gained broader fame with the NHK drama “Daichi no Ko” 13 years ago. Last year he played roles ranging from the medieval warrior Yamauchi Kazutoyo in the “Koumyou ga Tsuji” taiga period drama on NHK to a gay doctor on the Fuji TV series “Hanazakari no Kimitachi e”.
• Comedian Chihara Junior (33) refused to comment yesterday on his rumored split with actress Uchida Yuki (31). The younger of the Chihara Brothers duo, he was appearing at a PR event for the French movie “Azur et Asmar”. Uchida divorced actor Yoshioka Hidetaka (37) in 2005.