Martial arts fighter Masato (29, photo left) and actress Yazawa Shin (27, right) held a lavish wedding reception at a Tokyo hotel yesterday. The couple actually got married in February 2007 after a 6-year relationship. Sunday’s event was attended by about 200 celebrities, including actress Koike Eiko and her husband, wrestler Sakata Wataru. Masato, the first Japanese to be K-1 World Max champion, said he had left the reception arrangements entirely to his wife as he was in training for a recent fight. He won the April 9 bout by KO over South African Virgil Kalakoda.
Other marriage news at the weekend came from NYV announcer Suzuki Takashi (33), who revealed yesterday that he and a 31-year-old flight attendant tied the knot last Friday. he is expected to make a more formal announcement on TV tonight. With an Australian mother and having spent several years in Germany, the “News Zero” and “AnaPara” regular is trilingual. A common face on NTV’s live sports broadcasts, Suzuki is popularly known as Ralph, his Christian name. His new bride is also fluent in English and works for a non-Japanese airline.
• Singer T. M Revolution (aka T.M.R., aka Nishikawa Takanori) made a guest appearance at the 3rd annual New York Comic Con on Saturday. He performed 14 songs in about an hour and a half, including his next single. He announced that the “Resonance” CD will be the world’s first to go on sale with a complimentary BluRay disc. In his third stage show in the U.S. following appearances at anime conventions in 2003 and 2004, the singer known to anime fans for his Gundam theme song “Invoke” was in unusually hyper mode. He spoke to the 4,000 fans in English, ending with “I’ll be back!” He was also in huge demand for autographs and T.M.R. goods flew off the shelves at a special booth.
• Kawabata Kaname (29) of the pop duo Chemistry revealed on Friday that he and his wife, model Takahashi Miki, are expecting their first child. He announced the news during a concert in Ichihara, Chiba Prefecture. The duo are currently on the nationwide “Face to Face” concert tour. Kawabata and Takahashi got married on March 7.
• Talento Manabe Kaori (27) has all but acknowledged her relationship with comedian Kawashima Akira (29), one half of the duo Kirin. In the recently published autobiography “Joshi!? Gokoro” she says she is enjoying a very relaxed romantic life. Kirin have been increasingly popular in the last year, thanks partly to Kawashima’s good looks and deep voice and partner Tamura Hiroshi (28) publishing a million-selling book about his days as a homeless schoolboy.
• American enka singer Jero (26) announced at the weekend that he’s to release an album of covers. Simply named “Covers”, it will include six or seven classics such as “Kimi Koishi”, “Hisame” and “Pusankoue Kaere”, originally a Korean song. The album goes on sale June 25.