Model Joshua has died suddenly, though details of how or when have yet to be announced. He was 25. His management agency have confirmed his death, but said details would be revealed this week. The ex-husband of popular actress-singer Tsuchiya Anna (24), he was born and raised in the U.S. to a Japanese father and Brazilian mother. His elder sister is talento Friedia Niimura (28), who was born in Germany and formerly used the stage name Kozue Rin. The family moved to Japan when Joshua was 11. He was scouted as a fashion model while working in a Harajuku cafe as a high school student, and appeared in magazines such as “Smart.” In June 2004, he married Tsuchiya, who he had known from his teens. They had a baby boy the following November but the marriage ended in July 2006. Joshua appeared in just one movie, the ominously titled “Jisatsu Saakuru” (The Suicide Circle, 2002). The Niimura family have maintained their international lifestyle, with Friedia often traveling overseas and being partly based in Los Angeles. She was romantically linked with Good Charlotte frontman Benji Madden in 2005.
• “Tokyo Sonata,” the Kurosawa Kiyoshi-directed feature, has won an award at the Cannes International Film Festival. Considered one of the event’s most unexpected surprises, on Saturday it became the first Japanese movie to be awarded the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard category that focuses on singular, original films. The main award in the category went to “Tulpan” by Kazakh director Sergey Dvortsevoy. “Tokyo Sonata” is a portrait of an unemployed middle-aged man and his seemingly ordinary but slowly disintegrating family, it stars actor Kagawa Teruyuki (42) and Koizumi Kyoko (42). Kurosawa learned of the win by email while traveling by shinkansen to his home in Kobe. The first person he told was his hospitalized wife, who suffered a mild stroke two weeks ago. The movie opens in Japan in the autumn.