It looks like J-pop princess Utada Hikaru (26) has named her latest album well. Released on the iTunes Music Store on March 25, “This Is The One” has entered the store’s rankings at No.19, becoming the first album by a Japanese artist to break into the Top 100 in its five-year history. Utada has spent the last month making appearances across the U.S. promoting her second release there. Her management say they have chosen to focus on the U.S. market rather than at home, where the album was released on March 14. Utada is a well established star in Japan, with the five albums under her full name selling over 17 million. She put out the 2004 release “Exodus” both at home and overseas under just her family name and, though it was predictably a million seller in Japan, efforts to promote it in the U.S. made barely a ripple. The new album goes on sale on CD in May, but the latest iTunes ranking may earn it a place in the April 9 Billboard Chart.
Six people are to be prosecuted for flaming the blog of talento Smiley Kikuchi (37). Four men are accused of libel, while another man and woman are accused of making threats against the minor celebrity. The problem began in April of last year when old Internet rumors resurfaced saying that Kikuchi had been the perpetrator in a murder case. The case dates back to 1989, when a high school girl was kidnapped, confined, raped and finally murdered by a group of youths in Tokyo. Her body was later found in a park, encased in concrete in an oil drum. The case was made into a movie in 2004, bringing it back into the spotlight, though rumors connecting Kikuchi with the case have been circulating on the Web for around ten years. In the latest case, several of the accused wrote hundreds of comments on his blog calling him a murderer and saying that there were many people “out to get” him. Kikuchi’s management agency got the police involved earlier this year and the case reached the media in February. Kikuchi started his comedy career back in 1993 but never achieved much fame until he started impersonating popular Korean actor Bae Yong Joon in 2004.