Monthly Archives: March 2009

It seems that the music industry hasn’t given up on Komuro Tetsuya (50, photo left, profile). The second hearing in the copyright fraud trial against the popular musician and producer was held at the Osaka District Court yesterday. He has been accused of fraudulently receiving ¥500 million in payment for the rights to hundreds of songs he no longer owned. But in court yesterday it was revealed that Matsuura Masato (44, right), president of Avex Group Holdings, this week paid the plaintiff the original sum, plus ¥100 million compensation and a further ¥48 million in delay damages. This in spite of the fact that Komuro already owes him about ¥700 million he received as advances for new music. “Komuro-san is a unique melody maker. All that Avex has is thanks to him,” Matsuura said. “Without him, there would be no Hamasaki Ayumi, Koda Kumi or Exile,” he added, naming three of the biggest and most commercially successful acts in J-pop. In an attempt to keep his golden egg-laying goose out of prison, he pleaded with the judge, “We have prepared a position for him at the company directly under my control. If he is imprisoned, he will be cut off from society.” Komuro and his wife Keiko are currently staying at the home of Avex VP Chiba Ryuhei. Komuro is said to have already composed several new songs in the basement of the home.

Earlier stories:

Komuro Tetsuya Faces Arrest For Fraud (Nov 4, 2008)

More Details on Komuro Arrest (Nov 5, 2008)

Komuro Court Case Opens (Jan 21, 2009)

• Actor Otsuru Gitan (40) is planning to get remarried within the year, according to the Sankei Sports website. His fiancee is former model and talento Matsuba Reina (27), who also has movies such as “Crows Zero” (2007) on her resume. The pair met through work last December, and Matsuba quit show business at the end of the year. Otsuru has introduced his fiancee to his parents – his father is a playwright, his mother an actress. Matsuba’s parents are currently overseas for her father’s work. The timing of Otsuru’s decision to talk to the media is no doubt linked to the fact that his latest movie project is due to open in theaters on April 4. “Watashi no Naka no 8mm” is his first directorial effort in 14 years. Otsuru has a reputation as a playboy and his philandering ways led to a very public divorce from Japan-based Brazilian singer Marcia (40) in 2004. He said he was happy to hear recent reports of her romance with a dentist.

• Also getting remarried is actress Okina Megumi (29). Currently four months pregnant, she and a 29-year-old company employee are said to be planning to register their marriage in the near future. Okina was previously married for a year and a half to Fujita Susumu (35), president of the IT company Cyber Agent. She was later linked to Kasahara Kenji (33), president of Japan’s most popular social networking site Mixi.

Earlier story:

Okina Megumi Divorces (Jul 22, 2005)

Okina Megumi Dating Mixi CEO (Jul 3, 2007)

• Baseball legend Kakefu Masayuki (53) won’t be working as a TV commentator this season. One of Japan’s best known sluggers, he was called “Mister Tigers” and was a key player when the Hanshin Tigers last won a Japan Series in 1985 and he retired in 1988. Ebullient and chatty with a distinctive husky voice, he joined Yomiuri TV the following year and was a popular figure on both the sports and variety show circuit for many years. Though he was caught up in a tax evasion scandal last year, he renewed his contract with Yomiuri on New Year’s Day. But following further discussions, it was decided to terminate that agreement. The Osaka-based Yomiuri and its Tokyo subsidiary NTV refused to go into further detail, saying only that Kakefu won’t be appearing on the network this season. Part of the reason is no doubt the declining popularity of televised baseball, with the number of terrestrial broadcasts dropping each season. This year, Yomiuri will show just 33 live games.

• It looks like singer Aiko (33) has found a new love in her life, according to today’s issue of weekly magazine “Friday.” She and her new boyfriend, said to be in his 20s, were photographed together several times over the last few months. Aiko was previously in an 8-year relationship with Kokubun Taichi (34) of the Johnny’s idol group Tokio. That relationship ended in 2007.

Talento Hazama Kampei (59) has completed the second major step in his mammoth Earth Marathon. An experienced endurance runner, he is expecting to spend at least two years becoming the first person to run and sail around the globe. The first leg of his journey started on December 17, when he set out on foot from Osaka and ran about 600km to Kamogawa in Chiba Prefecture. He set sail from there on New Year’s Day on a journey across the Pacific by yacht with his former manager Higa Yoshiyuki (46). 70 days and 12,710km later they landed at Long Beach in California on Tuesday, though Higa revealed that the day before, Kampei had been on the verge of giving up. “I’ve had enough. I’m going crazy and I’m going to make an announcement once we hit land,” he said. But after talking it over for several hours with Higa, he agreed to at least carry on to the next step. Kampei was in tears as he was greeted by his wife Mitsuyo, and they headed off to enjoy a yakiniku meal in Los Angeles. The next step in his journey will be to run across the U.S. arriving in New York around the end of June. Follow Kampei’s journey in his bilingual video blog: earth-marathon.com.

• Actress Itoh Maiko (44) was briefly hospitalized yesterday. She suffers from low blood pressure and was having feinting spells at her home in Tokyo yesterday. Her husband took her by taxi to a nearby hospital, where doctors told her the problem was exhaustion due to overwork. She was put on an I.V. and released last night. Just the day before, Itoh announced on a live morning show that she had got married back in January. The media attention and flood of emails following the announcement no doubt affected her condition.

Mixed martial arts fighter Akiyama Yoshihiro (33) and model Shiho (32) have married, they both announced on their official websites yesterday. They didn’t say when exactly they tied the knot but Akiyama’s agency said it was at the beginning of the year. The newlyweds are currently enjoying a week-long honeymoon in Hawaii. Though born in Osaka, Akiyama is one of the country’s many ethnic Koreans. After graduating from university in Japan, he crossed the water to Korea in the hope of representing that country in Olympic judo. Though he won the Asian Games title in Pusan in 2002, he faced “reverse racism” and returned to reclaim his Japanese citizenship. After he narrowly failed to qualify for the Athens games in 2004, he switched to the popular K-1. He was widely criticized by K-1 fans for cheating (he was accused of using knuckle dusters) in a bout against the popular Sakuraba Kazushi on New Year’s Eve 2006, and has been greeted with boos on most occasions since. He is scheduled to make his debut in the UFC in the U.S. later this summer. Shiga Prefecture native Yano Shiho made her modeling debut at the age of 17 and is currently a presenter on the NHK show “Top Runner.”

• Also tying the knot around the same time was actress Itoh Maiko (44). She announced on the “Narutomo!” morning show yesterday that she and a telecom company employee got married in mid-January. They first met when Itoh was walking her dog back in 1997. They lost touch for several years but got together again three years ago.

Popular talento Takada Junji (62) is likely to be prosecuted after causing a minor traffic accident late last night. He was turning right on a green light at an intersection in the Meguro district of Tokyo when his car hit a scooter coming the other way. His view of the scooter was obscured by another car but he is said to be entirely to blame for the accident. The young man (19) riding the scooter suffered minor injuries. Takada is a veteran of the variety show circuit and has a reputation as one of Japan’s zaniest comedians.

• Romance has bloomed between comedian Date Mikio (34) and freelance announcer Kumagai Maiko (38), according to today’s issue of weekly gossip magazine “Flash.” The pair are both natives of Sendai City in northern Japan and are said to have started dating last October. Kumagai is a presenter on such shows as Fuji TV’s “Tokudane,” while Date is one half of the manzai duo Sandwichman, who made their breakthrough last year.

• Johnny’s Jimusho (profile) idol group Arashi have seen their latest release storm to the top of the Oricon singles chart. “Believe/Kumori Nochi Kaisei” entered the chart at No.1 and has already sold over half a million copies in the week since its release. It’s the first time Arashi have managed that feat since their 1999 debut single. The last artist to do it was fellow Johnny’s group KAT-TUN three years ago.

Young actor Itoh Takahiro (photo, left) was recently found dead in his car near Lake Sagami in what police believe was a suicide, they announced yesterday. He was 21. The younger brother of Itoh Atsushi (25, right), he appeared in the popular Fuji TV drama “Densha Otoko,” of which his elder brother was the star. His other appearances included the Fuji drama “Nodame Cantabile” and the movie “Yogisha X no Kenshin.” The most recent update to his blog, which he called “My Style My Life,” was dated February 22. The entry included photos which showed Takahiro enjoying a high school reunion. He was believed to have been taking a break from any kind of filming this month, and recently wrote in his blog that he was giving up drinking again in an attempt to lose weight.

• A huge number of TV viewers tuned in for last Saturday’s big baseball game between Japan and Korea. The Koreans have been a major hurdle for the Japanese team in recent big events, such as the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006 and last summer’s Beijing Olympics, and a tough battle was anticipated. The live broadcast was watched by 37.8% of households in the Kanto region (with a peak of 46.3%), and 40.1% in the Kansai area (49.7% peak). The atmosphere at Tokyo Dome was electric as superstar and team leader Ichiro stepped up to the plate. He reversed his batting slump so far in the tournament and led the team with three hits. In the end, Japan thrashed their rivals by a 14-2 scoreline that under WBC rules meant the game was called in the seventh inning.

Hollywood star Tom Cruise (46) has brought his whole family to Japan with him for the first time. He arrived in Tokyo yesterday with his wife, actress Katie Holmes (30) and their daughter Suri (2). They flew by private jet into Narita Airport, where they were greeted by about 1,000 fans, before transferring to a helicopter for the trip to the Roppongi Ark Hills complex in central Tokyo. Cruise is in town to promote the WWII movie “Valyrie,” which opens here March 20, and the helicopter was painted with a promo for the flick. Cruise and family will be here until Thursday and attend the movie’s Japan premiere.

With a combined age of almost 180 years, the members of Alice are hardly the wild young men of the Japanese music world. But the folk trio have decided they still have enough in them to give it one more go. They announced this week that they would be reuniting for the fourth time and touring the country for the first time in 28 years. The group is made up of Horiuchi Takao (59, photo left) and Tanimura Shinji (60, center) on vocals and guitar and backed by drummer Yazawa Toru (60, right). Tanimura and Horiuchi formed the group on Christmas Day 1971, with Yazawa joining soon after, and they released their debut single in March 1972. Fame didn’t come quickly and they toured constantly in an effort to build up a reputation. They played more than 300 shows in 1974 alone, mostly for no pay. But the hard work paid of and the major hits started to flow, including “Kairazaru Hibi” (1976) and “Champion” (1978). The band broke up in 1981 and the members embarked on very successful solo careers, in particular Tanimura and Horiuchi. They’ve got back together several times, most recently for appearances on the annual NHK New Year’s Eve concert “Kohaku Utagassen” in 2000 and 2005. They last released an album of all original material in 1987. The new tour is scheduled to run from July 24 to November 4, taking in 35 shows. Tanimura said he hopes the energy from the tour will even encourage them to come up with some new material.

• Comedian Nagura Jun (40) was rushed to hospital late last night with severe stomach pains. He was diagnosed with acute gastritis but was allowed to go home after receiving medication. His management agency said he had no work scheduled for today and he is expected to return to his usual work routine tomorrow. Nagura is married to talento Watanabe Marina (38) and they have a young son (1).

• NTV announcer Yamamoto Masumi (32) chose the March 3 Hina Matsuri festival to get married, the network said yesterday. The traditional girl’s day is not a national holiday but is a popular choice for weddings. Yamamoto plans to continue her career and her new husband is described as a 32-year-old who is not in show business.

• Meanwhile actress Takagi Miho (46) chose this morning’s “Tokudane” show to announce her wedding plans. A regular guest on the show, she was teased by host Ogura Tomoaki (61), who asked her, “Are you really getting married?!” He has already met her fiance (47), even though the couple have not been formally introduced to each other’s parents. Takagi said the decision to get hitched was made just last weekend. The news came as a happy surprise as Takagai has for several years been regarded as one of Japan’s perennial showbiz spinsters. The couple are said to have met last May when they were both being treated at the same massage clinic.

A J-pop idol singer caused a minor traffic accident on the Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway on Sunday afternoon, according to police. Nishikido Ryo (24), a member of popular Johnny’s Jimusho idol group NEWS, was driving his car on the highway through the center of the city when he hit another car at the tail end of a traffic jam at the Roppongi on-ramp. That car then also hit the one in front, causing minor damage. A 60-year-old woman in the middle car suffered injuries to her neck and is expected to be in the hospital for a week. Nishikido later visited her to offer his apologies. A Johnny’s spokesperson said that the singer was alone in his car on his day off, and he says he was not paying attention to the road ahead at the time of the accident. The talent agency said Nishikido had been sternly reprimanded and had volunteered to give up driving for the foreseeable future, but they added it was unlikely the incident would have any impact on his showbiz career. Police are expected to file papers with the prosecutor’s office.

This year’s Gold Disc Awards were held today and the big winners once again were Exile. The vocal group repeated as winners of the Japanese music category, the fifth time the feat has been achieved (previous names include Hamasaki Ayumi and Koda Kumi). The award is based mainly on CD sales, and Exile had another great year in 2008. Led by the hits collection “Exile Ballad Best,” they had 4.21 million album sales and fell just short of 10 million digital downloads. They won a total of 15 music awards last year and look to add a lot more in 2009. The latest award came the day after the 7-member group announced that it was doubling in size. The seven members of their “junior group” J Soul Brothers are now part of Exile, and the new lineup makes its first release with the single “The Monster/Someday” on April 15. They will embark on a 9-city national tour in May. Exile were formerly known as J Soul Brothers and handed that name over to the younger members in 2007. They released their major label debut album just last month, reaching No.1 on the Oricon chart.