A haggard looking Haga Kenji (46, left) and a defiant Watanabe Jiro (52, right) were at the Osaka District Court yesterday for the first hearing in their extortion case. The one-time popular talento and renowned playboy and the former world boxing champion have pleaded not guilty to the charges for which they were arrested last year. Haga is accused of swindling an associate out of some ¥370 million in 2001 by selling shares in a medical consultancy at triple their actual price. When the company failed to go public and went bankrupt, the man came looking for his money back. Haga then enlisted the help of Watanabe and others to use death threats and force the man to relinquish the debt and accept a payment of just ¥10 million. This all played out at a time when Haga was promoting himself as having dug his way out of serious debt by building up a successful jewelry business. In 2006, he held a press conference to announce his engagement to get married in Hawaii, and proudly said he had repaid all his debts. Seeing this on TV, the extortion victim decided to go to the police, and eight months later Haga was arrested. In his first appearance in seven months, he looked much thinner and his permed hair was down to his shoulders. His wife Mayu will appear in court as a witness at the next hearing, scheduled for February 7. Watanabe has a history of similar trouble with the law. In 1995, he was arrested for making death threats against debtors to his import business, but police failed to prosecute the case. In 1999, he was arrested for giving a gun to a friend accused of murder, and he served four and a half years in prison.
• The two teenage daughters of actress Matsuzaka Keiko (55) will make their showbiz debut alongside their mother in an upcoming TV series. The English language education series on NHK will focus on the book “Anne of Green Gables”, which has been popular in Japan for many years. Matsuzaka and her daughters Monet (15) and Marisa (13), who were both born in New York and attend an international school in Tokyo, filmed the series on location on Prince Edward Island in Canada, where the book is set. The series will air on NHK’s education channel on Tuesday nights from April. Matsuzaka is married to jazz guitarist Takauchi Haruhiko.
• Hollywood’s back on top at the Japanese box office. After 2006 saw domestic movies beat out foreign imports for the first time in 21 years, it was business as usual last year. In its data released yesterday, Eiren (the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan) said that total box office receipts fell 2.2% last year to ¥198 billion yen, with local movies bringing in 47.7% of the revenue, down from 2006’s 53.2%. Blockbuster sequels provided the main impetus, with the Top 3 being: “Pirates of the Caribbean: World’s End” (¥10.9 billion), “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” (¥9.4 billion), and “Spiderman 3” (¥7.1 billion). The biggest local hits were the Kimura Takuya vehicle “Hero” (¥8.1 billion), the Pokemon feature “Dialga VS Palkia VS Darkrai” (¥5.0 billion), and the nostalgic “Always: Zoku Sanchome no Yuhi” (¥4.6 billion).