80s pop diva Matsuda Seiko (42) is to make her first appearance in a TV drama series in ten years. “Tatta Hitotsu no Takaramono” (My One Treasure) is based on a best-selling book about a father and his child born with Down Syndrome. The mother captured the child’s brief, six-year life in a series of moving photographs that illustarted the book. The story was also the inspiration last year for a life insurance company TV commercial that became a talking point. The accompanying song was by singer/songwriter Oda Kazumasa, who will also provide the theme for the new drama. It is scheduled to air on NTV from the end of October.
• Singer Yamazaki Masayoshi (32) is to star in his first movie since 1997’s “Moon and Cabbage.” The movie, to be released in the autumn of 2005, is a remake of a 1999 Korean hit “Christmas in August.”