I saw a news feature last night that showed a new way of shifting CDs. The popular rock band 175R (Inago Rider) released their 7th and latest single “Grafitti” yesterday as a pack with a Kit Kat chocolate bar. The news feature showed the chocolate/CD products, priced at ¥315, lined up on the top shelf of a Seven Eleven convenience store. They expect to sell about 500,000 copies. The band have just finished a 3-month nationwide tour. The new sales technique reflects a CD market that has seen continually declining sales for the last few years.
• The popular NTV drama “Gokusen” finished with a bang last Saturday. Audience figures released yesterday show the final episode reached a ratings high of 32.5% and the average for the series was 28%, the highest ever for a drama on the network. The series featured popular actress Nakama Yukie as a high school teacher and a host of “hot” up and coming male actors as her students. &$149; Comedian Nagai Hidekazu (35) became a father yesterday when his wife gave birth to a baby boy at a Tokyo hospital. Nagai made a big breakthrough on the TV variety circuit last year with his standup routines and the catchphrase “Machigainai!”