Actress Adachi Yumi (24) is a mother, after she gave birth yesterday afternoon to a baby girl at a Tokyo hospital. Her husband, comedian Itoda Jun (33), wasn’t present at the birth due to work. The couple married on Adachi’s birthday in September of last year. Adachi has already announced her return to work, doing a narration in June for this summer’s Anpanman movie.
• Actor/singer Matsudaira Ken (52) and former talento Matsumoto Yuriko (38) held a wedding ceremony and reception at the Akasaka Prince hotel in Tokyo yesterday. About 200 guests joined the couple in their celebration. Choreographer Majima Shigeki, the man behind the Matsuken Samba sensation, led his dance team as part of the entertainment. The new couple actually registered their marriage last October and had their honeymoon at the New Year.
• “Vijuaru-kei” (visual) rock band Pierrot are breaking up. The decision wasn’t unanimous – guitarists Aiji and Jun wanted to go solo, while vocalist Nozomu Kirito, bassist Kohta and drummer Takeo wanted the band to continue. The band has been successful – they celebrated their 10th anniversary a year ago, and all 15 singles have made it into the Oricon chart Top 10. Ironically, their farewell recording is titled “Hello”, and is due to be released on June 21. Kirito told fans on the official website that he was greatly saddened by the decision. “Taking fans’ feelings into consideration, we have discussed this seriously many times. I even thought about giving up my solo work if it would keep the band together, but I couldn’t change their minds.”
• Also breaking up are popular Fuji TV announcer Takashima Aya (27) and race jockey Take Koshiro (27). “Ayapan” lives in Tokyo and Take, the younger brother of racing legend Take Yutaka, is based at a JRA facility in Shiga Prefecture. The physical distance between them was only increased when Takashima was sent to Turin in February to cover the Winter Olympics. They had been an item for about three years and were said to be on the verge of marriage.