A bunch of forged tickets for the popular Takarazuka theater revue have been discovered. The tickets for the all-female revue, which enjoys huge popularity and fierce loyalty among its predominantly female fans, had fetched up to ten times their face value on Internet auction sites. The forgeries were for yesterday’s final performance of the Moon Troupe’s show “Never Say Goodbye”, the last appearance for retiring top “male” star Wao Yoka (photo). One 46-year old woman from Takarazuka City went to the local police station after being refused entry to the show. She said she had bought the two tickets, face value ¥7,500 each, for ¥150,000.
• Actor Nishimura Kazuhiko (39) has married calligraphry artist Kunishige Tomomi (27). The couple registered their marriage at the municipal office of Kunishige’s home in Yamaguchi Prefecture yesterday. the couple met on the set of a TV show last summer. Nishimura, who first became known through the Lipovitan D TV commercials and became popular following the 2004 Fuji TV drama series “Botan to Bara”, divorced actress Tachihara Mai (36) in January 2005.
• Boxing sensations the Kameda brothers scored big in their recent fights. Not only did both flyweight Koki (19) and super-flyweight Daiki (17) win their fights by knockouts, but the TBS broadcast pulled in a peak audience rating of 40.8% in the Kanto region. The number is remarkable given that they were not even title fights. Third brother Tomoki (14) is also an amateur boxer.