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NHK chairman Matsumoto Masayuki (67) announced yesterday that the national broadcaster will resume live coverage of major sumo events, starting with the upcoming Nagoya basho (grand sumo tournament) from July 10. The sport has been in a serious crisis this year as it reeled from revelations of bout fixing. There have been more than two dozens dismissals and force retirements and even the cancellation of the spring basho in March, the first in modern history. A low profile version of the summer basho was held in May in Tokyo, and described as a “Technical Examination Tournament.” Spectators were not charged for admission and no cash prizes were given to wrestlers. The fate of the Nagoya basho was in doubt until yesterday, when the Japan Sumo Association announced that it would go ahead.

Explaining NHK’s position, Matsumoto said that the JSA has taken suitable steps to remedy problems in the sport. He also added what has now become a standard rallying call, saying that people across the country, including those affected by the March 11 disaster, have been calling for TV coverage to resume. Though the sport’s image has been tainted for some time, its current hero is on a path to create history. Mongolian yokozuna (grand champion) Hakuho (26) won the May basho with a 13-2 record, tying former yokozuna Asashoryu’s all-time record of seven consecutive titles. In Nagoya, he will be aiming to overtake Asashoryu and improve his own career total of 19 titles.

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Rock singer Kikkawa Koji (45, photo left) is getting married today and already has a child, it was reported this morning. He and his new bride-to-be, described only as an ippanjin in her early 40s, have been dating since 2007. It is her second marriage but the first for Kikkawa. He announced the news through the website of his fan club.

A champion swimmer in his youth, Kikkawa dropped out of his Hiroshima high school to seek fame and fortune in Tokyo. In 1984 he made his recording debut with the single “Monica” and put out a string of chart-topping releases, becoming just the second artist to perform at the hallowed Nippon Budokan in a debut year. In 1989 he and former Boowy guitarist Hotei Tomoyasu (49, photo right, profile) formed the rock unit unit Complex. With both musicians towering over the average Japanese, the band made a big impact on the local scene. They were hugely popular but sort-lived, breaking up in 1990, until Kikkawa recently announced two reunion concerts at Tokyo Dome in July in aid of Tohoku relief. He also has a solo show lined up at the Yokohama Arena in October. Kikkawa has some high-profile acting roles in his resume, including the 2009 NHK taiga historical drama series “Tenchijin.”

Japan will finally, and formally, have its own version of “Saturday Night Live.” Starting June 4, Fuji TV will air a show using the same live format as the legendary late-night NBC comedy show that launched the careers of so many top comedy stars. It will air once a month in the 11:10pm time slot. The regular lineup will be led by top comedians Akashiya Sanma (55, profile) and Imada Koji (45), the inaugural host will be Okamura Takashi (40) of the comedy duo Ninety Nine (profile), and the first musical guest will be crooner Hirai Ken (39).

SNL has been a breeding ground for comedy talent since it first aired in 1975. It has launched the careers of such names as John Belushi, Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers and Will Ferrell. It has been aired in over 130 countries, and in Japan it is said to have inspired the legendary show “Oretachi Hyokinzoku.” That show in turn made household names of Sanma and Kitano “Beat” Takeshi (64).

Many veterans of the Japanese entertainment world turned out yesterday for the funeral of actor Nagato Hiroyuki, who was 77 when he passed away Saturday. The funeral was held at the Azabuyama hall of the Zenpukuji temple in Moto-Azabu, central Tokyo. The “moshu” (chief mourner) was his younger brother, actor Tsugawa Masahiko (71), who revealed that he himself had been at death’s door on the same day. Having suffered a suspected heart attack, he was undergoing tests at the intensive care unit of a Tokyo hospital when he learned that his brother was being treated nearby for a gastrointestinal hemorrhage. Due to his condition, doctors refused to allow him to see his brother before he died.

Nagato never quite recovered following the October 2009 death of his wife, actress Minamida Yoko. He cared for her during her final few years as she battled with dementia. The two were among the “royalty” of the Japanese movie world, huge stars in the 1950s and 60’s.
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Wake Held for Minamida Yoko (Oct. 30, 2009)

Top screenwriter Mitani Kouki (49) and popular actress Kobayashi Satomi (46) took the entertainment world by surprise with today’s announcement of their divorce. In a statement faxed to the media, they said they filed for divorce yesterday, ending 15 years of marriage. They said that many minor differences in opinion and values had accumulated over the years. No doubt their mutually busy showbiz careers also put a strain on their relationship. Sources close to the couple confirmed that they had grown apart in recent years and their lack of children had also played a part.

Mitani has penned many hit movies, TV dramas and even the first Japanese musical to play off-Broadway, and to mark his 50th year he has seven major projects in the works this year. Kobayashi is an established and naturally talented actress who regularly appears in TV commercials and dramatic roles. This week she starts filming the movie “Tokyo Oasis.” She met Mitani when she starred in one of his shows, the 1989 Fuji TV comedy series “Yappari Neko ga Suki.”

Even in 15cm-high heels, former Morning Musume member Yaguchi Mari (28) is dwarfed by her new husband, actor Nakamura Masaya (25). One of the shortest celebrities around, she is a touch less than 145cm (4’9″) tall, while he is a towering 1.92cm (6’4″). The two held a press conference in Tokyo yesterday to announce that they had tied the knot the night before. After Yaguchi returned from a Dream Morning Musume show in Hiroshima, the couple went to a municipal office around midnight to register their marriage.

The two have been living together since Nakamura proposed on January 20, Yaguchi’s birthday, about a year after they started dating. They originally planned to marry in March but postponed following the Tohoku earthquake. Nakamura has visited the region as a volunteer to help with relief work.

Apart from the obvious physical difference, there is also quite a gap between the two in terms of wealth. Managed by Watanabe Entertainment, Nakamura is one of the original members of the agency’s D-Boys group of actors, but only has a few supporting TV drama and movie roles under his belt. Yaguchi joined Morning Musume in 1998 as a member of the its second lineup and at the peak of their popularity. She became the group’s third leader in 2005 but had to leave just a few months later after a weekly gossip magazine published photos of her with actor Oguri Shun (28). She remained a member of the Hello! Project until 2009. She and 9 other former MoMus members formed Dream Morning Musume in January. Her bubbly personality has kept her a regular on the TV variety show circuit.

Aging rocker Uchida Yuya (71) has been arrested by Tokyo Metropolitan Police for stalking a middle-aged woman who wanted to break up with him. He has acknowledged charges of writing intimidating letters and having spare keys made to her home, but denies that he was trying to threaten her. The pair had been dating since about December 2009 but the woman (50) says she had suffered violent attacks since March of last year. In a letter found in her mailbox on April 2, Uchida wrote, “I have contacted your employer. I told them one of their employees is involved with a criminal gang and doing drugs. I haven’t given them your name yet! You have a week to think it over and call me! There is still time!”

A veteran rock musician who dropped out of high school in order to emulate his idol Elvis Presley, joining a rockabilly group at the age of 17. He switched between bands several times in the late 1950s and early 1960s before starting a movie career. He was one of the members of a special band put together to open for the Beatles in June 1966. Uchida has also insinuated himself into political life. He ran in the Tokyo gubernatorial election in 1991 and last year attended public review and prioritization meetings of government programs. His trademark is to append the phrase “rock ‘n’ roll” to every statement he makes. Reports on his arrest didn’t mention f he took that same attitude into police custody. Uchida has been married for almost 40 years years to top actress Kiki Kirin (68), with whom he has a daughter, actress Uchida Yayako (35), but they have been separated for all but the first two years. He is also the father-in-law of popular actor Motoki Masahiro (45).

Tokyo Metropolitan Police are treating as a probable suicide the death of talento Uehara Miyu. She was 24. Her body was found last night hanging by the neck in her apartment in the Meguro district of the capital after an emergency call from a man about 2am. She was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she was confirmed dead.

Real name Uehara Mutsumi, she was born the youngest of 10 siblings raised on the small island of Tanenoshima in the southern prefecture of Kagoshima, known mainly as the site of Japan’s space rocket launches. Born into a poor working class family, she became popular due to a TV boom in two things – large families and celebrities living on or below the breadline. She often related the story of how she was born in the parking lot of a pachinko parlor, where her mother’s waters broke as she hit the jackpot. As a teenager, she moved to live with her sister in Kagoshima City, where she worked to pay her own way through school. After an assault by two boys she was kicked out of school and joined a girl’s gang. She later moved to live with another sister in Tokyo, where she was accepted by a talent agency. After a failed romance, she made a failed attempt to commit suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills.

A few career changes followed before her background became her main selling point and she started to make appearances on the variety show circuit. It was only when she published an autobiography in 2009 that her parents first learned of many of the experiences she had been through. Her mother died of a heart attack in March 2010.

First of all, thank you to everyone who contacted Japan Zone asking if we were okay or with offers of help or refuge. Each and every one was much appreciated. I and my family are all fine and we are staying put and doing our best to carry on as normally as circumstances will allow.

To everyone who has bought a Supporting Japan t-shirt, please know that your donation to the Japanese Red Cross Society will very soon be helping those most in need in the Tohoku region. Thank you.

Japan Zone is based in Nagoya in central Japan. We certainly felt the huge earthquake on March 11 and it was quite frightening in its persistence. But no real damage was done and there were no injuries let alone deaths in this region. As scale of the disaster became increasingly apparent, I and many others here in the Nagoya foreign community felt we had to do something to help. The t-shirts are one way we are contributing, and in downtown Nagoya last night I took part in a packed meeting of people either carrying out or planning various initiatives to help the relief efforts. I also helped organize a bicycle donation drive and we shipped a 2-ton truck of bikes to Tohoku, where they are an important lifeline for people in evacuation shelters.

Japan Zone is a very small operation (okay, it’s basically just me!) and there is a limit to how much can be done in any given 24 hours. So for the time being, entertainment news updates are going to be put on hold while I try and focus my energies on, well, more important things. But if there is anybody out there who feels they could do the updates on a voluntary basis, let me know and we’ll see if we can work something out.

American singer Cyndi Lauper (57) says she will go ahead with her planned Japan tour in spite of the recent disaster. One of the more genuine pop stars of her generation, she is as much a fan of Japan as its people are of her. She donated generously to relief efforts following the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995 and has already announced plans to raise funds at her upcoming shows.

Lauper was scheduled to land at Narita International Airport shortly after the biggest earthquake ever measured in Japan struck of the northeast coast on Friday afternoon. Her flight was diverted to the U.S. Air Force base in Yokota, where she landed about 10pm. From there she transferred to a flight to Haneda Airport in the capital. Chaos in the city was such that she finally reached her hotel at 4:30am. Her schedule is due to start on March 15 in Nagoya and head to Tokyo for shows at the Orchard Hall on March 16-18. With the capital now enduring rolling power blackouts, her shows will also encourage fans not only to donate to the relief effort but also to conserve electricity.

Also due to land in Tokyo last Friday were British heavy metal giants Iron Maiden, whose flight was diverted to Nagoya. The band released a statement expressing their regret over having to cancel two shows due to “obvious safety concerns towards the audience, the artist and the venue.” Singer-songwriter Jack Johnson has postponed four Japan dates that were due to kick off today in the city of Sendai, one of the worst hit by the earthquake and tsunami.