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Veteran actor Nakamura Masatoshi (58) was in tears as he apologized to reporters yesterday for the arrest of his son. Actor Nakamura Shunta (31) was arrested by Tokyo Metropolitan Police on Saturday when he was found in possession of hash in the western Tokyo suburb of Suginami. He was sitting in his parked car at around 3am when police in a passing patrol car decided he looked suspicious. About 0.3g of hash were found in the car and he was arrested on the spot. His father said yesterday, “I sincerely apologize to the many people imposed upon. When I heard about it, I thought it couldn’t be true. I wanted it to be a lie, but it’s true.” Speaking not only as a father but as president of the agency that manages his son’s career, he said, “He will leave the agency, and he will not work as an actor again. It has to be done. It’s for his own good.” His wife, actress Igarashi Junko (56) also apologized to reporters gathered outside their Tokyo home over the weekend. The elder Nakamura regularly tops polls of people’s ideal father figure. He and Igarashi also have three daughters.

The husband of talento Uehara Sakura was arrested on Saturday night for assaulting a paparazzi. Endo Noriaki (37), founder and president of the Devilock street fashion brand, and his wife were attending the central Tokyo wedding reception of TV producer Ochi Masato (43) and his model/actress wife Chieko (22), who actually got married in July of last year. Endo was trying to take a photo of Uehara and the happy couple outside the Fendi store in Kita Aoyama when a photographer for a weekly gossip magazine tried to push him out of the way. Enraged, Endo’s floored the photographer with a single punch to the solar plexus. And when the man stayed down, police and an ambulance were called. Endo was arrested on the spot and the man taken to a nearby hospital, where he recovered consciousness. Endo and Uehara (32) married in 2003. She was pregnant at the time but later had a miscarriage. Endo has opened several Devilock stores overseas and toured as a DJ in the U.S. last year.

Singer Ayaka (21) and actor Mizushima Hiro (24) announced yesterday that they got married back in February. The couple made the announcement at a joint press conference at the TBS TV studios in Tokyo. Their romance started in August of last year and Mizushima proposed about three months later. They tied the knot on February 22. Despite her youth, Ayaka already has a strong fan base and several hits under her belt, most notably the 2006 ballad “Mikazuki.” She also won several best newcomer awards that debut year. But she revealed yesterday that she plans to take an extended sabbatical as she battles with Graves’ disease. She has suffered from the condition, an immune disorder of the endocrine system known in Japan by the less common name of Basedow’s disease, since shortly after her debut. Mizushima spent much of his early youth in Switzerland because of his father’s work. On his return to Japan, he struggled with the language and faced bullying as a “kikokushijo” (returnee). A talented soccer player, his high school team reached the semi-finals of the national championship. While in university he was scouted to become a fashion model. After a few TV extra roles, he made his acting debut in the popular NTV drama series “Gokusen” in 2005. He landed the role of tokusatsu hero Kamen Rider Kabuto on TV Asahi and the big screen in 2006.

Retired actress Minamida Yoko (76) was hospitalized yesterday after losing consciousness. Her condition is not said to be life threatening but she is expected to spend at least a week in hospital. Her husband, actor Nagato Hiroyuki (75) spoke tearfully to reporters last night as he expressed his fear that his wife might end up in a vegetative state. She retired several years ago after beginning to show signs of dementia, and her husband has been caring for her since. It wasn’t until during filming of a TV Asahi documentary last November that her condition was diagnosed as Alzheimers. The program was the network’s most widely viewed show of last year. Nagato and Minamida were both up and coming stars when they became Japan’s most famous screen couple in the 1955 hit “Taiyo no Kisetsu,” one of the definitive movies of the postwar era.

• Actress Fukada Kyoko (26) and young baseball star Saito Yuki (20) were spotted out together on a dinner date in February, according to today’s issue of women’s weekly magazine “Josei Seven.” Fukuda is one of Japan’s most poipular young actreses, and is currently starring as the sexy villain Doronjo in the big screen adaptation of the “Yatterman” anime. Saito, known as the “handkerchief prince” since becoming an overnight star as a pitcher for his high school team, has almost single-handedly turned Waseda University into a baseball powerhouse in the last couple of years.

Former pop singer Suzuki Sachiko (40) seems a bit embarrassed about yesterday’s media reports of an attempted suicide. One half of the top 80s/90s idol duo Wink, she gave a quickly-arranged press conference last night to address news reports that she had been rushed to hospital after a suspected drug overdose on Sunday. Speaking to reporters at the TV Asahi studios in Tokyo, she started by saying “I was more surprised than anyone by yesterday’s news. As you can see, I’m fine. I apologize for having caused such concern.” She said that she is naturally a night person and has been taking prescription sleeping pills for the last two years. Unable to sleep on Saturday night, even after taking her pills, she stayed up all night. The next morning she had a long telephone conversation with a friend until exhaustion finally caught up with her and she fell asleep while still on the phone. Alarmed, the friend called for an ambulance and Suzuki says she was awoken by the sound of banging on her front door. She let the paramedics in and was able to walk to the ambulance. She was admitted to a hospital, where she was told she was anemic and in need of rest, and put on an I.V. She stayed the night and checked out Monday morning. Suzuki said, “I live alone, so I eat out a lot. From now on I’ll try and look after myself a bit better.” Her former singing partner, Aida Shoko (39) got married to a doctor last July. Wink split up in 1996 and performed together for the first time in a decade last December when they gave a one-off performance at the 50th Nihon Record Taisho awards.

• Renowned supporting actor Kaneda Ryunosuke died of chronic kidney failure late at a Saitama Prefecture hospital on Monday night. He was 80. Kaneda made his stage debut at the age of 5 but didn’t have the first of many movie roles until 1968. In recent years he appeared in such TV dramas as “Tokyo Tower” in 2006 and the “Bayside Shakedown” spinoff movie “Koshounin Mashita Masayoshi” (Negotiator, 2005). He had been suffering from diabetes for the last few years and was admitted to hospital in late March with a leg injury.

• Comedian Akiyama Ryuji (30) of the trio Robert recently got married, it was revealed yesterday. He has been frank about his relationship since it was exposed about a year ago on the comedy show “Haneru no Tobira.” It was during filming of today’s special 300th edition of the show that he announced the happy news.

It looks like J-pop princess Utada Hikaru (26) has named her latest album well. Released on the iTunes Music Store on March 25, “This Is The One” has entered the store’s rankings at No.19, becoming the first album by a Japanese artist to break into the Top 100 in its five-year history. Utada has spent the last month making appearances across the U.S. promoting her second release there. Her management say they have chosen to focus on the U.S. market rather than at home, where the album was released on March 14. Utada is a well established star in Japan, with the five albums under her full name selling over 17 million. She put out the 2004 release “Exodus” both at home and overseas under just her family name and, though it was predictably a million seller in Japan, efforts to promote it in the U.S. made barely a ripple. The new album goes on sale on CD in May, but the latest iTunes ranking may earn it a place in the April 9 Billboard Chart.

Six people are to be prosecuted for flaming the blog of talento Smiley Kikuchi (37). Four men are accused of libel, while another man and woman are accused of making threats against the minor celebrity. The problem began in April of last year when old Internet rumors resurfaced saying that Kikuchi had been the perpetrator in a murder case. The case dates back to 1989, when a high school girl was kidnapped, confined, raped and finally murdered by a group of youths in Tokyo. Her body was later found in a park, encased in concrete in an oil drum. The case was made into a movie in 2004, bringing it back into the spotlight, though rumors connecting Kikuchi with the case have been circulating on the Web for around ten years. In the latest case, several of the accused wrote hundreds of comments on his blog calling him a murderer and saying that there were many people “out to get” him. Kikuchi’s management agency got the police involved earlier this year and the case reached the media in February. Kikuchi started his comedy career back in 1993 but never achieved much fame until he started impersonating popular Korean actor Bae Yong Joon in 2004.

Comedian Shoji Tomoharu (33) and idol singer Fujimoto Miki (24) announced their engagement yesterday. Their management agencies sent the news by fax to the media, saying the couple have been dating for about two years and are planning to get married in July. Shoji, one half of the popular Yoshimoto (profile) comedy duo Shinagawa Shoji, has been unusually open about their relationship on variety shows, saying that he hoped they would marry someday. But Fujimoto, who is with the Hello! Project and is popularly known as Mikiti, was expected to follow the idol singer protocol and be a lot more demure about matters of the heart. She had just become leader of the hugely popular idol group Morning Musume (profile) when their relationship started. The group were on tour when she and Shoji were spotted out on a late-night date, considered unfitting behavior and a bad influence on younger members of the group, so she voluntarily left the group in June 2007. She largely dropped out of sight until April of last year, when she re-launched her career as a solo singer. She plans to “graduate” from Hello! Project at the end of this month. In yesterday’s statement, she said she plans to continue working after marriage. Also, as is usual in these situations, it was made clear that she is not pregnant.

In the most tense and hard-fought game of the tournament, Japan beat arch-rivals South Korea 5-3 to retain their crown as World Baseball Classic champions. Team leader and batting phenom Ichiro was once again the key, getting on base time after time, stealing bases and finally driving in the winning two runs. Japan got strong support from right-handed starter Iwakuma Hisashi, who pitched seven and two-thirds innings and got the win. Down by a run from the third inning, the Koreans repeatedly allowed Japan’s batters to get on base but managed to keep the run count at one apiece until the seventh and stayed just within reach of Hara Tatsunori’s team. They drew level 3-3 with two out in the bottom of the ninth with an RBI off Darvish Yuu, sending their supporters – an overwhelming majority of the 54,846 fans – into a frenzy at Dodger Stadium. In just the second game of the tournament to go into nail-biting extra innings, it began to look like the Koreans might just have the edge. But Ichiro, whose batting form has been up and down over the last week, was once again inspired and gave Japan the lead for good with a two-run double of reliever CY Lim. Darvish then managed to strike out the side for the win.

• Comedian Jinnai Tomonori (35) held a press conference to formally announce his divorce from actress Fujiwara Norika (37). News of the divorce surfaced last week and today a somber and black-suited Jinnai confirmed the rumors that the cause was his extra-marital affairs.

Japan has just defeated the United States 9-4 in the second semi-final of the World Baseball Classic to set up yet another clash against their Asian arch-rivals South Korea. The Americans had won four in a row against Japan, including the bronze medal game at the Beijing Olympics. Japan starter Matsuzaka Daisuke was less than dominant but remains unbeaten at the WBC, where he was named MVP in 2006. Japan and Korea will face each other for the fifth time in this tournament, where they have a 2-2 record. Last Friday’s matchup pulled in a huge audience rating that peaked at over 48% in the Kanto region. It helped that Friday was a national holiday and that Japan managed to beat the Koreans again to set up today’s semi-final game against the U.S. Despite Friday’s loss, the Koreans already had one of the other spots in the semis, where they easily defeated Venezuela on Saturday. (photo: AP photo)

• Yesterday’s Tokyo Marathon was a good day for some of the 35,000 runners, but not so for others. 65-year-old Kusuda Akinori set a new Guinness World Record in the event, though not by actually winning it. His amazing feat was to have completed 52 marathons on consecutive days. His record-breaking run began on January 30 when he finished a 42.195-kilometer run in his local park. Friends and fellow joggers helped him keep track of his ongoing feat over the course of nearly two months.

Meanwhile the event also featured many celebrity runners, of whom comedian Matsumura Kunihiro (41) probably had the worst day. The overweight impersonator suffered cardiac and respiratory arrest after the 10km mark and was resuscitated by paramedics, who took him to hospital. He is said not to be in a life-threatening condition. Matsumura, a popular figure on the variety show circuit, was taking part in the race for a show on the local-access Tokyo MX TV. A company staffer was running alongside him as he ran in his third marathon attempt – he dropped out at the 35km mark last year as he went over the time limit. Among those who did finish the race were newscaster Miyane Seiji (45). But he didn’t manage to beat his target time of four and a half hours, so he now has to keep a promise and shave his head. In a matchup of politicians, Miyazaki governor Higashikokubaru Hideo (51) finished ahead of Diet member Suzuki Muneo (61).