Latest News from Japan Zone & Japan Store

With a combined age of almost 180 years, the members of Alice are hardly the wild young men of the Japanese music world. But the folk trio have decided they still have enough in them to give it one more go. They announced this week that they would be reuniting for the fourth time and touring the country for the first time in 28 years. The group is made up of Horiuchi Takao (59, photo left) and Tanimura Shinji (60, center) on vocals and guitar and backed by drummer Yazawa Toru (60, right). Tanimura and Horiuchi formed the group on Christmas Day 1971, with Yazawa joining soon after, and they released their debut single in March 1972. Fame didn’t come quickly and they toured constantly in an effort to build up a reputation. They played more than 300 shows in 1974 alone, mostly for no pay. But the hard work paid of and the major hits started to flow, including “Kairazaru Hibi” (1976) and “Champion” (1978). The band broke up in 1981 and the members embarked on very successful solo careers, in particular Tanimura and Horiuchi. They’ve got back together several times, most recently for appearances on the annual NHK New Year’s Eve concert “Kohaku Utagassen” in 2000 and 2005. They last released an album of all original material in 1987. The new tour is scheduled to run from July 24 to November 4, taking in 35 shows. Tanimura said he hopes the energy from the tour will even encourage them to come up with some new material.

• Comedian Nagura Jun (40) was rushed to hospital late last night with severe stomach pains. He was diagnosed with acute gastritis but was allowed to go home after receiving medication. His management agency said he had no work scheduled for today and he is expected to return to his usual work routine tomorrow. Nagura is married to talento Watanabe Marina (38) and they have a young son (1).

• NTV announcer Yamamoto Masumi (32) chose the March 3 Hina Matsuri festival to get married, the network said yesterday. The traditional girl’s day is not a national holiday but is a popular choice for weddings. Yamamoto plans to continue her career and her new husband is described as a 32-year-old who is not in show business.

• Meanwhile actress Takagi Miho (46) chose this morning’s “Tokudane” show to announce her wedding plans. A regular guest on the show, she was teased by host Ogura Tomoaki (61), who asked her, “Are you really getting married?!” He has already met her fiance (47), even though the couple have not been formally introduced to each other’s parents. Takagi said the decision to get hitched was made just last weekend. The news came as a happy surprise as Takagai has for several years been regarded as one of Japan’s perennial showbiz spinsters. The couple are said to have met last May when they were both being treated at the same massage clinic.

A J-pop idol singer caused a minor traffic accident on the Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway on Sunday afternoon, according to police. Nishikido Ryo (24), a member of popular Johnny’s Jimusho idol group NEWS, was driving his car on the highway through the center of the city when he hit another car at the tail end of a traffic jam at the Roppongi on-ramp. That car then also hit the one in front, causing minor damage. A 60-year-old woman in the middle car suffered injuries to her neck and is expected to be in the hospital for a week. Nishikido later visited her to offer his apologies. A Johnny’s spokesperson said that the singer was alone in his car on his day off, and he says he was not paying attention to the road ahead at the time of the accident. The talent agency said Nishikido had been sternly reprimanded and had volunteered to give up driving for the foreseeable future, but they added it was unlikely the incident would have any impact on his showbiz career. Police are expected to file papers with the prosecutor’s office.

This year’s Gold Disc Awards were held today and the big winners once again were Exile. The vocal group repeated as winners of the Japanese music category, the fifth time the feat has been achieved (previous names include Hamasaki Ayumi and Koda Kumi). The award is based mainly on CD sales, and Exile had another great year in 2008. Led by the hits collection “Exile Ballad Best,” they had 4.21 million album sales and fell just short of 10 million digital downloads. They won a total of 15 music awards last year and look to add a lot more in 2009. The latest award came the day after the 7-member group announced that it was doubling in size. The seven members of their “junior group” J Soul Brothers are now part of Exile, and the new lineup makes its first release with the single “The Monster/Someday” on April 15. They will embark on a 9-city national tour in May. Exile were formerly known as J Soul Brothers and handed that name over to the younger members in 2007. They released their major label debut album just last month, reaching No.1 on the Oricon chart.

Singer Tamaki Koji (50) and actress Ishihara Mariko (45) have entered the latest stage of their long and bizarre relationship. They registered their marriage yesterday at the municipal office in the Denenchofu suburb of Tokyo, some 24 years after their relationship began. Back in the early 1980s, Tamaki was married but became besotted with the young Ishihara, sending her a set of red underwear as a sign of his love. Their affair was exposed in the media in 1985, and Tamaki divorced the following year but the couple broke up soon afterwards. Over the years, Ishihara had relationships with a host of celebrities, but largely disappeared from Japanese show business. She was back in the limelight in 2006, when in her autobiography she broke a showbiz taboo by naming many of those celebrities. About a fifth of the book was about her relationship with Tamaki, and she went into great detail about how she contemplated suicide when their affair was exposed. She also revealed that in February 1986 she was hospitalized for more than a month with a broken vertebra after he had beaten her. The book was later made into a movie. One of Japan’s most recognizable music stars, Tamaki formed the rock band Anzen Chitai in 1973, though it wasn’t until the early 80s that they had their major record label debut and achieved stardom.

• Former pin-up idol Komukai Minako has been found guilty on charges of drug possession and use. She admitted to the charges, allowing the judge to issue a speedy verdict at the Tokyo District Court today. She received an 18-month sentence, suspended for three years, and was in tears as she spoke briefly to reporters outside the courthouse.

The local media is still buzzing with Japan’s double Oscar win on Monday. And even the author of the book which inspired the movie, but who refused to lend his name to the project, has been enjoying the limelight. Aoki Shinmon wrote “Noukanfu Nikki” in 1996, based on his ten years working as a noukanshi (literally, “encoffining master”). A noukanshi’s job is not disposal of the dead. Rather it is putting the dead at ease for the journey to the next world,” he said in an interview this week. Actor Motoki Masahiro was so inspired by the book that he visited Aoki to ask if he could adapt it for the big screen. Aoki originally agreed to the project but was unhappy when the final script changed the story’s location from his native Toyama Prefecture to the northern Yamagata. He refused to allow his name or book title to be used, which led to the movie’s change of name. But Aoki and others in his profession have been particularly impressed with Motoki’s performance, which critics have said is his best ever. After the Oscar win, publishers Bungeishunju announced that they would be printing an extra 40,000 copies of Aoki’s book. But following the intense media attention that followed the Oscar, they quickly increased that by an additional 50,000.

Meanwhile, Motoki’s co-star Hirosue Ryoko (28) was all smiles as dozens of reporters greeted her arrival at Narita Airport yesterday. She shared a flight from Los Angeles with actor Hugh Jackman (40), who hosted the Oscar ceremony and is in Japan to promote his blockbuster “Australia.”

The Japanese show business industry has been basking in the glory of the country’s two wins at the Academy Awards, which we announced here yesterday. Japanese productions won two Oscars, both for the first time in their category. The first to be announced was the animated short “Tsumiki no Ie.” But the bigger prize was taken by “Okuribito” (Departures), chosen as best foreign language film. Director Takita Yojiro (53) has come a long way since his 1981 debut as a director of soft porn. “Chikan Onna Sensei” (Pervert Lady Teacher) was the first in a series of more than a dozen he made. In recent years, he’s had more mainstream success with films like “Onmyoji” (2001) and “Battery” (2007), but has reached a peak with his 43rd movie. He was emotional after the awards ceremony and tearfully thanked the cast and dozens of crew members who paid their own way to accompany him to Los Angeles. As often happens in Japan, it was only when Okuribito started gaining a reputation at film festivals overseas late last year that it got any media attention at home. Stars Motoki Masahiro (43) and Hirosue Ryoko (32) are already well established names, so the Oscar is mainly Takita’s chance to enjoy the full limelight.

• Actor Nishimura Kazuhiko (42) is a father again. He announced on his blog yesterday that his wife, shodo (calligraphy) artist Kunishige Tomomi (30) gave birth to their second child last weekend. They married in 2006 and had a son the following year. Nishimura was previously married to actress Tachihara Mai (39). Meanwhile, actor Tanihara Shousuke (36) is to be father for the third time, according to today’s issue of weekly magazine “Shuukan Josei.” He and his wife Emi (32) have two children, their elder son being from her previous marriage to actor Ishida Issei (34). She was already pregnant when she and Tanihara married in March 2007. They had a daughter the following October.

• With an 11-year career behind her, J-pop star aiko (33) finally has her first No.1 single. She’s had 5 chart-topping albums but the best she’s ever managed until now on the Oricon singles rankings was No.2. That has now changed with the success of “Milk/Nageki no Kiss,” which entered the latest chart at No.1. On top of the album chart are rock band Unicorn, who recently reformed 15 years after they split.　”Shamble” is their 7th original album. They split up in 1993 and members pursued solo careers until they decided to revive the band in the spring of last year. The band is fronted by Okuda Tamio, who has had by far the most successful solo career over the last decade.

“Okuribito” (Departures) has been named as this year’s best foreign language film at the 81st Academy Awards. Widely considered the second-favorite for the award, behind Israeli film “War With Bashir,” the movie continued on its strong performance at festivals around the world over the last few months. Joined on stage by stars Motoki Masahiro (43) Hirosue Ryoko (28), Hirosue Ryoko (28) and Yo Kimiko (52), director Takita Yoji (53) gave a brief acceptance speech in very broken English. The award meant that Japan was two for two on the night. “Tsumiki no Ie,” an animated short by Kato Kunio (31), took Japan’s first ever Oscar in that category and the the country’s first in six years. Okuribito is a moving and often humorous drama of human dignity and family bonds. Motoki plays an out-of-work cellist who leaves Tokyo to return to his hometown to become an undertaker, ritually cleansing and placing the deceased into coffins at funeral ceremonies.

Actress Shaku Yumiko (30) announced online yesterday that she had an autoimmune disease disease, but later deleted the entry from her blog. She wrote that she had been diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome, which was causing the mild paralysis she had been experiencing in her arms and legs. But when he read the details of the blog entry, her doctor contacted her to clarify that she was suffering from a milder condition affecting her peripheral nervous system. Fans had been expressing concern for the popular actress and it homework-profi.com to simply delete the original entry. She wrote a new entry that didn’t mention the syndrome and reassured fans that she was fine and well on the road to recovery. Shaku wrote on the blog last week that she had come down with a severe cold and high fever. When she felt unable to move her limbs on Saturday she decided to see a doctor and received what she thought was the stark-sounding diagnosis, though she was assured she should recover fully with a week’s rest. Shaku is currently starring in the Fuji TV drama series “B-gata Onna ga Kekkon Suru Houhou.”

• “Tsumiki no Ie,” an animated short by Kato Kunio (31), has taken Japan’s first ever Oscar in that category and the the country’s first in six years. Though the movie’s title translates as House of Blocks, Kato chose to use the French “La Maison en Petits Cubes” for its international release. It is the story of an elderly man living on top of a brick building surrounded by encroaching floodwaters. The man continues to painstakingly add bricks to the top of his dwelling to avoid being swallowed up. One day, he accidentally drops his pipe into one of the underwater rooms. He follows it as it sinks downward. Each new floor brings back an old memory, such as time he spent with his deceased wife and their daughter.

The J-pop sisters Koda Kumi (26, photo right) and Misono (24, photo left) are teaming up for the first time. They are scheduled to release a joint single, “It’s All Love” by chaku-uta download on February 25 and on CD in March and will be appearing on the music show circuit together. Though the younger of the two, it was Misono who first achieved popularity from her debut in 2002 until 2005 as vocalist with the group Day After Tomorrow. One reason for the breakup of the group was said to be Misono’s considerable weight gain, and she was then completely eclipsed by the success of her big sister. Kumi, who debuted in 2000 and had limited success in the club music scene, almost overnight became J-pop’s biggest seller in 2005 and again in 2006 with her upbeat dance numbers, regular TV appearances and “ero-kakkoii” (sexy cool) image. Misono started getting her career back on track in 2006, but more on the TV variety circuit than in music and she is now a regular on such shows as “Quiz! Hexagon.” Both sisters, who hail from Kyoto, clearly enjoy the limelight, share a raucous sense of humor and are said to be close. But they have only ever appeared on TV together once, on “Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ” last December, and have performed together only in private.

• Up and coming comedians are always glad to get a bit of extra publicity. So it’s no surprise that Kasuga Toshiaki (30) of the duo Audrey is making the most of a story in today’s issue of weekly gossip magazine “Friday.” The story includes photos of Kasuga and a young woman leaving his shabby Tokyo apartment, describing her as small and a bit chubby but beautiful. Kasuga insisted at a hastily arranged press conference late last night that they are still in the early stages of a relationship, which he fears may have been jeopardized by the magazine story. Audrey, made up of Kasuga and Wakabayashi Masayasu (30), made their breakthrough at the end of last year but are still living the life of struggling artists. In their skits, Kasuga has joked about living in an old wooden apartment building, in a single 6-tatami mat room with no bath. He says he washes using baby’s diaper wipes.

One of Japan’s most famous veteran rock guitarists has been arrested for marijuana possession. Police stopped to question Suzuki Shigeru (57) on Tuesday afternoon when his car was spotted illegally parked in a warehouse district near Fuji TV’s Tokyo Bay studio. Thinking his behavior seemed suspicious, officers searched the car and found about 1g of marijuana in a tupperware container. Suzuki admitted ownership of the drugs and was arrested on the spot. It’s his first arrest, but police decided to also search his home for other drug-related items. Suzuki formed his first band in 1968 and was invited by Hosono Haruomi (61, later of YMO) to join Happii Endo (Happy End) the following year. The band were pioneers of the Japanese rock scene. In the years following the breakup of the band in 1974, Suzuki teamed up with Hosono, Matsutoya Masataka (57) and other big names to form such bands as Caramel Mama, Tin Pan Alley and Hucklebuck. Suzuki recorded his first solo album in Los Angeles in 1975. He has played as a support musician for a host of artists over the years and has taken part in several charity recordings.

• Movie director Danny Boyle (52) was in Tokyo to promote his latest Oscar-nominated film. Helping him promote “Slumdog Millionaire” was talento Mino Monta (64, profile), host of the Japanese version of the global quiz show that is central to the movie. The pair dined on a lunch of katsu curry, with the katsu (pork cutlet) being a pun on the Japanese word for “win.” If Slumdog does take the best picture Oscar later this month, it will be the first movie made outside the U.S. to do so since “The Last Emperor” in 1987.