Japanese Entertainment News & Info HERE! [part II]

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Older, stronger Goku in Hollywood's 'Dragonball'

Thursday 19th February, 04:08 AM JST

SEOUL, South Korea

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Ikki Sawamura, Misaki Ito introduce 3D screen mobile handset

Thursday 19th February, 02:27 PM JST



TOKYO

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Ayako Kawahara to star in adaptation of 'Alice in Wonderland'

Friday 20th February, 05:33 AM JST



TOKYO

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Jackie Chan appoints Hiroki Narimiya as Hong Kong tourism ambassador

Friday 20th February, 04:00 AM JST



TOKYO

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Horikita goes homeless for next drama
Fri, February 20, 2009 (1:05am EST)



Actress Maki Horikita will take on a very different role for her next TV drama. She is starring in an untitled Fuji TV series which partly has her playing a homeless person.

In the drama, Horikita's character is burdened with 100 million yen worth of debt after her gambling father disappears. Chased out of her home by collectors, she is forced to sleep in places like internet cafes. However, she meets the president of a major company who offers to pay off the debt if she marries him, and she soon finds herself moving in with a rather eccentric family.

Fuji TV will air the show on Tuesdays at 9:00pm, starting in April.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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Buffalo Goro's Kimura divorces
Fri, February 20, 2009 (2:49am EST)

Comedian Akihiro Kimura (38), one half of the duo Buffalo Goro, revealed on his blog on Thursday that he has just divorced. According to his agency, he and his wife filed their divorce papers on the 17th.

Kimura married his wife, who is two years younger than him, in 2002 after having known her for ten years. He said that they had somehow grown apart, and after discussing it, they mutually decided to separate.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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Hiroshi Tamaki dominated CMs in '08
Fri, February 20, 2009 (2:07am EST)



Video Research Ltd. has published its TV commercial data for the entire year of 2008. For the past three years, Yukie Nakama has been #1 in the Kanto region, but this time her streak was ended by actor Hiroshi Tamaki. He accounted for nearly 70 hours of airtime in almost 12,000 commercials, putting him close to 18 hours ahead of Nakama.

Aya Ueto, Yu Aoi, and Takuya Kimura made up the rest of the top five. The biggest gain was by Nana Eikura, who jumped from 147th last year to 9th this year.

In the Kansai area, Tamaki was only #3, trailing behind Maki Ota and Kosuke Toyohara, who tied for #1 at 64 hours thanks to an Alico Japan campaign. Meanwhile in Nagoya, Aya Ueto retained her #1 seat from last year, edging out Tamaki by just over an hour.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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First collaboration for sisters Kumi Koda, misono
Fri, February 20, 2009 (1:24am EST)



Kumi Koda and her sister misono are finally putting out their first collaborative single. Under the name "Koda Kumi x misono," they will release the song "It's all Love!" on CD next month. The fast-tempo tune tells of an older sister cheering up a brokenhearted younger sister, with lyrics written by Kumi and misono over a period of about six months.

Koda appeared on the music scene in 2000, while misono made her debut two years later as part of the band day after tomorrow. But after the group broke up in 2005, misono launched an unimpressive solo career, though she found a little more success as a TV personality.

Ringtone downloads for "It's all Love!" are scheduled to start on the 25th.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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Televiews-Spring delights offer pleasant change to schedules
February 21, 2009 by J!-ENT

In a recent Televiews column by Wm. Penn for the Daily Yomiuri, Penn wrote about the upcoming Spring dramas.  Here is an excerpt from her column:

Enough of the doom and gloom predictions on the future of terrestrial TV. What we need this week is some happy TV news, and with the new spring season just around the corner, there are actually a few cheerful things to report.

None of the networks have yet adopted the Televiews stimulus and recovery plan, but there are some signs that they are beginning to think along those lines. In the more family-oriented variety category, TV Asahi returns the magical home remodeling show Before After to its Sunday night lineup from April after a three year hiatus. The emphasis will be on economical and ecofriendly makeovers.

Konkatsu Rikatsu (starting April 10, Fridays, 10-10:45 p.m., NHK-G) is billed as a humorous series about marriage and divorce. 揔onkatsu

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'Okuribito' wins 10 categories at Japan Academy Prizes
Saturday 21st February, 05:08 AM JST



TOKYO

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Kabuki actor Nakamura Matagoro dies at 94
Saturday 21st February, 03:34 PM JST



TOKYO

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Mai Oshima to leave AKB48
Sat, February 21, 2009 (12:58pm EST)



During an AKB48 concert on Saturday, it was announced that Team A member Mai Oshima (also known by the nickname Maimai) will be leaving the group. Her final Akihabara performance will be on March 27, followed by her last concerts as an AKB48 member on April 25-26 at NHK Hall.

According to an entry on her blog, Oshima said that she has long wanted to become a talento in variety shows and television dramas. She has recently been making lots of TV appearances on her own, and she felt that graduating from AKB48 would be the best course to achieving her goals.

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Fujiki stars in "Ikemen Sobaya Tantei"
Sun, February 22, 2009 (8:00pm EST)

NTV is producing a new drama series titled "Ikemen Sobaya Tantei," combining comedy and mystery. The show features the same primary staff and cast as the network's variety show "Horeyuke! Star Daisakusen," which aired in 2007 and 2008.



The plot involves around Juntaro Higuchi (Naohito Fujiki), a good-looking employee at a soba restaurant (the "ikemen" in the title is a pun on the word "men," meaning noodles). While working there, he is constantly asked to solve various cases. His supporting cast includes Katsuhisa Namase and Arata Furuta, who were also regulars on "Horeyuke! Star Daisakusen."



"Ikemen Sobaya Tantei" premieres on April 4. It will air on Saturday nights at 12:50am.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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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.

Source: www.japan-zone.com

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Ebi-chan unveils designs for new fashion brand Swingle

Monday 23rd February, 05:30 AM JST



TOKYO

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Lindberg is back for the year
Sun, February 22, 2009 (10:04pm EST)

Rock band Lindberg is reuniting. Vocalist Maki Watase announced the news during her solo comeback concert in Tokyo on Sunday - which happened to be her 40th birthday - saying that the group will be active just for this year.

Lindberg originally debuted 20 years ago, but they disbanded in 2002 so that Watase could focus on raising her child with bandmate Tatsuya Hirakawa. The group had been discussing the possibility of a reunion, and preparations began around last summer.

On April 22, Lindberg wil release a best album titled "Lindberg XX," which will include three new songs. They will then do two comeback concerts in Shibuya on April 25 and May 9.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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Hiroshi Abe teams up with Nozomi Ohashi in "Shiroi Haru"
Mon, February 23, 2009 (12:57am EST)



Actor Hiroshi Abe has been chosen to star in a new Fuji TV drama series titled "Shiroi Haru" ("White Spring"). This is his first lead role in a drama since "Kekkon Dekinai Otoko" in 2006.

The show's theme is the love between a parent and child. Abe plays a man just released after a 10-year prison sentence. He encounters a young girl, who turns out to be his own daughter that he conceived with his ex-girlfriend just before he went to jail.



Abe's daughter will be played by 9-year-old actress Nozomi Ohashi. She recently got her break as a voice actress in Hayao Miyazaki's "Gake no Ue no Ponyo," for which she also sang the theme song with folk duo Fujioka Fujimaki. "Shiroi Haru" will be her first regular role in a TV series.



Other cast members include Yuriko Yo$hitaka and Kenichi Endo. Broadcast begins on April 14 in Fuji TV's Tuesday 10:00pm time slot.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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Another child for Kazuhiko Nishimura
Mon, February 23, 2009 (1:07am EST)



Actor Kazuhiko Nishimura (42) is now a father of two. His wife, the well-known calligrapher Tomomi Kunishige (30), gave birth to the couple's second child, a daughter, on Saturday. Married since 2006, the pair had their first child, a son, in January 2008.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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Yumiko Shaku suffering from nerve problems
Mon, February 23, 2009 (12:11am EST)



Actress Yumiko Shaku (30) was recently diagnosed with a mild form of Guillain-Barr

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Japan claims victories at Oscars
Mon, February 23, 2009 (1:49am EST)



At the 81st Academy Awards held on Sunday in Los Angeles, Japanese films went two-for-two as both nominees walked away with a prize. The bigger winner was Yojiro Takita's "Okuribito" ("Departures"), winning the title of Best Foreign Language Film. The critically-acclaimed movie has already won a total of 60 awards at home, including 10 in the Japan Academy Awards.

However, this Oscar is a perhaps an even more remarkable achievement, given that "Okuribito" is the first Japanese film to win the award since it was established as a competitive prize in 1956.



Kunio Kato's "Tsumiki no Ie" ("La Maison En Petits Cubes") won Best Animated Short Film, the first Japanese win in that category. The last Japanese animated movie to win an Academy Award was when Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away" took Best Animated Feature Film in 2003.

This is only the second time that Japanese films have won two awards in the same year. The first was in 1955, when Teinosuke Kinugasa's "Jigokumon" ("Gate of Hell") won Best Color Costume Design and the honorary award of "best foreign language film first released in the United States during 1954."

Source: www.tokyograph.com