Japanese Entertainment News & Info HERE! [part II]

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Avril Lavigne starts Japan tour in Hamamatsu
Friday 12th September, 05:56 AM JST



SHIZUOKA

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Thelma Aoyama sets a Guinness World Record
Fri, September 12, 2008 (12:58am EDT)



Thelma Aoyama's hit "Soba ni Iru ne" is currently the best-selling song as a full mobile download (chaku-uta) in Japan. That title has now been officially recognized by the Guinness World Records, and Aoyama has been presented with her certificate.

"Soba ni Iru ne" was released in January and had been downloaded to mobile phones 2 million times as of July, when the application was filed with Guinness. The song currently stands at a total of 8.2 million downloads across various formats, including 3.55 million chaku-uta downloads and 2.15 million chaku-uta full downloads. The CD release was the top-selling single for the first half of 2008.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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ARATA gets first TV drama role
Fri, September 12, 2008 (2:02am EDT)

Actor ARATA will appear in his first television drama, taking the starring role. The show is an NHK special titled "Saigo no Senpan," revolving around the internal conflict of a WWII officer who is ordered by his superiors to commit war crimes.



"Saigo no Senpan" also features Mitsuko Baisho, Seiichi Tanabe, and Sachie Hara. NHK will air the episode on December 7.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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AKB48's new song gets leaked before completion
Fri, September 12, 2008 (2:41am EDT)



AKB48 is scheduled to release their first single under King Records on October 22, titled "Oogoe Diamond." The song is still being worked on, but a version of it has been leaked onto the internet. The group's staff posted a statement on the official blog on Wednesday, saying that they are preparing to take legal action against the source of the leak.

AKB48's management was tipped off by fans who discovered that the song had been uploaded to a certain site. Given that the song is still incomplete, there is a strong possibility that someone involved with the company was responsible for the leak.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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Kenichi Matsuyama to star in "Ultra Miracle Love Story"
Fri, September 12, 2008 (12:46am EDT)



Kenichi Matsuyama's next starring role in a movie will be in Satoko Yokohama's tentatively-titled "Ultra Miracle Love Story." The story is set in Matsuyama's native prefecture of Aomori, and all of his lines will be spoken in the difficult Tsugaru dialect from that area.



Matsuyama plays a young man living an agricultural life in Aomori. He falls in love for the first time with a woman who has come from Tokyo (Kumiko Aso). The supporting cast includes Misako Watanabe, Yoshio Harada, and Yumiko Fujita.

Filming starts on the 13th and is expected to last a month. The movie opens next year.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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Yuki Koyanagi moves to Universal
Sat, September 13, 2008 (3:04pm EDT)



Singer Yuki Koyanagi has moved to Universal Music. On October 15, she will release her first single with the company under the Nayutawave Records label.

Titled "we can go anywhere," it will be the first since "Chikai" in 2006 to be released under her full name. (She released a cover of Amy Winehouse's "Rehab" this past February under the name Yuki-K.) Koyanagi wrote and composed the song, and also wrote the lyrics for the B-side, "slow movie."

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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Masashi Sada to release Hibari Misora cover album
Sat, September 13, 2008 (3:09pm EDT)



Singer Masashi Sada is currently working on a cover album of songs by the late Hibari Misora. "Joukei: Kokoro wo Tsugu" is set for release on October 22, containing 12 of the legendary singer's most famous hits.

Misora's works have previously been covered and released in the form of tribute albums, but Sada will be the first artist to release a full cover album alone. The project has apparently been brewing since five years ago, but it didn't become a reality until this year, the 35th anniversary of Sada's debut.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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"Code Blue" to get New Year's special
Sat, September 13, 2008 (2:25am EDT)



Fuji TV's medical drama series "Code Blue" ended its run on Thursday, but the network has announced that a special two-hour episode will air during the New Year's period at the start of 2009.

According to Video Research Ltd.'s viewership data, the last episode had ratings of 19.5%, putting the entire series average at 15.9%. With the rest of this season's dramas almost over as well, it appears that "Code Blue" will have the highest ratings of the summer.

The special episode is set to take place after the events of the final episode. The main cast has been confirmed as returning, including Tomohisa Yama$hita, Yui Aragaki, Erika Toda, Manami Higa, and Yosuke Asari.

Fuji TV has not yet scheduled an exact date for the special.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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J-rock guitarist Sugizo is to join the band Juno Reactor their North America tour later this month. The "Gods and Monsters" tour is in support of the recent album of the same name, which featured Sugizo, one-time Asian Dub Foundation vocalist Ghetto Priest and a host of other guest artists from around the world. The tour is their first visit to the U.S. in seven years. They will have a hectic schedule, taking in two shows in Mexico on September 18-19 and then Denver, Aspen, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York between September 20-28. A multi-ethnic group that defy simple categorization, Juno Reactor have been at the forefront of electronic music for over 15 years. The band themselves classify their music as electronica/industrial/ambient. Whatever you call it, it has featured in a multitude of movies (including "The Matrix"), video games and commercials over the years, and they headlined Japan's major Fuji Rock Festival in 2007. As the lead guitarist for top J-rock band Luna Sea, Sugizo is a pioneer of the J-rock scene, and recently performed with the reunited X Japan. He also joined Juno Reactor on their recent tour of Europe, though their official site doesn't say if he'll be with them for a scheduled October 30 show in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Source: www.japan-zone.com

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It seems that talento Anzai Hiroko (29) is on her way back into showbiz, though slowly. A hugely popular model and TV personality in the late 1990s, and considered along with Hamasaki Ayumi to be a fashion and style leader for a generation of young Japanese females, she largely disappeared from the scene in the last few years. Her only appearance in the news was late last year when she split up with Kawabata Kaname (29) of the J-pop duo Chemistry. And she was recently included in a "Flash" magazine "where are they now?" article on busty pin-up girls. But she graces the cover of the latest issue of fashion magazine "Blenda Black" and features in a special spread inside.

Source: www.japan-zone.com

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Doctor/talento Nishikawa Ayako (37) is in a relationship with a former politician, according to this week's issue of weekly magazine "Friday." Famous for saying she could never marry someone who makes less than

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Singer MiChi goes major
Fri, September 12, 2008 (2:22am EDT)



Half-British, half-Japanese singer MiChi will be making her leap from indie to major this October. Her first single is titled "PROMiSE."

Only 23, MiChi has been active as a singer for the past four years. This past June, she released an album called "MiChi Madness," and it became a big hit on iTunes. With her music ranging from dance to rock to electro, three of the album's songs took the top three spots on iTunes' dance charts, an unprecedented achievement. The album also made it to #2 on the overall charts.

"PROMiSE," on sale October 22, is an up-tempo number with English and Japanese lyrics. It will be available as a chaku-uta starting on September 17, and it has been given a tie-in with the commercial for au Smart Sports. That commercial series helped the new duo Kimaguren reach #1 on the Oricon album charts earlier this year.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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Versailles becomes a "Philharmonic Quintet"
Sun, September 14, 2008 (1:02am EDT)



As reported in August, visual-kei band Versailles has decided to change their name due to a conflict with a U.S. artist. Their new name has finally been revealed as "Versailles -Philharmonic Quintet-." However, the name is expected to only be used for the band's U.S. activities.

The band accepted suggestions from fans last month, receiving tens of thousands of messages. For privacy reasons, the band did not reveal the identity of the person who submitted the chosen name.

In October, Versailles will be appearing at Anime USA in Arlington, Virginia, followed by a show in New York. As a gesture of thanks to their fans, the band has also made their new song "PRINCE" available for free online.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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Miho Yoshioka pregnant with second child
Sun, September 14, 2008 (1:27am EDT)



Talento Miho Yoshioka, 28, is expecting her second child, it was learned on Saturday. Yoshioka, who married SHAZNA vocalist Izam in November 2006, gave birth to a son the following April. The second child is due this November.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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Junpei Mizobata to host talk show
Sun, September 14, 2008 (1:52am EDT)



Teen actor Junpei Mizobata will be serving as the main host of a new NTV talk/variety show called "Dare Datte Haran Bakusho." The show, which will air on Sunday mornings at 9:30am, is a replacement for the long-running "Itsu Mitemo Haran Banjo."

Since debuting in 2006 after winning the JUNON Superboy Contest, Mizobata has been quickly gaining popularity. Earlier this year, he got his first starring role in the drama series "Hachi-One Diver" and a co-starring role in the movie "DIVE!!" This winter, he will play the male lead in the drama and film adaptations of "Akai Ito."

Mizobata's co-hosts on the new show are talento Mari Sekine and announcer Masaaki Horio. The first episode is scheduled for October 5.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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"Gokudo no Shokutaku" being adapted to film
Sun, September 14, 2008 (2:06am EDT)

Ayumi Tachihara's comedy manga "Gokudo no Shokutaku" is being turned into a live-action film, it has been announced.



Veteran actor Ken Matsudaira was chosen to star in the picture, which revolves around a middle-aged, divorced yakuza boss who attends classes at night to further his passion as a gourmet. Filming is reportedly close to wrapping up, and producers are aiming to release the movie in February 2009.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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At the weekend, the Japanese movie "Okuribito" (Departures) won three prizes at China's biggest film festival...or did it? The Takita Yojiro-directed movie won the Grand Prix des Americas at the Montreal World Film Festival earlier this month, and on Friday it was announced as Japan's entry for Best Foreign Film at next year's Academy Awards. Japanese media reported that on Saturday it took three audience awards at the 17th biennial Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival in the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian, where it was one of 18 invited foreign movies. In addition to taking Best Film, star Motoki Masahiro (42) won as Best Actor, and Takita took the Best Director award. The awards were decided by a panel of 101 judges drawn from 2.6 million readers of the People's Film magazine. But media outside Japan includes no mention whatsoever of the Japanese film. Chinese and foreign news reports say that director Feng Xiaogang's war movie "Assembly" was the big winner, taking the awards for Best Film, Director, Actor and Supporting Actor. Japan Zone can only assume that there were separate awards for Chinese and foreign films. Regardless of whether there is in fact any confusion, the cast members took full advantage of the publicity when they appeared at a screening in Tokyo on Saturday. For the media photo shoot, Motoki held plaques commemorating the awards. Co-starring Hirosue Ryoko (28), "Okuribito" tells the story of an out-of-work cellist who takes up the job of an undertaker.

Source: www.japan-zone.com

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Atsuro Watabe to compete at TIFF with directorial debut
Sun, September 14, 2008 (2:32am EDT)



Actor Atsuro Watabe is sitting in the director's chair for the first time, heading up a movie titled "Kotoba no Nai Fuyu." Watabe also came up with the original proposal for the film, and is appearing in it along with starring actress Saki Takaoka.



Set during a winter in Hokkaido, the story depicts a painful love between a man unable to speak since birth (Watabe) and a woman who suddenly loses her memory in a horse-riding accident (Takaoka). Leona Hirota and Kazuma Suzuki are among the supporting cast.

Watabe commented that it has long been his dream to direct a movie. He said the scenes were close to being improvisational, so he offered the role to Takaoka, whom he felt would be flexible enough to handle it. The pair have worked together multiple times in the past, such as in the 1992 film "Hashi no Nai Kawa."

The film has already been given a spot in the competition category of the upcoming Tokyo International Film Festival, taking place October 18-26. No theatrical release date has been announced so far.

Source: www.tokyograph.com

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Actor Fuse Hiroshi (50) and actress Komura Hiro (42) are on the verge of ending their 16-year marriage. Komura's lawyer filed for a divorce at the end of August. Long considered one of the ideal showbiz couples, the first cracks appeared earlier this year. Appearing on a TV show in April, Komura said they had been separated since 2006. Though it's rumored that Fuse has a long and ongoing extra-marital relationship, Komura said the source of the trouble was the question of how to care for the aging parents on both sides of the family. Fuse was still living in the same home as his parents, while Komura had moved with their three sons to a house near her parents. Asked about their relationship at the time, Komura said, "The children keep in touch with their father. But I don't have much contact with him." She gave up acting while her children were small but has since resumed her career, returning to the stage in July 2006.

Source: www.japan-zone.com

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Also going their separate ways are actor Kato Haruhiko (33) and popular Chukyo TV announcer Honda Sayuri (31), it was revealed on Saturday. The two Nagoya natives started dating after they appeared together on an NTV telethon in August 2006, but are said to have split up at the beginning of this year. One women's magazine reported that Kato had called off wedding plans after consulting with a feng sui practitioner.

Source: www.japan-zone.com