Emi Takei will throw the opening pitch for the season opener.J-SPORTS
TOKYO —
Actress Emi Takei will throw the ceremonial opening pitch in the season-opening baseball game between Chunichi and Hiroshima at Nagoya Dome on March 30.
Takei, who is also the image character for satellite sports channel J SPORTS, said she is a big fan of the Chunichi Dragons.
For the opening pitch, she said she’d like to throw a forkball. “Chunichi pitcher Takuya Asao showed me how but I’ll have to work on it from now,” she said.
Popular models Yuri Ebihara, 32, Moe Oshikiri, 32, and Koharu Kusumi, 19, were among 17 glamour girls who took part in a dancing fashion show over the weekend to mark the 5th anniversary of AneCan magazine and 30th anniversary of CanCam magazine.
According to Oshikiri, incorporating dance into the fashion show was a last-minute idea. “We were all a bit nervous,” she told reporters after Sunday’s event in Roppongi. “However, it was a good opportunity to show what we can do.”
The show helped raise money for victims of the Tohoku disaster. Fifteen apparel brands that have factories in the Tohoku area sold items during the show. Proceeds will be donated to the Japan Red Cross Society.
Actress Arisa Mizuki, 35, is going to be an emcee for the first time in her career on the Fuji TV variety program, “Catharine.”
The 30-minute program will air Tuesday nights from 11 p.m., starting in April. It will cover topics of interest to women such as “women’s real intentions,” “the gap between women’s inner and outer appearance,” and “understanding men’s pride.”
Mizuki has been in the world of show business since she was 4. Commenting on her first time as an emcee, she said in a statement to media: “I’m excited and looking forward to finding a new side of myself. I hope guests can talk freely and feel comfortable during the show, just as if they were visiting a friend’s home.”
AKB48's Haruna Kojima appears in an ad for Tsubaki.
TOKYO —
AKB48 singer Haruna Kojima, 23, joins the lineup of beauties in the new ad campaign for Shiseido hair care brand TSUBAKI. Kojima joins popular model Yuri Ebihara, 32, actress Anne, 25, and model Kiko Mizuhara, 21.
The commercial is the second in a new series titled “Glamorous Beauty.” The four women appear in 12 different variations of the ad.
Things are going from bad to worse for Tomoko Nakajima, 40, one half of the comedy duo Othello (along with Nahomi Matsushima).
Nakajima has been having financial troubles since April last year when she took time off from her regular TBS Saturday morning variety program “Shittoko!” due to “health reasons.”
According to Nikkan Sports, Nakajima is being sued by a real estate company for more than 6.5 million rent in arrears for her Tokyo apartment and office. The tabloid also said that Nakajima’s flatmate is a mystic woman who has gained control over her mind. Nakajima, whose weight is said to have ballooned, has dropped out of sight since late last year.
Nikkan Sports reported that TV stations in Tokyo and Osaka have dropped her from four programs that she used to be on, although guest hosts have been filling in for her since last year.
All of us are worried. KARA leader Park Gyuri I lost early on. The surgery is going well. We all are waiting to hear her voice again.
From news "KARA leader Park Gyuri to have surgery on vocal cords"
KARA lead singer Park Gyuri
TOKYO —
Park Gyuri, the 23-year-old lead vocalist for popular all-girl Korean group KARA, will have surgery to remove a polyp on her vocal cords on Tuesday, the group’s agency DSP Media announced Monday.
Gyuri had been complaining of a sore throat since last November, DSP said.
The group kicked off their long-awaited Asia tour in Seoul on Feb 18. The tour, titled “KARASIA,” will also see the girls give concerts in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Thailand, as well as a five-city tour of Japan starting April 14.
KARA’s management said Gyuri will be recovered in time for the Japan tour which sees the girls perform in Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka — with two concerts at each venue.
The group has appeared at live events many times in Japan, but they usually only sang one or two songs to promote CDs or to meet and greet fans.
The newest song by NMB48, a sister group of AKB48, has risen to the No. 1 spot in Oricon’s rankings for Feb 20. “Junjo U-19” is the third single in a row from NMB48 to occupy the No. 1 spot.
The group is based in Namba, Osaka. Members of the group said that it is like a dream.
The No. 1 ranked album is L’Arc~en~Ciel’s “BUTTERFLY.” The group hasn’t held the No. 1 spot since late 2007.
Popular actress-singer Meisa Kuroki, 23, is two months pregnant and has announced her marriage to former KAT-TUN singer Jin Akanishi, 27, tabloid media reported Thursday.
The news, first reported by Sports Nippon, comes two weeks after the couple denied they were dating. “We’re friends but he is not my boyfriend,” Kuroki said in a statement released last month by her agency, while Akanishi’s agency, Johnny’s Jimusho, released a statement in which he said “We are not going out.”
The gossip started when the pair were spotted together at Tokyo DisneySea on Jan 22, Sankei Shimbun reported. A Johnny’s spokesperson said that Akanishi did go to Tokyo DisneySea, but he wasn’t alone with Kuroki. They were among a group of friends, the spokesperson said.
Besides DisneySea, the pair were also seen in Okinawa on Jan 14 and at Lalaport Toyosu in Tokyo’s Koto Ward on Jan 21.
Akanishi is going to release the album “JAPONICANA” in Japan and the U.S. on March 7, and go on a concert tour of five cities in the U.S. He will also be seen in the Hollywood film “47 RONIN,” alongside Keanu Reeves, to be released in December.
Kuroki has a second album, “UNLOCKED,” due out on Feb 15. Sports Nippon reported that she will continue working after giving birth.
Masami Nagasawa says she is very happy to play a detective in her newest TV drama, “Toshi Densetsu no Onna,” which will air on TV Asahi on Friday nights from April.
It has been three years since Nagasawa appeared in a TV drama series. “Toshi Densetsu no Onna” is a mixture of comedy and mystery. Nagasawa plays Tsukiko Otonashi, a police detective who is obsessed with urban legends and who works on unsolved cases behind the legends.
Nagasawa said her character is always on the lookout for evidence to link crimes to unexplained urban legends. She even goes so far as to investigate crimes by herself in secret.
The obligatory romance is provided by Junpei Inomata who plays a handsome forensic investigator. He falls in love with Tsukiko at first sight.
Nagasawa told reporters she has wanted to play a detective for a long time. She said that the director was very open to her ad-libbing jokes.
TOKYO — Actress Aya Ueto, 26, is happy to have a “sister” for the new ad campaign for clothing brand Aoki.
Ueo and Ayame Goriki, 19, who belongs to Ueto’s agency, will be appearing in the new TV commercial campaign, wearing suits.
“A lot of people have told me that Ayame looks like me,” Ueto said. “It’s like I’m looking at me a long time ago.” Goriki gushed: “I’m so happy that I look like Ueto. I feel like we are sisters.”
Model Reina Triendl is making a guest appearance in Softbank Mobile’s Shirato (White) Family ads.
Triendl, 20, plays a “student from Hawaii” who comes to Japan for a homestay with the Shirato family. “I’m Tada. I’m from Hawaii,” she says in the ad. Wearing a school uniform, Triendl is a modern girl who uses “gal” language.
She communicates well with other family members played by Aya Ueto, 26, and Kanako Higuchi, 53, who believe she is from the U.S. state of Hawaii, but in reality, she is from Hawai in Tottori Prefecture.
TOKYO — Singer and actress Kyoko Koizumi, 46, will release a 2-disc album containing 30 songs that her celebrity acquaintances and friends have chosen to mark the 30th anniversary of her debut as a singer on March 21. The album also includes a 160-page booklet containing photos of Kyon-kyon (as Koizumi is popularly known) over the past 30 years.
The album is titled “Kyon30 ~Nantettatte (It’s) 30 years!~” (3,900 yen with booklet). Koizumi debuted as a singer in 1982 with the song “Watashi no 16 sai.”
TOKYO — Actress Erica Sawajiri, 25, has designed a line of clothes and handbags as part of a promotion for a new cell phone drama she is appearing in. The new line is a collaborative effort between BeeTV and popular brands Samantha Thavasa and MERCURYDUO for the drama titled “Let M the reason why I love you other story.” The story is about two women who are opposite in fashion, hairstyle, make-up and personality. Sawajiri plays both characters and designed clothes and bags to match each character in the drama. Japan Today
This commercial is for Staff Service which is a big recruiting company.
Staff Service currently shows two kinds of Cyborg commercial series. One features the Cyborg temp worker 022 (the number “022″ refers to the phone number of Staff Service), and stars Mikako Tabe. The other features Cyborg full-time worker 003 (Cyborg 003/Françoise Arnoul) from the famous cartoon/animation “Cyborg 009.”
In this version, featuring Tabe, workers have to clip 50 sets of material together for a presentation in 30 minutes and worry that they cannot make it. Then Cyborg temp worker 022 transforms her right arm into a Gatling gun and does the job in no time at all.
TOKYO — There have been several tabloid reports recently that actress Meisa Kuroki, 23, and former KAT-TUN singer Jin Akanishi, 27, are a couple. But both stars this week denied the couple were in a relationship.
“We’re friends but he is not my boyfriend,” Kuroki said in a statement released by her agency, while Akanishi’s agency, Johnny’s Jimusho, released a statement in which he said “We are not going out.”
The gossip started when the pair were spotted together at Tokyo DisneySea on Jan 22, Sankei Shimbun reported. A Johnny’s spokesperson said that Akanishi did go to Tokyo DisneySea, but he wasn’t alone with Kuroki. They were among a group of friends, the spokesperson said.
