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 Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 12:48 pm
Japan: Mai Kuraki to Hold Concert in Taiwan This November 06/20/2007  From Shandong in China to Hong Kong and now Taipei, J-pop sweetie Mai Kuraki has left a trail of smitten fans and journalists in her wake in the past two weeks. One cannot help but wonder: Is she out to compete with J-pop queen Ayumi Hamasaki?
Ayumi has made her Asian ambitions known by holding three concerts in the Chinese regions and shooting a music video with Hong Kong actor Shawn Yue in his hometown. And Mai, 25, seems to be hard on Ayumi's stiletto-shod heels. The R&B singer said last week that she will stage her first Asian concert In 2003, she collaborated with Singaporean singer Stefanie Sun on two English songs.
Mai, one of Japan's biggest pop icons - she has sold 6million albums since her 2000 debut - has also been jetting around the region, making her presence felt.
Unlike glamourpuss Ayumi, who never leaves home without a massive entourage, Mai charms with her more casual and humble ways.
She dresses down, travels with her mum in tow and seems to prefer local haunts to the designer boutiques that Ayumi adores.
In Hong Kong, she was seen choosing ice cream at a shop and making a wax sculpture of her hand at a roadside stall.
In Taipei, she tried wrapping and frying dumplings at the popular Shihlin niht market.
The hard-working Mai even pored over books to learn Mandarin.
The result? She was able to perform a Chinese song with aplomb and surprised many by speaking Mandarin.
The song was ‘Born To Be Free’, which she sang at theA3 Champions Cup in Shandong, two weeks ago.
Mai is the image ambassador for the annual football event involving China, Japan and South Korea.
The website Tom.com reported that she won the loudest applause at an A3party when she made a short speech in fluent Mandarin.
In Taipei, she scored points by introducing herself in Mandarin and constantly saying 'duo xie' (Mandarin for many thanks) at the Golden Melody Awards.
The media raved about her personality, on how she asked to take a photo with journalists and how she readily agreed to walk the red carpet with a government official whose department had organized the awards.
Earlier reports in Hong Kong had also praised her personable ways.
Her photo shoot-c**-holiday in Hong Kong with her mum was a hush-hush affair, but reporters found out and followed her.
However, Mai didn't seem to mind and even posed for pictures.
She also told reporters she is a big fan of Hong Kong movie star Jackie Chan.
The one person she is dying to see is Stefanie, she said. It has been years since they met.
Who knows, they might end up doing another duet, and this time, in Mandarin?
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Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 6:41 pm
Japan: W-inds Captivates Fans in Hong Kong  In Hong Kong last week, Japanese boy band W-inds was welcomed by some 1,000 teenage girls at the airport.
And some 2,000 of them turned up to see the dance-pop trio perform last Monday at the Pop Rock Gala, a concert celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
It was W-ind's first visit to the city since shooting to fame in 2001.
Keita Tachibana, 22, is the main vocalist and also the tallest member of the group at 1.81m.
The Fukuoka native was picked from a talent search by artiste management agency Vision Factory in 2000 and teamed with Ryohei Chiba, 23, and Ryuichi Ogata, 22.
The latter two came from the same dance school in Hokkaido.
The boy band started out as nobodies performing in the streets of Tokyo but grew so popular that its official debut in Shibuya drew an 8,000-strong crowd.
A sure sign of its popularity in Hong Kong were the 10 trophies the men picked up from their three-day trip.
W-inds is the best-selling Japanese musical act in Hong Kong in 2004-2006, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.
It is also the most popularly searched international artiste on the Yahoo! Hong Kong website.
But not all was rosy for the guys during their visit.
They were booed while leaving the post-concert media interview.
Blame it on their manager, who incensed the local TV crew.
Ming Pao Daily reported that the manager refused to allow the trio to hold TV mikes, so broadcast journalists had to squat in front of them to hold the mikes.
And he got security officers to push away mikes that came too close during the five-minute session.
Then there was controversy over the 'startlingly high' asking price of HK$1 million ($195,000) that they pocketed for a mere 20-minute performance.
Reporters tried to verify it with the W-inds guys, but their replies were truncated during translation.
The singers themselves seemed polite enough but were tight-lipped about personal details.
But they did let on what were their favorite Hong Kong dishes.
Keita loved the crabs, Ryohei loved fried wanton and Ryuichi, century eggs.
The chaps are now back in Japan to plug their new single, Love Is The Greatest Thing, which was released on 4 Jul.
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Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 1:06 pm
Japan: Ayumi Hamasaki and Boyfriend Tomoya Nagase Split  Ayumi Hamasaki and her long-term boyfriend Tomoya Nagase has parted, the Japanese pop Queen announced Friday on her official website.
Ayumi Hamasaki said in the online publication that they would maintain friendship and something like the love between family members.
The star couple, who were widely tipped to marry, actually separated two or three weeks ago, amicably with no one else involved, a source said.
Chinese website Sohu.com reports the agencies of both have confirmed the news, without revealing any further details.
Ayumi Hamasaki and Tomoya Nagase, actor and singer of Japanese top band TOKIO, got to know each other while shooting a TV series in 1993, and were reported to start the 7-year relationship in 2001.
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Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2007 2:58 pm
Utada Hikaru's 'Flavor of Life' World's Best Selling Single
EMI is celebrating a highly successful campaign for the release of "Flavor of Life" by Japanese superstar Utada Hikaru, which is laying claim to being the world's biggest selling digital single with sales of seven million units across all formats.
Two different mixes of the song have been snapped up in their millions through a variety of digital products, including mobile phone ringtunes, full-track mobile downloads, fixed line downloads, ring videos and ringback tones.
Although EMI admits there is currently no official industry system for tracking the sales of singles across all digital and physical formats and products, either globally or in Japan, the Recording Industry Association of Japan claims the previous best selling digital single "Dragostea Din Tei" by O-zone, sold four million units, mainly ringtunes.
Meanwhile, the top selling digital song in the U.S. to date, according to Nielsen SoundScan, was "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter, which sold just over two million units in 2006, excluding ringtunes.
Nielsen RingScan states that the best selling ringtune in the U.S. to date is the 2.1 million-selling "Smack That" by Akon.
Hikaru's "Flavor of Life" also holds the record for the most successful single of all time in Japan in terms of units sold across all formats with total sales now in excess of 7.7 million. The previous biggest selling single in Japan was the 1975 release "Oyoge, Taiyaki-Kun" by Masato Shimon, which sold 4.5 million units, according to Oricon, which compiles the Japanese charts.
Hikaru additionally holds the record for the best selling album of all time in Japan with her debut, "First Love," which has sold nearly eight million copies, according to Oricon.
Jean Francois Cecillon, chairman and CEO of EMI Music Intl., said: "Utada Hikaru has once again led the Japanese music market into new areas of growth and success. 'Flavor of Life' has firmly established a new form of hit single —one where consumers can purchase music in whatever ways they choose. In the new music environment we must deliver multiple products for multiple consumers."
EMI's campaign for the single began when the ballad version was released as a ringtune in January to coincide with the launch of popular TV drama series "Hana yori Dango 2": the show aired "Flavor of Life" in its entirety at the end of almost every episode.
Additional digital product types, such as ringvideos, ringback tones and ringtunes of the original version of the song were released in subsequent weeks, helping the single to sell over two million digital units in total by the time the physical single was released on Feb. 28.
EMI then further enhanced the growing success of Hikaru's song with viral promotions, such as the creation of a "blog tag," which enabled consumers to paste the single's video into their personal blogs. In just one month the video was played more than 600,000 times.
Shoji Doyama, president and CEO, EMI Music Japan said: "We will continue to deliver our artists' music in a variety of product types that is as diverse as consumers' needs. There will be more and more cases like Utada Hikaru where hits come from a coordinated approach to physical and digital releases."
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Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 7:02 pm
Japan: Utada Hikaru Voted Most Popular Artist  Utada Hikaru has reclaimed her top spot in the hearts of Japanese music fans. For the fourth time, and the first since 2004, she has topped the Oricon annual ranking of the country's favorite artists. She took the No.1 spot back from Aiko (31), who held it the last two years. She's had an eventful year, releasing the No.1 single "Flavor of Life" in February and announcing her divorce from filmmaker Kiriya Kazuaki (39) in March.
At No.2 were the duo Kobukuro, who grabbed their first chart-topping single in April, followed by veteran rock band Mr. Children. The ranking is based on a survey of 20,000 readers of the "Oricon Style" magazine.
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Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 1:47 pm
Japan: Ayumi Hamasaki's Single Tops Oricon Chart
Last week, Ayumi Hamasaki released her 41st single, "glitter / fated." According to Oricon, it sold approximately 110,000 copies during the week, making it #1 on the singles chart.
With the new song, Hamasaki has now achieved 9 consecutive years with a #1 single. This ties her for the record (among female artists) with Akina Nakamori, who accomplished the feat from 1982 to 1990.
Hamasaki currently holds four other singles-related records among female artists: most #1 singles (2 cool , most Top 10 singles (39), most total sales (20.2 million copies), and most million-selling singles (5, tied with Pink Lady, Namie Amuro, and Utada Hikaru).
Meanwhile, on the weekly album charts, KinKi Kids' new best album "39" took #1 with about 301,000 copies sold.
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Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 6:14 pm
Japan: Are Masahiro Nakai and Kumi Koda Dating?
Following on the heels of Nikkan Sports' unconfirmed reports of a relationship between Kazunari Ninomiya and Masami Nagasawa, a different sports newspaper has reported another prominent celebrity couple. According to Sports Nippon, SMAP leader Masahiro Nakai and pop star Kumi Koda have recently begun dating. Koda appeared on stage at a SMAP concert last September, and that led to the start of a relationship this spring. Since then, they have been spending time together at a Tokyo restaurant every weekend with friends. Once, they were spotted alone, and eyewitnesses said they were acting like a couple.
Nakai and Koda are said to have baseball in common, as Nakai is a loyal Giants fan and Koda was affiliated with her junior high school's baseball team. Neither side has commented on the news yet.
Source: Tokyograph
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Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 5:46 am
I heard there's going to be a Hana Yori Dango movie for summer 2008.
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Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 7:53 pm
prettysunshyngrl I heard there's going to be a Hana Yori Dango movie for summer 2008.
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Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 9:45 am
Aisha Suzuki prettysunshyngrl I heard there's going to be a Hana Yori Dango movie for summer 2008. Yeah wat its about i dont kno but because his mother has accepted her... or so i thought..
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Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 3:18 pm
A Hana Yori Dango movie?! That would be most awesome!!!!!! whee heart
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Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 6:47 pm
Japanese Actress Takako Matsu to Get Married Next Year
11/30/2007
Japanese actress Takako Matsu, 30, is planning to get married next spring. Her partner is 46-year-old guitarist and music producer Yoshiyuki Sahashi.
The pair met in 2001 through their music careers, and they began dating in 2004. At one point, they broke up, but they got back together last year.
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Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 7:13 pm
2007 Japan Record Awards Winners Are…
11/30/2007
The judging committee of the 49th Japan Record Awards has revealed its list of winners. The 10 winners of the Gold Award are:
"Jewelry day" by Ayaka
"LOVE IS THE GREATEST THING" by W-inds.
"Toki no Kakera" by EXILE
"PEACH" by Ai Otsuka
"Kanazawa No Ame" by Miyuki Kawanaka
"Koi no Uta" by Kumi Koda
"Tsubomi" by Kobukuro
"Kiyoshi no Soran Bushi" by Kiyoshi Hikawa
"LOVE LETTER" by BoA
"Hitori Satsumaji" by Kaori Mizumori
The New Artist Award winners are:
°C-ute
JYONGRI
Stephanie
Satomi Takasugi
Other winners include Man Arai's "Sen no Kaze ni Natte" (Composer Award), Tetsuya Chiaki for "Waremokou" (Lyricist Award), and Seiji Kameda (Arranger Award). A special award is being given to Masafumi Akikawa, Yu Aku, Hideaki Tokunaga, and Ryoichi Hattori and his two sons, Katsuhisa and Takayuki.
The Japan Record Award and Best Singer (both selected from the Gold Award winners), as well as Best New Artist (selected from the New Artist Award winners), will be announced at the actual awards ceremony on December 30.
Source: Tokyograph
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