Legendary Japanese music producer Tetsuya Komuro was arrested on Tuesday morning (Nov 4) on suspicion of fraud and could face up to 10 years of jail term.
The 49-year-old is alleged to have scammed an investor of 500 million yen (~USD5 million) in August 2006 by selling copyrights of 806 tunes which he written but did not actually own the rights.
Tetsuya lost a civil suit in July 2008 in which he is required to pay 600 million to the investor as compensation, but he didn’t manage to do so by the deadline (Sept 30), thus prompted the investor to file a police report.
Tetsuya is widely regarded as the most successful J-pop music producer in 1990s. He was the producer for top Japanese stars like Namie Amuro, TRF, Ami Suzuki, Ryoko Shinohara and Hitomi etc… it’s estimated that more than 170 million copies of his production were sold over the years.
Tetsuya was then one of the richest entertainers in Japan with over USD100 million of wealth. His music career has however been declining since 2000, and his investment failure in 2001-2004 has sunk him into financial trouble which he obviously couldn’t manage to recover.
Hallyu stars are dominating the Japanese Oricon singles chart for the past two weeks. The Koreans claimed the top three spots at the singles’ sales chart last week, and keeping their momentum with three of the top four spots this week.
Pop group TVXQ (known as Tōhōshinki in Japan) tops the singles’ sales chart for two consecutive weeks with their 24th Japanese single “Jumon-Mirotic”. This is their 4th chart topping Japanese single in 2008.
Actor turn singer Lee Byung-hun claims the 2nd spot also for two weeks in a role with his debut single, “Itsuka”; while Ryu Si-won dropping from 3rd to 4th with his 8th single “Kimito Boku”.
To be frank, I’m quite puzzled how the songs managed to lead the charts. I can understand that Mirotic is appealing to some audiences (although not to my liking), but the other two are just so average. Anyhow, sharing all three music videos below…
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The 21st Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) kicked off Saturday (Oct 18) with Japanese prime minister Taro Aso among the ~300 guests that graced the opening event at Roppongi Hills [via Japantoday]
The theme of TIFF 2008 is “Ecology = Preservation of Earth’s Environment”, and the organiser replaced the usual red carpet with a green carpet made from recycled plastic bottles to exemplify the theme, which I doubt could bring any meaningful effect.
A total of 315 films from around the world will be shown during the nine-day event. Chinese movie “Red Cliff”, directed by Hong Kong director John Woo, was selected to kick start the screening; would be cute if the stars wore some green outfit during the green carpet to echo the theme lol.
The main cast of Red Cliff at TIFF 2008… (L-R) Vicki Zhao, Chang Chen, Takeshi Kaneshiro, director John Woo, Tony Leung, Zhang Fengyi and Lin Chi Ling (Image from
Udn)
American born idol Leah Dizon, 22, who makes her fame in Japan, shocked her fans at the end of a concert in Shibuya on Tuesday (Oct 14) with the announcement of her marriage and pregnancy [via Tokyograph]
Leah’s wedding was held last Friday at Hilton Tokyo Hotel in Shinjuku. Her husband is a Japanese stylist (in his 20s) whom she first met around a year ago while working on a CD cover. The couple should be expecting their baby around March 2009.
Check out the video of Leah making the announcement at the concert [thanks to bb]
Enjoy your wedding life Leah and have a healthy baby.
Japanese pop starlet May’n will be performing live in Singapore at the Anime Festival Asia (AFA) 2008 on November 23 [more on AFA and Darkmirage]
The 19-year-old singer is one of Japan’s hottest rising star. She made her professional debut in 2005, and her breakthrough came in 2008 as the singing voice for Sheryl Nome in hit anime “Macross Frontier”. Her two latest singles have both made it to the top 3 spots at Japanese Oricon chart… quite an achievement for a young talent.
While not exactly the same class (yet) with the likes of J-pop divas Ayumi Hamasaki and Namie Amuro etc… May’n’s performance is quite anticipated in this region that is so deprived of J-pop act. Besides, Japanese anime is getting huge in South East Asia these days; and Macross Frontier happens to be one of the most popular animes of the year. Plenty of otakus are awaiting her arrival for sure.
“Eat You Up” is a dance hit by Angie Gold which was hugely popular in 1980s especially in Asia because of the covers by Japanese pop star Yōko Oginome and Hong Kong star Priscilla Chan.
I never knew the song title though… happened to bound in to this music video while searching about Korean pop star BoA’s American debut with a song of the same title.
Sharing all three music videos below (from Angie, Yoko and Priscilla); pretty catchy song and some ‘interesting’ 80s’ fashions and dance moves…
Angie Gold - Eat You Up
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Music video collection of Japanese singer-songwriter YUI. The Fukuoka-born star made her professional debut in 2004; her music career started off reasonably well, but not really an instant hit… but she gradually build her fame and is now one of the most popular female artists in Japan.
Good-bye Days
YUI’s breakthrough came in 2006 with “Good-bye Days”, which was used as the theme song for movie “Midnight Sun” (Taiyou no Uta) in which she played the leading role…
YUI actually received the best newcomer award from Japan Academy Prize, but she didn’t wander much into acting, and the movie is the only film she has made so far.
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Actresses Miki Maya, 44, Asaka Seto, 31, Ryoko Hirosue, 28, and ex-volleyball player Kaoru Sugayama, 29, were named as having the most beautiful legs at the annual Parcassio Beautiful Leg Awards.
The event was organized by six shoemakers; and Parcassio is an artificial leather used in their products [via Japantoday]
(L-R) Kaoru, Miki, Ryoko and Asaka; the actresses were selected according to each age group (20s, 30s, 40s) while Kaoru for sportswomen category (Image via
Tokyotimes)
Japanese companies always come out with these kind of awards, i.e. best dressers, best jeanists, cotton awards etc… and the Japanese celebrities seem to be quite supportive for these events. Afterall, commercial endorsement means huge money… the celebs won’t want to offend any of the potential sponsors.
