YeinJee's Asian blog

Asian Culture, Lifestyle and Entertainment

Hikaru Utada

Hikaru Utada & Kyoko Fukada dating?

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Hikaru Utada and Kyoko Fukada dating rumourOne of the funnier rumours I’ve read recently… of Japanese singer Hikaru Utada and actress Kyoko Fukada in a romantic relationship. Yupe, lesbian love.

The rumours started because the ‘couple’ was often seen together in a gay bar district. It’s nothing new as it’s common for Japanese stars to patron gay bars, but it still makes a good story to sell some papers.

And here’s the second fun part… a fan twitted the news to Utada and got a direct response with a LoL. Too bad, the duo could be a pretty cute couple ;)

Utada Hikaru does English again

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Japanese pop star Utada Hikaru
(Image from EMI Music Japan)

Japanese pop star Utada Hikaru is trying her luck with the English music market again with her new album “Come Back to Me”.

The New York born artist has released two all-English album to date, “Precious” (using pseudonym Cubic-U) in 1998 and “Exodus” in 2004. Both the albums did pretty well in Japan, but rather disappointing in US.

Good to see that Hikki hasn’t given up on becoming a global star. The title track Come Back to Me is currently streamed at Island Records… and the full album is scheduled to release in March 2009.

Oricon top singles/albums in Japan 2008

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Japan’s Oricon Chart [Jp] has released the Top 100 Japanese albums/singles ranking for 2008. Pop band EXILE dominates the album chart while the singles are ruled by Johnny’s boybands, i.e. Arashi and KAT-TUN etc.

Top 10 best selling Japanese albums of 2008

1. EXILE Love (EXILE)
2. Best Fiction (Namie Amuro)
3. 5296 (Kobukuro)
4. EXILE Catchy Best (EXILE)
5. Heart Station (Hikaru Utada)
6. EXILE Ballad Best (EXILE)
7. B’z The Best “Ultra Pleasure” (B’z)
8. A Complete: All Singles (Ayumi Hamasaki)
9. And I Love You (Dreams Come True)
10. A, Domo. Ohisashiburi Desu (GReeeeN)

Top 10 best selling Japanese singles of 2008

1. Truth (Arashi)
2. One Love (Arashi)
3. I Am Your Singer (Southern All Star)
4. Kiseki (GReeeeN)
5. Shuchishin (Shuchishin)
6. Hanabi (Mr. Children)
7. Soba ni Iru ne (Thelma Aoyama ft Soulja)
8. Don’t U Ever Stop (KAT-TUN)
9. Lips (KAT-TUN)
10. Beautiful Days (Arashi)

Oricon Favourite Japanese Artists 2008

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Utada Hikaru tops Japanese magazine Oricon Style’s annual favourite artist chart [Jp] for the second year in a row. A total of 20758 votes were cast by the magazine subscribers for the poll. The top 20 Oricon favourite artists in 2008 are…

1. Utada Hikaru 2. Kobukuro 3. aiko 4. Mr Children 5. Dreams Come True 6. Southern All Stars 7. Namie Amuro 8. B’z 9. Spitz 10. Arashi 11. Masaharu Fukuyama 12. Kou Shibasaki 13. EXILE 14. Porno Graffiti 15. Ayaka 16. YUI 17.Ken Hirai 18. YUKI 19. Kuwata Keisuke 20. Yuzu

Kindly note that artists in Japanese terms often refers to musicians but not actors, so many of your favourite stars may not appear in the list.