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Suzu Hirose, who portrays Chihaya in the live-action version of Chihayafuru and Kaede in The Boy and The Beast, is considered the most loathed female celebrity by Japanese women in their 20s, according to a major advertising agency. The research hasn't been officially published yet, but according to an employee, "Compared to her popularity after her breakthrough, it's unexpected that she's getting this much backlash. On top of the June comments that belittled her staff, the reason that 20-something women dislike her is that she comes off as a burikko [girls who affect cloying cuteness to attract boys]." The incident referred to occurred on an episode of the variety show Tunnels no Minasan no Okage Deshita ("Thanks to All of Tunnels") on June 18, when the 17-year-old actress was asked what type of person she likes. She replied that she liked people with her sort of personality — "fairly cold and very dry. The kind that can't go 'Wow' even...

On Feb 20, 2019, popular Japanese actress Kanna Hashimoto turned 20 and became a legal adult. In the last few years, she has been busy appearing on variety shows and dramas on TV as well as acting in films, many of which have been adaptations of manga and anime, such as "Assassination Classroom" (2015) "Gintama" (2017) and the upcoming "Kaguyama-sama: Love is War" (2019). However, in the last six months, it would seem that the former idol and singer once described as "beyond angelic" has behaved in a somewhat less-than-angelic manner when it comes to enjoying her newly found liberties as an adult. In her appearance on the TBS variety show 『櫻井・有吉THE夜会』(Sakurai Ariyoshi The Dangerous Night) on Aug 29, Hashimoto revealed she had been drinking every day since her birthday. At first, audiences may have imagined "a drink a day" but her manager revealed that her drinking was more serious than that. Describing an episode on location in Germany,...

TV Tokyo announced on Saturday that Den'ei Shōjo ~Video Girl Ai 2018~, the new live-action television series based on Masakazu Katsura's Video Girl Ai (Den'ei Shōjo) manga, is getting a sequel series titled Den'ei Shōjo ~Video Girl Mai 2019~ that will premiere in April. A television special titled Den'ei Shōjo ~Video Girl Ai 2018~ Tokubetsu-hen aired early on Saturday morning. The special ended with a picture of a new Video Girl, Video Girl Mai/Mai Kamio (played by Nogizaka 46 member Mizuki Yamashita). The first live-action series premiered on TV Tokyo and its affiliates in January 2018, but episodes streamed one week earlier on Amazon Prime Video in Japan. Kazuaki Seki (music videos for Perfume, Gen Hoshino) directed the first television series and the special, and Kohei Kiyasu penned the script for both alongside Yoshitatsu Yamada. The first season and the special starred: Nanase Nishino (Nogizaka 46), Shūhei Nomura, Marie Iitoyo, Hiroya Shimizu, Karen Ōtomo, Jun ...

Actress Erika Sawajiri, arrested for allegedly possessing the synthetic drug MDMA, has tested negative in a urine test for MDMA and other illegal drugs, police said Wednesday. After she was arrested last week, the 33-year-old told investigators that she obtained MDMA from an acquaintance a few weeks ago at a nightclub and admitted to taking the drug, also called Ecstasy. MDMA usually goes out of a person's system within two to three days after taking it, and Sawajiri took the test on a voluntary basis on Saturday, the day she was arrested, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. The police are trying to trace how she obtained drugs by analyzing data in a confiscated mobile phone, among other steps. Sawajiri was quoted as telling investigators, "I first used illegal drugs more than 10 years ago, and I also used marijuana, LSD, and cocaine," according to the police. The police searched her home in Tokyo on Saturday morning when she returned after a night out at a c...

Japanese pop star Ayumi Hamasaki is going completely deaf, she said on her blog Team Ayu on Saturday (May 20). Hamasaki, who is the best-selling Japanese solo artist of all time, has been deaf in her left ear since 2008. But her right ear has now begun to weaken, the 38-year-old said. She was nauseous and had vertigo just before this year's concert tour. "I was told after various hearing tests that my right ear (which has been working overtime to compensate for the deafness of my left ear) is quickly weakening," she wrote. "I was experiencing crippling dizziness. I was unable to walk in a straight line, and was often vomiting in the restroom while at the rehearsal studio." The prolific singer and performer said she felt lost after the revelation.  "I remember wondering how would I as a singer be able to cope with two useless ears. I was in the dark," she said.  Hamasaki's ear condition stemmed from a cold that she caught during her 2000 Act I conce...

An annual ritual on Japanese television on or around Aug. 6 is a number of special programs about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Truth be told, after many years in this country I tune out more than I tune in. Just as the bombings were political acts, so are the many memorial programs that repeat an unimpeachable message — "No more Hiroshimas and Nagasakis" — with an implied subtext of Japan as blameless victim that elides more than it illuminates. One film about the Hiroshima bombing that drills into emotional bedrock instead of retailing familiar platitudes is "Ishibumi," ("Stone Monument") Hirokazu Koreeda's reworking of a classic 1969 TV program produced by Hiroshima Television. The movie is currently screening at PorePore Theater in Tokyo's Higashi Nakano district and elsewhere around Japan. The focus of the original TV program and the book that accompanied it were the 322 first-year students and four teachers at Hiroshima Secon...

It's been nearly eight years since the South Korean series My Love from the Star made its television debut. Since then, K-dramas have popped up everywhere, enthralling not just Korean viewers but audiences from across the globe. Yet, and despite the emergence of many good K-dramas, the magic of My Love from the Star continues to endure. The series, top-billed by South Korean superstars Jun Ji-hyun and Kim Soo-hyun, played a huge role in the resurgence of the so-called Hallyu or Korean wave throughout Asia, eventually spreading across the region. It too inspired local adaptations in countries such as China, Thailand, and the Philippines produced by GMA Network and starring Jennylyn Mercado and Gil Cuerva in 2017. Now, Japan is set to have its own version of the hit series to be aired in January 2022 on Amazon Prime. Tapped to take on Kim Soo-hyun's role is Sota Fukushi while Mizuki Yamamoto will assume the character popularized by Jun Ji-hyun. “Both Japanese stars have a slew of...

Starring Masaki Suda as Mugi and Kasumi Arimura as Kinu, We Made A Beautiful Bouquet is a bittersweet love story between the two. As if by destiny, a chance encounter leads to the discovery that they both share a lot in common, be it music, movies or books. But as they progress through different stages of life, their four-year relationship meets many challenges and eventually turns sour. We Made A Beautiful Bouquet was directed by Nobuhiro Doi and written by Yuji Sakamoto, a screenwriter known for his cracking dialogue and complex characters. Both previously worked together on Japanese TV series Quartet, which snagged a number of awards including Best Director and Best Screenwriter in Japan's Television Drama Academy Awards. We Made A Beautiful Bouquet does not pale in comparison either, for the plot is weaved with minute details that make the love story so brutally honest. In the beginning, you can feel with the characters as they go through a period of bliss and uncertainty regar...

Actress Mao Inoue will finally be making her long awaited return to acting! According to Yahoo! Mao will be playing the role of a female teacher in a Fuji TV drama series that will begin airing in October. This will be Mao’s first appearance in a drama series since the 2015 Taiga drama “Hanamoyu”. After the release of “Hanamoyu” Mao did not sign on to appear in many projects, her sole role being a voice acting spot in the CGI children’s movie Rudolf the Black Cat. The same month the movie was released Mao announced that she would be parting ways with her agency “Seventh Avenue”, whom she belonged to since the start of her career as a child actress. Even though Mao signed to another agency, tabloids had a field day using this as evidence that Mao was ready to settle down and perhaps marry her longtime rumored boyfriend Jun Matsumoto, member of the Johnny’s group Arashi. No marriage announcement was made and Mao continued to keep a low profile. She would occasionally be tracked down by p...