Popular Japanese songstress Kumi Koda has gotten into hot water by commenting on a radio program that she would like to have a child before she turns 35, “when women turn 35, their amniotic fluid goes rotten.” Koda committed the gaffe on the popular late night radio show “All Night Nippon,” when the host asked her if she was planning to have children.

Her remarks sparked an uproar among listeners prompting an apology by Koda, and her production company has canceled a number of her upcoming appearances apparently as punishment.

I guess if Kumi ever loses her job as an entertainer, she probably has a promising future as a Liberal Democratic Part politician.

Via TokyoGraph

If you thought you’d seen the last of the Kameda family, I’ve news for you. They’re back. I know. I’ve missed them too.

The demure, urbane and modest Koki Kameda, it has been announced, will return to the ring on March 22 for a non-title bout with Spanish flyweight Jose Lopez Bueno at Makuhari Messe in Chiba.

Koki’s been in ‘media exile’ since the whole family’s shameful display during younger brother Daiki’s now infamous fight last October.

Have to say it doesn’t sound like exciting fare, more like target practice. Don’t know much about Jose Lopez Bueno, except that he’s 33 (12 years older than Kameda) and doesn’t have what you’d call a sparkling record (42 fights, won 29, lost 9, drawn 4). Is he one of these “washed up palookas” that JP was referring to?

Daddy won’t be ringside of course, he’s still banned, but whether we’ll see return of the media circus that inevitably ensued whenever a Kameda was present, well that’s another matter entirely and remains to be seen.

Young golf star Ryo Ishikawa marked the New Year by turning professional last week, thereby becoming Japan’s youngest ever pro.

Still only 16, Ishikawa set off for Australia today to make his professional debut in a tournament that would see him qualify for this summer’s Open Championship (British Open) if he secured a top four finish next week in Sydney.

Ishikawa has barely been out of the headlines since winning the Munsingwear Open (and being presented with that penguin) last year as a 15-year-old amateur. Since then he’s developed quite a following. Middle-aged ladies, it seems, are particularly taken not only with his boyish good looks, but his manner and his style too.

The ‘hanikami oji’ (bashful prince), as he’s known to fans, revealed to reporters that if nothing else, the trip will give him a chance to practise a bit of eikaiwa…

“I’m happy that I’m going to an English-speaking country. It’s something that not many of my classmates can experience and hopefully I’ll get used to English as much as I can,” he said. “As for my pro debut, I’m feeling nothing special, really. I just want it to be a wonderful memory for me.”

Japundit will report on Ryo’s progress.

The following is my personal favorite of all the TV commercials Arnold Schwarzenegger, current governor of California, did in Japan back in the 90s.

Anime has really gotten big in the U.S. in recent years, changing the face of popular culture as people are more in sync with the anime world. This isn’t a new phenomenon in Japan, of course, where animation has been a part of everyone’s lives since the old days of Mighty Atom, Giants no Hoshi and the original Gegege no Kitaro.

One thing I’ve often noticed is that the voice actors — seiyu in Japanese — in anime are often extremely famous in Japan, with many of the top stars essentially becoming household names.

When legendary voice actor Yasuo Yamada, who provided the voice of Lupin III, died in 1995, it was a national tragedy, and everyone grieved to lose the original voice of Lupin. (He was replaced by a comedian who did Lupin III impersonations on variety shows.)

Some other voice actors who are well-known to the average Japanese person include Akira Kamiya, voice of Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star, the muscular Kinniku Man, and Ryo from City Hunter, and of course Tohru Furuya, who’s played Amuro Rei from the iconic Mobile Suit Gundam along with a host of other roles.

Perhaps the most famous voice actor of all is Nobuyo Oyama, the voice of the lovable robot cat from the future, Doraemon. When she retired in 2005, my kids stopped watching the show entirely, since they couldn’t accept Doraemon with any voice other than the original.

My wife watches lots of American TV dubbed into Japanese, and it’s quite fun to play “pick the anime voice actor” while watching an episode of CSI: Miami with her. Oh, that’s Inspector Zenigata!

Japanese beach vollyball babe Miwa Asao has decided to hang up her sand-filled bikini to chase the pot of gold at the end of the neon rainbow in the entertainment world.

The lithe, tall (172 cm) 21-year-old decided to make the move after a photo book she released earlier this year sold more than 40,000 copies, which probably means she is a better cheesecake model than volleyball player.

Via Japan Sugoi

Here is a commercial that is making the rounds on Japanese TV for a lineup of women’s beauty products named Salon de Pro, by Dariya Corporation.

The hula dancer is actually a 55-year-old guy named Peter-san, a transvestite who has been around as a singer and popular TV personality ever since I arrived in this fair land.

Japan’s favorite female butt kicker and Fukuoka native Ryoko “Tawara-chan” Tani (née Tamura), has been awarded a “Gold Medal of Honor for Child Rearing” from the Fukuoka prefectural government.

This new award is on top of the Fukuoka Prefecture Medal of Honor and Fukuoka Prefecture Sports Medal of Honor that Tani had been awarded to date for taking top honors in her division at judo world championships in Rio de Janeiro in September, her first world championships after giving birth to a child in 2005.

I’d be willing to bet that these medals were accompanied by cash awards, and I’d also be willing to bet that in order to perform at the level required to take a world championship Tani spent very little time with her newborn.

A trip down TV memory lane with a video of the Giri Giri Girls (popular in the ’90s) performing on Super Jockey.

That guy at the beginning of the clip is none other than “Beat” Takeshi Kitano before he messed up his face.

Via Japan Sugoi

If you are wondering how the Japanese are viewing the recent Boston Red Sox sweep of the World Series, here is a shot of three major Japanese sports dailies that I picked up at the local train station yesterday.

All three of the papers feature a large photograph if Daisuke (Dice-K) Matsuzaka with the headline Matsuzaka sekai-ichi (Matsuzaka, number 1 in the world!).* The fact that the Boston Red Sox won the World Series is mentioned in small sub-headlines, almost as an afterthought.

Though Matsuzaka performed very well during the World Series, I would hardly say that he won the 162-game season, elimination playoffs, and World Series all on his own.

* In the sake of fairness, I should point out that one of the papers shown above (Sports Nichi) tempers their headline somewhat by saying Matsuzaka sekai-ichi shiawase (Matsuzaka, happiest in the world), noting that Matsuzaka and his wife also are expecting their second child in March 2008. However, the upcoming birth was given a bigger headline than the Red Sox victory.

Eight minutes of Japander gaijin who probably would not be caught dead doing a TV commercial in the U.S. picking up the big bucks by pimping products on the Japanese tube.

Via TV In Japan

Word in the Japanese entertainment world is that popular Japanese transvestite TV personality IKKO will be releasing a recording of a single titled Dondake no housoku.

The release will also include a cover of the Yamamoto Linda oldie “Dou ni mo tomaranai.”

I can hardly wait. . . Not!

“I was once a Bond girl.”

Mayako Murata, who appeared in the 1985 James Bond Film “A View to Kill” under the name Mayako Torigai when being questioned by police after her arrest for swindling 5 million yen from a man she met though a marriage consultation service.

Via TV In Japan

You would imagine that an aspiring Japanese actress would realise how fraught with danger the journey to the top is, how fragile a career in the public eye is, and would do all she can to protect herself.

21-year-old Erika Sawajiri’s star has risen at light-speed recently and she’s probably currently regarded as one of Japan’s hottest young talents (despite the fact that, in my humble opinion, her acting is really rather hammy and clumsy).

Her next big appearance will be in the forthcoming movie Closed Note, alongside Yuko Takeuchi. The cast gave a press conference the other day…

Goodness. Any half-decent actress would have been able to hide that bad mood, surely? Or has she just decided to stop being nice? From the sullen expression, to the angrily folded arms, the rolling eyes and the rudely curt responses to the journo’s friendly questions, it seems Erika-sama (for real!) wasn’t having a jolly day.

Is Sawajiri actively attempting to sabotage her own career? I dare say that getting on the wrong side of the media and throwing a very public strop is a great way of going about it.

Or is she just surrounded by sycophants and is starting to believe the hype?

Whatever it is, this open display of petulance hasn’t gone down well. I wonder what form the fallout will take.

Twice-Olympic-champion Judo wrestler, the ever popular Ryoko Tani, took a record seventh world gold by beating Cuba’s Yanet Bermoy in the under 48kg class. She’s been out of the game for the best part of three years, having taken time out to have a child.

She wasn’t the only gold medallist -

Japan won another gold in the women’s open class with Olympic champion Maki Tsukada, who defeated Lucija Polauder of Slovakia in the final.

Yasuyuki Muneta beat Jury Rybak of Belarus to win the men’s open class and give Japan its third gold of the tournament.

Quote & photo - AP

Shideido continues to bring to us great commercials that show strong and beautiful women

Top models Leah Dizon, Yasuda Misako, Yamamoto Azusa, Becky and Natsukawa Jun cosplaying in Akihabara.

Via animenarutard

The following are the results of a survey by Oricon in which 2,000 people in Japan were asked which Japanese celebrity brings the greatest pride to the nation on an international scale.

Men

1. Ichiro Suzuki (Baseball player)

2. Ken Watanabe (Actor)

3. Takeshi Kitano (Director)

4. Takuya Kimura (SMAP member)

5. Hideki Matsui (Baseball player)

6. Shunsuke Nakamura (Soccer player)

7. Hidetoshi Nakata (Soccer player, retired)

8. Hayao Miyazaki (Director)

9. Kazunari Ninomiya (Arashi member)

10. Akira Kurosawa (Director, deceased)

Women

1. Sayuri Yoshinaga (Actress)

1. Rinko Kikuchi (Actress)

3. Hikaru Utada (Pop star)

4. Ayumi Hamasaki (J-pop singer)

4. Ryoko Tani (Judo)

5. Tetsuko Kuroyanagi (Entertainer)

6. Riyo Mori (Miss Universe 2007)

7. Shizuko Arakawa (Olympic gold medal figure skater)

8. Yoko Ono (Beatle babe)

9. Sadako Ogata (President, Japan International Cooperation Agency)

10. Mao Asada (Figure skater)

This is S.H.E., a music group from Taiwan that consists of three young women named Hebe Tian, Ella Chen, and Selina Ren.

Ever since their debut CD in 2000, the members of S.H.E. have produced hits in pop, rock, R&B, and other genres, and they have received an impressive number of music awards. In addition to their music, the S.H.E. girls also have appeared in dramas, variety shows, concerts and other TV programs, making them one of the most popular groups among young people in Asia.

Already very well-known throughout Asia, S.H.E. is a group that bears watching as its popularity spreads to other shores.

Here is S.H.E. performing their song Ring, Ring, Ring.