Karakui

I’m not sure how many of you may recall a time (in the ’90s) when the J-pop scene was filled with artists from Okinawa from Namie Amuro to SPEED. Although you’ll still find Namie, ORANGE RANGE and Haikara at the top of the J-pop charts, it’s definitely far from what it used to be. So it comes as quite a surprise to look at the 2007 summer lineup of TV dramas from Japan and find that there’s an actor/actress from Okinawa in seven, yes seven (and that’s not counting an actor, born in Tokyo, who I can’t verify as being linked to Okinawa but that name…), of them. Below is a list with the drama and the actor/actress who is starring in it (links via DramaWiki):

• “Dondo Bare” (NHK) – Manami Higa
• “Fuurin Kazan” (NHK) – Gackt
• “Papa to Musume no Nanokakan” (TBS) – Yui Aragaki
• “Yamada Taro Monogatari” (TBS) – Shintaro Yamada (sister is the beautiful Yu Yamada)
• “Hotaru no Hikari” (NTV) – Ryoko Kuninaka (“Churasan” – but I didn’t need to tell you that, right?)
• “Yama Onna Kabe Onna” (Fuji TV) – Hiroki Kawata (“Churasan” and of the comedy duo Garage Sale)
• “Sushi Oji!” (TV Asahi) – Tomi Taira (obaa from “Churasan”)

Isn’t this awesome? And to think that we still have actors (Gori) and actresses who are not in dramas this summer: Yukie Nakama, Aya Ueto, Takako Uehara (SPEED), Yu Yamada and Meisa Kuroki.