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Nakama to star in New Year’s drama – Tokyograph
TV Tokyo has already announced its plans for its annual ‘Shinshun Wide Jidaigeki’ drama. The network started airing the special in 1981 as a 12-hour event, but it was later reduced to 10 hours. Last year, Izumi Inamori became the first woman to star in it, and this coming year Yukie Nakama will become the…
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Yu Yamada stars in the NTV drama “Seigi no Mikata”
Already on its third episode, NTV’s “Seigi no Mikata” stars the beautiful Yu Yamada who’s been off to an amazing start for the 1st half of 2008 starring in a “Nodame Cantabile” special, a guest appearance on fellow Uchinanchu Yukie Nakama’s “Gokusen 3,” and a starring role in “Binbo Danshi.” Synopsis via Tokyograph: 15-year-old Mirai…
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Okinawan Festival is just around the corner!
I hope all of you are enjoying your summer vacation and as July comes to a close, coming up in August will be the Okinawan Festival at Kapiolani Park (Honolulu, Hawaii)! This year is the 26th for the festival and it’ll take place on the weekend of 8/30 to 8/31. More information on the festival…
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Manami Higa to star in NHK’s 2009 taiga drama “Tenchijin”
On Monday, NHK formally announced the main cast of its 2009 taiga drama, ‘Tenchijin.’ The series is based on Masashi Hisaka’s novel about Naoe Kanetsugu, a military leader who served under Uesugi Kagekatsu. It was revealed at the end of last year that Satoshi Tsumabuki is starring in the role of Kanetsugu. Tsumabuki is being…
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Ready to FLiP out?
Okinawa has a pretty good record of turning up some pretty popular punk bands like MONGOL800, INDIAN-HI and Bleach. Of particular note is that like Bleach, FLiP is an all-girl punk band comprised of Sachiko (vocals/guitar), Yuko (guitar/chorus), Sayaka (bass) and Yuumi (drums/chours). The band just released their first mini-album called “Haha kara Umareta Hinekure…
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Emi Tawata to release her 2nd mini-album – bounce.com
Emi Tawata, the Pop/Soul/R&B singer, will be releasing her second mini-album on the 23rd of this month titled “LOVE&PEACE.” The album follows her debut album “∞infinity∞” (also a mini-album) which was released on April 23rd of this year. Emi’s music can be listened to on her MySpace page. (Link: bounce.com [ニュース].)
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Ueto joins Akanishi on “Speed Racer” – Tokyograph
Aya Ueto has been chosen as the female lead in the Japanese dub of the ‘Speed Racer’ movie. She will provide the voice for Speed’s girlfriend Trixie, who is played by Christina Ricci. Jin Akanishi has already been revealed as the voice of Emile Hirsch’s Speed. The Japanese version will hit theaters on July 5.…
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DCT’s Nakamura marries H&MC’s Maki – Tokyograph
I skipped over the headlines in the Japanese news outlets I follow because the only mention was that Masato Nakamura—of one of the greatest J-pop bands, Dreams Come True—was marrying a woman 29 years his junior. So imagine my surprise to find that his wife is none other than HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR’s lead vocalist…
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Beni Arashiro featured on Dohzi-T’s latest single
I totally missed the release on this one but luckily caught their recent performance on Mステ and wow, what a cool song. The title of the song is “Mou Ichido…” by J-rap artist Dohzi-T and Okinawan-American singer Beni Arashiro (going by her first name, BENI, for this ‘featuring’ release). Although “Mou Ichido…” is Dohzi-T’s song,…
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Meisa Kuroki debuts as singer – Tokyograph
Rising young actress Meisa Kuroki has just made her singing debut in connection with the au Sportio/W62T mobile phones. Her first song is an R&B/dance number called ‘Like This.’ Kuroki will appear in commercials for both phones, and different arrangements of the song will be used for each. ‘Like This’ will see only limited distribution.…