Former Morning Musume member Asuka Fukuda has opened up for the first time on her divorce that took place last year. Asuka originally got married in 2015, but divorced shortly after in July 2016. She shared the news on her official personal blog.
Asuka apologized to her fans for the inconvenience and if the sudden announcement caused any worry. Asuka was straight forward for why she and her husband decided to go through with the divorce. She shared that it had become extremely difficult to maintain a normal family life and co-operate with each other. The two had huge miscommunication issues due their widely different opinions on parenting policies and values.
A lot of the issues started after Asuka gave birth last February, as there was conflicts as to whether Asuka should continue to work or not. Asuka quickly knew that things wouldn’t work out in the long run. The announcement was delayed due to their child still being so young. Asuka will still keep a positive relationship with her ex husband so both of them are in their child’s life as it continues to grow up. She closed the statement saying that she will do everything in her power to make her child happy, and do her best in being both a mother and pursuing her musical activities.
It has been announced that KAT-TUN member Kazuya Kamenashi and NEWS member Shigeaki Kato will star together in the annual 24h TV Drama Special. Titled “Jidai o Tsukutta Otoko Aku Yu Monogatari” it will air on August 26th.
The drama will be based on the life of legendary lyricist, poet, and author Yu Aku. He is responsible for helping write the hits to many of Japan’s most beloved and successful pop songs. He has worked with Junko Sakurada, Pink Lady, Momoe Yamaguchi, and Hiromi Iwasaki among others. His works have sold over 68 million units in Japan alone, making him the second best selling lyricist of all time. Losing out to the creator of the AKB48 franchise Aki-p, who claims first place.
Following the conclusion of the third volume of their “Neo Dadaism” concert series on July 23, management of kawaii-metal duo The Idol Formerly Known as LADYBABY tweeted about a groping incident that happened during the live event.
Staff apologized and vowed to improve the experience of LADYBABY’s female fans by introducing a female-only section at future events. Additionally, they have asked male members of the audience to be vigilant in the future and report inappropriate behavior that occurs in the audience.
Check out the series of tweets below.
This week’s episode of Love music is dedicated to Denki Groove. This special episode is titled “Denki Groove Liner Notes.” The show featured a talk with the group. Ijuin Hikaru, Tetsuya Komuro, Scha Dara Parr, and Perfume also commented on the group. Denki Groove also performed two songs.
Denki Groove – N.O. / Ningen Daitoryo
This week on Recochoku, Mr.Children topped the chart with “HANABI.”
On iTunes, Utada Hikaru topped the chart with “Oozora de Dakishimete.”
As one would suspect from an idol unit with the concept “idols who cross dimensions“, it was announced at their first live event on Saturday that the new Sony/Aniplex/Yasushi Akimoto-produced idol unit 22/7 will get its own anime.
The unit name, revealed late last year, was chosen because when converted to decimal, the number becomes 3.14, an irrational number that can not be expressed in integer division.
Each member of the unit will perform as their characters in the real world, as well as voice them in the anime. A different character designer is handling each member’s anime character design, which you can check out in the group’s short lyric video for their song “Boku wa Sonzai Shiteinakatta” below.
Cartoon Network’s upcoming series “Unikitty!“, an animated series from Warner Bros. Animation, screened its pilot at San Diego Comic-Con when it was revealed metal-idol band BABYMETAL would be performing the theme song.
A character from the 2014 box-office hit “The Lego Movie“, Unikitty will star in the cartoon that will follow her and her friends “into a world full of adventure, excitement and dance parties.”
Vice President of Design at Lego Company Matthew Ashton, showrunner Ed Skudder and writer Aaron Waltke confirmed the trio’s involvement with the show on Twitter.
Idol supergroup AKB48 have announced they will hold their annual “Janken Tournament” event at Nippon Gaishi Hall on September 24, but with one huge change from previous years: the candidates will be units instead of individual members.
The “Janken Tournament” began in 2010 and initially decided who would sing on “Janken Single”, decided by a game of rock-paper-scissors (“janken”). The winner of the tournament would become the center of the single.
For this year, all members from AKB48, SKE48, NMB48, HKT48, NGT48 and STU48—except those who have announced their graduation—are eligible to participate in this tournament. Overseas group members do not have the opportunity to participate.
Japan-based AKB48 Group members will form and name units of their own choosing, regardless of origin group and unit size (including solo units). A member can only register as part of one unit.
