Sankei Express, a new morning edition newspaper targeted for younger people has selected Kimura Takuya (34) as their celeb to promote the newspaper in their commercials airing in Japan.

The commercial shows KimuTaku reading Sankei Express and with each day he experiences something new.

Watch the commercial by clicking here.

Click on CM-AD

We have all read fan stories before but this one is actually surprising.

CRIEnglish.com reports about a 28-year-old woman is a big fan of Andy Lau.  So much a fan that she quit high school to watch his videos.  Her parents that don’t make much money help fund their daughters trip to Hong Kong to try to meet Andy Lau, even selling their apartment.

Last week the family of three spent their money for their daughter to meet her idol which the Andy World Club made happen. On Sunday, the fan met the man she spent over a decade of her life loving.

Not having enough money to stay at a hotel, while the mother and daughter slept, the father jumped into the sea and left a suicide letter asking for the Chinese government to take care of her family.

More on this bizarre/tragic fan story

Photo courtesy of xmnext.com/CRIEnglish.com

With the new releases of albums out on Wednesday, here is who came out on top today:

1. Otsuka Ai - Ai am BEST
2. m-flo - COSMICOLOR
3. Mr. Children - HOME
4. Road of Major - GOLDEN ROAD ~BEST~
5. TOKYO SKA PARADISE ORCHESTRA - BEST OF TOKYO SKA 1998-2007
6. KISHIDAN - SIX SENSES
7. Nakamori Akina - Ballad Best -25th ANNIVERSARY SELECTION-
8. Nakashima Mika - YES
9. Koda Kumi - BEST~BOUNCE & LOVERS~
10. EXILE - EXILE EVOLUTION

With the new CD single releases out on Wednesday’s, here are the top 10 CD singles of the day.

1. TOKIO - Hikari no Machi/Run Free (Swan Dance wo kimi to)
2. KOBOKURO - Tsubomi
3. NEWS - Hoshi wo Mezashite
4. Akikawa Masafumi - Sen no Kaze ni Natte
5. BONNIE PINK - Anything For You
6. Utada Hikaru - Flavor of Life
7. Melon Kinenbi - Unforgettable
8. Shibasaki Kou - Hito Koi meguri
9. Se7en - Aitai

In our lastest J!-ENT poll for March, we asked you “Tell us the truth…do you buy your Japanese or Asian music CD’s?”

The results were:

80.6% who said - Yes - Of course! Love the music, support the artist!

19.3% who said - No - Why should I buy when I can download it for free!

Ito Misaki (29) showed off a 3.6 karat diamond at a DTC Personality Prize event (since 1983) in which the company chooses a personality who has contributed to the promotion of fashion in their country with a beautiful diamond necklace.

The company known for having their diamonds worn by celebrities like Jennifer Lopez, Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron and Rachel Weiss and many more at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes and many other award shows.

More on Ito and DTC Personality Prize

Photo courtesy of Sankei Sports

A restaurant owner in China has created something interesting that is hard to believe but is true.  A bathroom and a urinal to accommodate basketball star Yao Ming.

According to an article on CRIEnglish.com, “The urinal, installed somewhat higher than the others, made headlines in Tuesday’s Beijing Morning Post. The newspaper describes it as “extremely high,” and therefore only appropriate for people like the 2.29-meter (7.51 feet) Yao Ming.”

More on Yao Ming urinal 

Photo courtesy of Morningpost.com.cn/CRIEnglish.com

After I saw these girls on the media multiple times, I was curious who they were and is this another label idol project. I figured that there is Hello! Project, Avex has their Girl’s BOX concerts and their idol units and now I’m starting to learn about Sony’s DEFSTAR RECORDS AKB48.

What always confused me why there were a few that would perform on one night and then for certain singles, the numbers would differ. But I was thinking that AKB48 was the same as a Morning Musume but I’m learning they are anything but.

AKB48 or Akihabara48 is the name of a theater group of young female performers that perform at AKB48 Theater in Akihabara and are produced by Akimoto Yasushi. And the group are broken into three groups: A, K and B.

Akimoto Yasushi is the original person who produced the very large idol group Onyanko Club in the 80’s that singers such as Kudo Shizuka came from. The girls at that time performed on a FUJI TV show from 1985-1987.

Akimoto is continuing what he has done 20 years ago but instead of television, having many of these selected young girls build their talents through AKB48.

I’m currently listening to AKB48’s team A 1st stage (DFCL-1351) and team K 1st stage (DFCL-1354) [thanks to SONY/DEFSTAR].

I’m actually playing both CD’s at the same time (the song “AKB48″) on my main computer and laptop since they nearly have the same tracklisting. team A exclusively has “Anata to Christmas Eve” and team K exclusively has “Skirt, Hirari (Encore).

I actually enjoy the albums and compared to many idol albums, pretty good. Curious if they sing equally as well during a live performance.

Things have gone from bad to worse for Kansai TV for airing a show that aired fabricated data.

According to Kyodo News, “No direct effects are expected on Kansai Telecasting’s program contents. But expulsion would be a blow to the broadcaster which may suffer a decline in revenues from commercials, industry sources said.”

More on this situation 

Another Kago Ai article from Daily Manichi:

“The agent for former “Morning Musume” female troupe member Ai Kago has cancelled her contract after the teenage star was caught smoking while under suspension for earlier misconduct.”

“The Shukan Gendai weekly magazine’s latest issue, which hit the stands on Monday, reported that 19-year-old Kago was caught smoking during a trip. By law, anyone under 20 is banned from smoking in Japan.”

More on Mainichi article