Japan Historian

 Queen of Japanese Music World

Namie Amuro

Namie Amuro (安室 奈美恵 ,Amuro Namie, born September 20, 1977) is a Japanese singer, dancer, and former child actor/singer, who, at the height of her popularity, was referred to as the "Teen Queen [of Japan]" and the "Queen of Japanese pop music". Born in Naha, Okinawa, Amuro debuted at the age of fourteen as an idol in the girl group Super Monkey’s. Though mostly unsuccessful, the group gained popularity during their final year together with the single "Try Me: Watashi o Shinjite" (1995).

Amuro left Toshiba-EMI after releasing two more solo singles; she continued her music career as a solo singer with the then-small independent label Avex Trax. Under the guidance of producer Tetsuya Komuro, Amuro quickly became a commercial success, producing several million-selling records and starting several fashion trends. Her single "Can You Celebrate?" (1997) became Japan’s best selling single by a solo female artist. However, in late 1997, Amuro put her career on hold to focus on her pregnancy and engagement.

She returned to music in 1998 with the number-one single, "I Have Never Seen", but faced slowly declining sales. She unofficially severed ties with Tetsuya Komuro in 2001, shortly after taking on the project Suite Chic that would transform her from a pop idol to a R&B artist. Since reinventing herself, Amuro has achieved newfound interest. Her latest studio album, Play (2007) debuted at top of the charts and was followed by "60s 70s 80s" (2008), her first number-one single in ten years.

Over a decade since her musical debut, Amuro has remained one of the longest surviving popular female acts in Japan. She is the only Japanese female artist to have achieved a Top 10 single each year for fourteen consecutive years. She also continues to successfully combat social stigma as a divorced, working, single mother.

On July 30, 2008, Amuro released her first greatest hits album, Best Fiction, since transitioning to R&B music. It spent six consecutive weeks at the number-one position on the Japan’s Oricon weekly charts, and was elected as "the best album of the year" at the 50th Japan Record Awards. Later this year, she is touring Japan in support of the album. Estimates predict that she could play to an audience as high as 400,000, potentially the largest audience of her career.

Japanese Actress & Model

Meisa Kuroki

Kuroki Meisa (黒木メイサ) was born on May 28, 1988 in Nago, Okinawa, Japan. She is a Japanese actress and model. She is represented by Sweet Power. Her father is American, and her mother is half-Japanese. She has appeared in a number of television dramas, commercials, films, and stage productions.

Meisa Kuroki is an exotic Japanese actress and model who like other quite a few Japanese models like Lena Fujii. She was part of the teenage talent group B.B. Waves and later became a magazine model 2004 for JJ magazine.

 

 

Erika Toda Japanese Famous Actress & Model

Erika Toda is a Japanese famous actress and model. She comes from a big family and has one elder brother and a younger sister. She likes cooking, playing piano and Kungfu.

Erika Toda born on August 17, 1988 from Kobe. Erika Toda began life in Japan’s Hyogo Prefecture, and first entered the limelight in her teens, as the co-winner of Young Jump magazine’s "Seikore ‘03" competition for glamour models - an achievement that turned her face into a veritable household image in her native country, enabling her to grace innumerable print ads and billboards.

From there, she started her career in 2000 as an actress. The transition to filmed work represented an almost effortless segue; she began with an extensive number of appearances in many popular Japanese TV dramas such as Nobuta o Produce, Engine and Gal Circle, but has only starred as the main character in her April 2007 drama, Liar Game. In the popular manga adaption movies Death Note (2006) and Death Note:The Last Name (2007), she played the role of Misa Amane making her very popular.

Ayumi Hamasaki - “Empress of J-Pop”

Ayumi Hamasaki is one of the most influential singer/songwriters in Japanese pop music. She has sold over 40 million records and is considered one of the most prolific of Japanese artists. Her nickname is the “Empress of J-Pop”.

Ayumi Hamasaki was born in Fukuoka, Japan on October 2, 1978. She was mainly raised by her grandmother. Ayumi Hamasaki had a liberal childhood, and was allowed to make her own decisions growing up, which caused her friction with her teachers. During her teenage years she began working as a model, frequently traveling between Fukuoka and Tokyo. In the middle of her high school years she changed talent agencies from the modeling-centered SOS agency to Sun Music. She stopped doing as much modeling and focused on acting in television dramas as assigned by her new talent agency, but found this to be unsatisfying.

At the age of 17, Ayumi Hamasaki released her first album, “Nothing from Nothing”, a rap album which did very poorly. This caused Ayumi Hamasaki to turn away from music for a time, but she was encouraged to try again by record producer Masato Matsuura, and after a trip to New York which allowed her to try recording at a more relaxed pace, she was emboldened to give it another try. In 1998, Ayumi Hamasaki released the single “poker face”, which placed at 22 on the Oricon music charts (the Japanese equivalent to the Billboard music charts in America). “Trust”, her third single, was able to reach the Oricon Top Ten. She started to increase in popularity and was able to place at number one on the charts at the beginning of 1999 with the album “A Song for XX”. Since then every one of her albums has reached number one, and she has released often more than one a year, including “LOVEppears”, “Duty”, “A BEST”, “I am…”, “RAINBOW”, “A BALLADS”, “Memorial address”, “MY STORY”, “(miss)understood”, and “Secret”. Ayumi Hamasaki has sold over 40 million records over the course of her career and as of early 2007 continues to work in music prolifically.

The popular diva has landed her biggest gig in her musical career. Here now she been given the honor to create and sing the theme song for the upcoming Dragonball live-action movie, “Dragonball: Evolution“.

The Hollywood movie is based on the popular manga “Dragonball“, which was created by Akira Toriyama. The manga series has sold around 350 million copies worldwide. It was reported that the production costs for the movie were over US$100,000,000. The movie will be screened in Japan on March 13th and shall be released in America in April.

The theme song, which is already completed, is called “Rule“. This song is described to be a powerful rock number and it was sung in Japanese. Until now, no release date has been revealed. The movie shall be screened in over 60 countries and therefore the song shall be distributed worldwide. Therefore this shall be Hamasaki’s first international break.

According to “The Sports Nippon” the director, James Wong is a big fan of Hamasaki’s music and he is familiar to her discography. He personally requested Fox to offer Hamasaki the opportunity to land this gig and wouldn’t take no for an answer. Wong felt that since the manga was born in Japan, a Japanese person should sing the theme song. It is quite rare for a Japanese artist to be given the opportunity to sing for an international movie. For Hamasaki, it shall also be her first time to produce a song for a non-Japanese movie.

Hamasaki had completed the song on December 7th and she announced this on her official Team Ayu blog. On the same day, the song was sent to America. On the 10th of December the news was first announced on Sanspo“. The lyrics were penned by Hamasaki, Miki Watanabe composed the song and H/\L was in charge of the arrangement of the song. Hamasaki wrote the lyrics, after reading the screenplay and she based the lyrics on her impression of the protagonist.

Since 2006, Hamasaki has gradually started to extend her activities outside Japan. She surprised her fans by speaking a few sentences in English on CNN Talkasia and she mentioned how she is willing to go anywhere if people are willing to listen to her. In the following couple of years, Hamasaki extended her arena tour to Asia, which proved to be a huge success. After being offered this huge opportunity, Hamasaki mentioned in her blog how she might attempt to make a worldwide debut.

Needless to say, Hamasaki is also quite excited and enthusiastic. She has mentioned how honored she feels, especially since she used to love Dragonball. In an official comment, Hamasaki was quoted to say, “I hope both old and new fans of ‘Dragonball’ throughout the world will enjoy the film.”

It is questionable to predict the magnitude of exposure she will receive from this collaboration. Nonetheless, this is an excellent opportunity for Hamasaki and this will definitely give her a certain level of global exposure. Furthermore “Rule” will definitely top the charts once again in Japan and there is a high possibility that “Rule” shall become another huge hit.

Here is the 24 seconds preview: 

Japanese Plum

The plum is associated with the start of spring, because plum blossoms are some of the first blossoms to open during the year. In the Tokyo area, they typically flower in February and March. The event is celebrated with plum festivals (ume matsuri) in public parks, shrines and temples across the country.

Like cherry trees, plum trees come in many varieties, many of which were cultivated by humans over the centuries. Most plum blossoms have five petals and range in color from white to dark pink. Some varieties with more than five petals (yae-ume) and weeping branches (shidare-ume) have also been cultivated. Unlike cherry blossoms, plum blossoms have a strong fragrance. 

The actual ume fruit is more sour than the western plum or apricot, and is usually processed in various ways before eaten.

The most popular processed form is the umeboshi, a sour, pickled plum, which is usually enjoyed with cooked rice. Umeboshi is one of the most typical Japanese flavors. Umeshu, a sweet alcoholic beverage made of plums, is also very popular.