Posted Feb 13, 2010. Filed under Ayumi News. Leave a comment?
On Friday, Shibuya police arrested a man who had sent a threatening letter to the home of pop singer Ayumi Hamasaki (31). The suspect, 42-year-old Motoyoshi Fujii, is being charged with attempted extortion. Fujii has reportedly admitted to the crime.
In late December, Fujii sent the letter to Hamasaki’s home, though an Avex staff member checked it first before the singer could read it. At first glance, it appeared to be a fan letter, containing words of praise for Hamasaki and other artists. However, the letter also demanded that 500 million yen be deposited into a designated bank account, or else the home of Avex president Max Matsuura (45) would be burned down. Fujii wrote that this was under the orders of his gang’s boss.
The staff passed the letter on to Matsuura, who filed a claim with the police in January. Investigators easily traced the letter to Fujii, as it included his name and address and was postmarked in his city.
Police are currently working to determine whether Fujii was responsible for several other similar letters that had been sent to Hamasaki and Matsuura since last fall. They are also investigating how he obtained Hamasaki’s address.
Tokyograph
Posted Jan 14, 2010. Filed under . Leave a comment?
Oricon’s first sales charts of the year cover the two-week holiday period from just before the new year up until now. The so-called “Kohaku effect”—releases getting a sales boost due to their appearance in Kohaku Uta Gassen—still applied, though its impact was less visible than usual, at least in the Top 10 rankings.
On the singles chart, #1 was Ayumi Hamasaki’s newly released “You were… / BALLAD,” selling 103,000 copies during the two weeks. Masaharu Fukuyama saw his latest single “Hatsukoi” climb back up to #2, though it was the only Top 10 single to benefit from the “Kohaku effect.”
The other new releases near the top were GACKT at #3, C-ute at #5, 9mm Parabellum Bullet at #8, and Saburo Kitajima at #10. Kitajima’s is perhaps the most notable of those, as it gives him the record for “oldest artist with a Top 10 single.” At 73 years and 3 months old, Kitajima far surpassed Hitoshi Ueki, who set the previous record in 1991 at the age of 64 years and 1 month old.
Ikimono Gakari retained the #1 ranking on the albums chart. Their “Hajimari no Uta” continued selling strong with another 161,000 copies. Noriyuki Makihara was the only other new artist on the top ten, with his two best collections occupying the #5 and #6 spots.
EXILE (#2) and Arashi (#4) both benefited from post-Kohaku boosts, as did British singer Susan Boyle (#7). As for Arashi, their “5×10 All the BEST! CLIPS 1999-2009″ DVD also climbed back up to #1, ten weeks after it first topped the DVD charts .
tokyograph
Posted Dec 17, 2009. Filed under . Leave a comment?
Ayumi Hamasaki apologizes for her evolution performance at Best Artist 2009 in a message posted in her fanclub. Here is the translation of that entry.
“For me as a singer, today’s evolution was for me my personal worst.
There is no excuse. At any rate, it’s mortifying. I’m sorry.
It seems like I’ve still got a lot to work on. I’ve really got to pull it together.”
source: dillpops @ HTTP://JPOPMUSIC.COM/FORUMS/ for the translation and ayu’s fanclub (TA)
