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.

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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 .

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“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)

Hamasaki was chosen for the role as she “is as popular as Tinkerbell with Japanese women, and has the power to make those around her feel good,” says one industry insider. Hamasaki said: “I’m just honored to be part of something that is loved by people all over the world.”

Another of Hamasaki’s new songs – “BALLAD” – will be used as the theme song for “Sokyu no subaru” to be shown on NHK BS hi from Jan 2. Both “You were…” and “BALLAD” will go on sale Dec 29.

“Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure” opens on Dec 23.

Japan Today

Source: Mingpao
Translated by: sparkles_n15 @ asianfanatics.net

Personal skincare company Unilever Japan created a skincare survey to coincide with their ‘Healthy Skin Day’. They approached 600 male and female participants ranging from their 20s to 30s. After calculating the votes, the results for ‘The Most Natural Skin’ went to ‘The Last Samurai’ actress Koyuki. In second place was ‘Ooku’ lead actress Kanno Miho, while third went to ‘Handsome Suit’ actress Kitagawa Keiko. The top votes in the category of ‘The Celebrity I Most Want to See Without Makeup’ went to Hamasaki Ayumi and the winner of the Miss Transvestite International, comedian Haruna Ai. The award for ‘Most Glowing Skin Couple’ went to Mizushima Hiro and Ayaka. When asked who’s skin they most wanted to have, the top choice once again went to Koyuki in the female category, while Kimura Takuya won for the male category.

At #2 was Morning Musume with their latest song, “Nanchatte Renai,” selling 55,000 copies. The rest of the top ten included GACKT (#4), supercell (#5), Toshihiko Takamizawa (#6), a new “K-On!” character single (#9), and Motohiro Hata (#10).

On the albums chart, Kobukuro remained at #1 for the second week in a row, but Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi ranked highest out of the new releases with 72,000 copies of “FRIENDS” at #2. Crazy Ken Band (#4) and Kaori Mochida (#9) also made the top ten.

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Singer Hamasaki Ayumi (30) is top make-up brand Rimmel’s first Asia “image character”. She was promoted as spokesperson on the 27^th of this month. For the popular brand that’s expanding into 56 countries, Ayu will be shooting the advertisements with her strong eyes and sparkling eye-color.

In the beginning of August she will have an interview / stage debut in every country in Asia. The young women in Asia will be fascinated with the “utahime” (singing princess), who will display beauty with great force.

Ayu on being with an English brand: “I’ve never been to England, so I thought maybe this is an opportunity to try and go there,” Ayu said about expanding into Europe pro-actively. The Singing Princess has turned to yet another big dream she’ll be running towards.

Translation by Keiichi_JPU @ AHS.

Click here for the official Rimmel London Japanese website, where Ayu is featured on the main layout.

Click here to go to the “Special” section, where the wallpapers are featured.

The Hong Kong media recently claimed, in fact that, Hamasaki Ayumi has been slowly fading out of the entertainment industry since last year, and may withdraw from the end of the year, and marry her secret boyfriend, and become a full-time housewives.

In addition to sitting on the value of a about 10 million dollars mansion in Tokyo, Hamasaki have now also in recent years got herself two new apartments, both located in the expensive Hiroo district located at Shibuya, Tokyo. She is also rumored to purchase many high-level furniture, even a toilet covered with diamonds imported from a nightclub in Hong Kong.

The paper «Magazine for WOMEN», reported that she will marriage at the end of the year and is actively preparing this, that’s the reason why her cooperation with the underwear brand Wacoal, has quietly replaced the image of her as a spokesman, if we believe the magazine.

Japanese media speculated that her source of income to buy luxury flats are likely to originate in the rich boyfriend, her boyfriend in Japan has a number of senior commercial real estate lots.

The magazine «FRIDAY» on their side put these rumors under doubts.—Hong Kong newspapers can never be trusted, says their press agent Kazuo Inagaki.

FRIDAY on its side has a different and more promising theory. Her management advised Hamasaki to withdraw from Japan and focus on the Asian market, more specifically the mainland China. This happened in 2002, with the launch of the single «Daybreak», and with a remix album based on the million seller «I am». Following the latest years Hamasaki has held two large scale concerts in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. According to a document FRIDAY has got their knowledge of, the launch of Hollywood song Rule was Hamasakis and Avex Group’s first major step in the direction of the United States and Europe.

According to the inside document report FRIDAY has got in their possession, the lates international releases from both fellow label colleague BoA and her former rival Utada Hikaru was received with great enthusiasm by producers and critics in the U.S, with the exception of the general public. Under several circumstances, its in fact the name «Ayumi Hamasaki» that have been mentioned and sought after, both during interviews and live presentations, to Utada’s and BoA’s frustration.

For many it may seem as if Ayu has been slowly fading out of the entertainment industry, but this is incorrect. According to sources within the Avex Group, Hamasaki uses a lot of time to practice her language, which she takes weekly English language exams, preparing for a huge career move.

Kazuo Inagaki refers to a post written by Hamasaki in her official blog last week. This post confirmed that a big decision was made, but disproved the theory regarding marriage. This forces FRIDAY theories about the document regarding a large scale world release. -It is only a matter of time before Hamasaki will aim toward the West, whether it be America, or Europe resume to see, she now only need to be fluent in English language, he says.

source: ayu-no

Continuing this trend, it is likely that Ayumi again scoop the place of most serving female artist in 2009, and the person with the highest income. If so, will she top this position for the third year in a row. Both in 2007 and 2008, she was voted the female artist in Japan with the highest income from the album and DVD sales. She also topped the list in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004. Only off Koda Kumi under the peak of her career in 2005 and 2006.

After the subsequent invasion of Asia in 2007, she was again crowned the “Highest grossing female artist of the year”, a position it looks like she will make in 2009. Note that there are only Ayumi Hamasaki and Koda Kumi as solo artists on the list, the rest are either the band or duo’s.

source: ayu.no.news

Starring Hiroshi Tachi and Nao Minamisawa in a father-daughter comedy, “Dandy Daddy?” is scheduled to premiere on July 9.

Hamasaki’s “Sunrise ~LOVE is ALL~” will be released as a double A-side single called “Sunrise / Sunset ~LOVE is ALL~” on August 12. Included on the single is a “Special Mega-Mash-Up-Mix” that combines the singer’s past summer hits “July 1^st,” “Greatful days,” “fairyland,” “BLUE BIRD,” and “glitter.”

In addition to the regular CD single, a CD+DVD edition will be available that includes music videos for the two title tracks and a making-of video for “Sunrise ~LOVE is ALL~.”

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japanzone

The PR event happened on April 7, at the front of the 109 building in Shibuya. Roughly 8,000 people gathered to see Hamasaki, resulting in temporarily blocked roads. Before her appearance at 109, she also paid unexpected visits to a few major record shops, going from store to store by car while some fans followed her on foot.

Even though the events officially took place in stores, police determined that the scope of the event required a permit for the use of the roads. Because a permit was never obtained, authorities revealed on Thursday that they plan to send the matter to the prosecutor’s office in order to further question the manager and Hamasaki herself.

Singer Hiromi Go, attending his own event in Tokyo on Thursday, offered a sympathetic comment about the case. Ten years ago, he was similarly prosecuted for holding an unannounced performance in Shibuya.

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Cases of swine flu were recently confirmed in Osaka and Kobe, and the number has risen to almost 200 people. Thousands of schools in the Osaka and Hyogo prefectures have closed for the week in an effort to slow the spread. Due to the heightened concern, major music artists are calling off shows that have been scheduled for those areas.

Earlier this week, Johnny’s Jimusho announced the cancellation of four Osaka performances on May 23-24 by the Kansai Johnny’s Jr. group. However, Avex’s move on Tuesday was the biggest so far, with the total attendance of those six shows anticipated to be roughly 48,000 people. Hamasaki was scheduled to perform at Osaka-jo Hall on May 20-21 followed by Otsuka on May 23-24, while Koda was to perform at Kobe’s World Hall on May 23-24.

Initially, Avex had planned to hold the concerts, requiring fans to disinfect their hands upon entry and equipping the facilities with mouthwash and masks. However, the company ultimately decided that it would be unable to adequately make the venues safe for so many people.

Avex is currently looking into the possibility of setting new dates for the concerts.

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