In today’s entertainment world, who is the person with the highest degree of familiarity and interest from the public? “Nikkei Entertainment!“‘s June edition, which is now on sale, features its fifth annual “Talent Power Ranking.”
In its “Talent Power Ranking,” public research company Architect investigated “public degree of familiarity (knowing the name and face)” and “degree of interest (wanting to see, wanting to know, wanting to listen)” and calculated their power as talents and finally ranked them. Those included in the list were actors, comedians, musicians, sports figures, announcers, and other celebrities and totaled 1,196 stars.
The ranking’s top ten:
1位「Arashi」（2）
2位「Southern All-Stars」（3）
3位「Matsushima Nanako」（42）
4位「Beat Takeshi」（8）
5位「Ayase Haruka」（11）
6位「Fukuyama Masaharu」（1）
7位「Abe Hiroshi」（22）
8位「Akashiya Sanma」（7）
9位「SMAP」（15）
10位「Ichiro」（5）
*The number in the parenthesis indicate their rank last year
(Source)
Japanese magazine, Josei Jisin, revealed a list of the most highly paid celebrities for commercials, and some familiar names made it into the higher ranks.
Arashi came in at the top spot, reportedly earning 150 million yen (approx. $1.95mil USD), ahead of SMAP who earned 120 million yen (approx. $1.56mil USD). Jang Keun Suk was the fourth most highly paid male star for modelling. At his highest, he used to be paid 120 million yen, but he soon lowered his fee to about 80 million yen “because Jang Keun Suk became too expensive, many companies started to pull out their contracts”.
The top spot for female modeling fees went to Japan’s beloved idol group AKB48. AKB48, who is rewriting J-Pop history by releasing million-seller albums and singles, was priced at about 50 million yen (approx. $650,000 USD).
KARA was revealed to be of top star status in Japan by ranking third at around 40-50 million yen. According to the article, KARA is the most highly priced Korean idol singer, and is considered well worth the price.
Girls’ Generation, tied with several other female stars at #12, was priced at 30 million yen, while Tohoshinki came in seventh on the male star list at 40 million yen.
Prolific Japanese music legend Johnny Kitagawa has been presented with two Guinness World Records establishing him as one of the most successful music producers ever.
His new records are for Most No.1 Singles Produced by an Individual (232), and Most Concerts Produced by an Individual (8,419).
Kitagawa has achieved the No. 1 position more often than any music producer with a record 232 chart-toppers for over 40 of Japan’s bestselling groups (based on data for the period 1974 to 2010).
He also holds the record for the most number of concerts produced by an individual having produced an amazing 8,419 between 2000 and 2010. Concerts by Japanese mega-bands SMAP, KinKi Kids, ARASHI, KAT-TUN and Hey! Say! JUMP attracted an estimated 48,234,550 fans.
His achievements, over a career commencing in 1962, have earned him the reputation as the most prolific “idol band” producer in the world.
(Source)
Today, Fuji TV officially announced their Tuesday 9pm drama for the fall season! As it was rumored, it’s going to be an adaption of the popular mystery novel “Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de“, starring Arashi’s Sakurai Sho as a butler with a wicked tongue.
Sakurai is going to play Kageyama, a butler and chauffeur for a young and rich woman called Hosho Reiko, played by actress Kitagawa Keiko. Hosho, besides being the daughter of a very powerful businessman, also happens to be a novice detective and, due to her lack of reasoning skills, often relies on the help of her butler to smoothly solve various cases with her. In addition to the mysterious cases, the drama is going to feature a nice sense of comedy, focusing on the chemistry between Reiko and her butler, who doesn’t even refrain from calling her a fool at times.
It’s going to be Sakurai’s first starring drama on Fuji TV, and the producer is glad that they were able to get him for the role. He stated, “We wanted to have Sakurai for the role as the protagonist, because he is able to portray his cool and intellectual as well as his comical and warm side. I think we have the perfect man for this modern detective butler.”
Meanwhile, Sakurai revealed that he already read the novel before he received the offer, and that he is looking forward to the drama adaption himself. He said, “The conversations were incredibly thrilling and I couldn’t put it down once I started reading it. It feels like the drama is going to be even more humorous than the original. I’m excited about this and will work hard to make it a drama you are going to look forward to every Tuesday at 9pm.”
“Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de” will premiere on Tuesdays in October.
(Source)
