Makoto Nagano March 30, 1972 Born in Nobeoka, Miyazaki Prefecture, Makoto Nagano works as a captain on the commerical fishing boat: 28th Konpira Maru. Began his challenge with Ninja Warrior inspired by Katsumi Yamada.
Nagano is the most consistent with high records within the All Star Members, and he has even reached the Final Stage 3 competitions in a row. He is also know for his speed, and many times has had 20 seconds or more left on the clock in the 1st and 2nd stages.
So Makoto Nagano is the best Ninja Warrior, finally he’s the one who had been on the last stage. Bravo Makoto Nagano.
Takizawa Hideyaki born on March 29, 1982, is a Japanese actor and musician.Takizawa Hideaki joined Johnny’s Junior in 1995 at the age of 13. He quickly became one of the shining stars and became a leader of the Juniors.Debuted from Johnny’s Junior 7 years after he first entered, on August 1, 2002 with fellow Johnny’s Junior Imai Tsubasa into a duo unit called Tackey & Tsubasa and signed a contract with recording company avextrax.
On September 11, 2002, Tackey & Tsubasa released their first album titled Hatachi, which means “20-years-old” in Japanese. They have then since released a total of 2 albums and 3 singles, and had done 3 concert tours as Tackey & Tsubasa.Takki also did a leading role in the Johnny Kitagawa-produced musical Dream Boy, which was staged in the Imperial Theatre in Tokyo on January 2004, and the Umeda Koma Stadium in Osaka on May 2004.
Takeshi Kaneshiro was born on October 11, 1973, in Taiwan of Japanese and Taiwanese parents. This unique background led to Kaneshiro being fluent in several languages, namely Mandarin, Japanese, Cantonese, Taiwanese, and English. Kaneshiro spent his childhood in Taiwan.
Kaneshiro started his rise to stardom by making commercials during his school years, and at the age of fifteen was given the opportunity to be a pop star by a Taipei A&R company. In 1992, he launched a successful singing career in both Mandarin and Cantonese. As is traditional with Asian pop stars, Kaneshiro was offered roles in films, his first being in Taiwanese comedies.
In 1992, Kaneshiro made his singing debut, entering the business with the nickname Aniki, meaning ‘older brother’ in Japanese. His debut album was Heartbreaking Night (1992). Contracted to EMI, he wrote many of his own Mandarin and Cantonese songs. The following year, his popularity propelled him into acting and he no longer produces any commercial music.
About his personal life Kaneshiro has been quoted as saying “If one day I get married and have kids, I will probably be one of those men who really care for the family. I will eat at home every day, and help with the chores and take care of the children.”
Yoshino Kimura was born on April 10, 1976 in the United Kingdom and grew up in London until she was two years old. She lived in New York for three years while she was a junior high school student due to her father’s job transfer. Upon returning to Japan, she joined an equestrian art club at a Japanese high school and placed 4th in the women’s junior preliminary contest, all-Japan high school equestrian art championships.
She has been involved in an extensive realm of activities, appearing in more than 50 TV dramas, movies and stage dramas, as well as commercials, while building up her acting career steadily.In 2004, she was appointed Goodwill Ambassador for the Visit Japan Campaign by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. This year, she plays the role of Goodwill Ambassador for the Japan-Korea Visit Year 2005 with her Korean counterpart, Ms. Cho Ji Woo, a South Korean actress. In 2006, she will serve as Tourism Goodwill Ambassador for the 2006 Japan-Australia Year of Exchange as well.
She appeared on an episode of the Showtime series Masters Of Horror. Kimura won the Rookie of the Year prize at the 21st Japan Academy Awards for her appearance in Shitsurakuen.Kimura appears as Shizuka in the recent spaghetti western movie Sukiyaki Western Django. As of 25 June 2007 she is slated to star in a new Japanese soap opera to be set in Australia.She also played Master Tiger in the Japanese dub of Kung Fu Panda.
Japanese star Takuya Kimura November 13, 1972 was the most popular male personality in TV commercials in 2008. Kimutaku appeared in 10 TV commercials last year and tied with ex-professional tennis player Shuzo Matsuoka at the top spot.The most popular female personality in TV commercials in 2008 is Becky, who appeared in 14 TV commercials.The most popular magazine Men’s Non-No this year celebrates its 20th anniversary and invited him for an exclusive interview. It proves that he is still no. 1 in Japan.
Relatively, Yutaka Takenouchi who started from the same period with him has successfully changed to a solid actor and refused to be only an idol. Takashi Sorimachi’s popularity dropped ever since he got married. Kashiwabara Takashi’s popularity dropped due this his legal problem. Kimura Takuya tried to change style but he could only remain as the top idol.
According to a Hong Kong newspaper, Japanese star Takuya Kimura is set to make his Hollywood debut in 2008 with movie I Come with the Rain.The details of the movie is unknown yet, but Takuya is not playing the main character; Hollywood star Josh Harnett will take the center stage instead.It’s also said that Korean actor Lee Byung-hun might be involved in the movie as well. Lee is Takuya’s co-star in his latest Japanese movie, Hero, which is scheduled to premiere next month.
Utada Hikaru (Hikki) is in the spotlight for the month of June on Channel V she explains more about “this is the one”.After failing to crack the US market, in 1998 she moved to Tokyo with her family and continued to pursue her music career. Given the success of First Love and her subsequent albums, Utada has become one of Japan’s most successful artists of all time. Three of her Japanese albums are included in Japan’s Top 10 list of best-selling albums.
[V] is putting Utada front and centre in the spotlight. Born and raised in New York City, this Japanese-American’s debut album, First Love, rewrote the record books when it became the best-selling album ever in Japan. With her record-breaking singles,‘Automatic’ and ‘First Love,’ it wasn’t long before the rest of the world started hearing about this talented songstress.
Utada finds translating her music from Japanese to English, and English to Japanese difficult. This is one reason why she is hesitating on the offer of a third theme song for the Kingdom Hearts series.Having secured her place in Japan, Utada is out to conquer the English-language charts with the release of third English album, This is the One.”The North American version should contain the 10 album tracks plus three additional bonus tracks (Simple And Clean, Sanctuary (Opening) and Sanctuary (Closing)).
