A sugoi (cool) site about Japan. We've searched for the best video clips about Japanese Music, Idols, Celebrities, News and Lifestyle for your entertainment.
Rumi Koyama 小山ルミ is a retired Japanese singer, actress and TV talento born in 1952 to an Irish soldier and Japanese mother. She grew up in Sapporo and was became a teen model and had a singing, movie and acting career from 1968-1974.
She released 13 singles, 3 albums, 13 movies and 13 TV shows. In 1974 she married a Japanese jeweler and retired to Los Angeles. She made her last appearance on Japanese TV in 1997 on TV Asahi’s the Super Sunday Showザ・スーパーサンデー
For more information about Rumi read her Japanese wikipedia entry here.
Enka is a genre of Japanese pop songs developed in the postwar period often compared or likened to American style country western music. Enka lyrics usually focus on the themes of love and loss, loneliness and hardships.
Jerome White Jr or Jero ジェロ is Japan’s first black Enka singer and who has found great success. His grandmother is Japanese (Takiko Tabb) and the Pennsylvania native traveled to his grandmother’s homeland after graduating from the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in computer engineering in 2003 and soon gathered a following singing Japanese traditional ballads but creating a ‘cool’ contrast by wearing hip hop gear. Along with his album “Covers” which was released in June, his debut single Umiyuki 海雪 (Ocean Snow) released this past February rose to a truly impressive #4 on the music charts.
Osaka’s best known DJ is Hi-C who has competed at many DJ events including the all Japan DMC Championships. DJ Hi-C is 26 years old and started dj-ing in 1998 and has never looked back.
DJ Hi-C Videos
Interview 2006
Part 1
part 2
DJ Hi-C and DJ Yasa the DMC Champs from Japan in Shanghai, China.
Well it had to happen sometime, but all the otaku hoping to marry Leah Dizon will just have to find another girlfriend. The 22 year old Jpop singer revealed on the final night of her concert tour last week that she got married on October 10 at the Hilton hotel in Shinjuku. Her husband is a 29 year old Japanese stylist name Bun whom she met about a year ago when he was involved in a shoot for one of her CD jackets. They became friends after Dizon began consulting with him about work, and it developed into a relationship. They didn’t waste any time after that..
Leah also announced she was 4 months pregnant and will be taking a break from work until after the baby is born, but says she plans to continue her career.
Leah Dizon press conference to announce her wedding and pregnancy
Yasushi Nakanishi 中西保志 is a very popular 47 year old Japanese singer from Nara prefecture with 18 singles from 1992-1999 and 12 albums from 1992-2007. The height of his popularity was in the late 1990s and many Japanese people will be familiar with his songs (ask them to sing karaoke for you). Yasushi attempted a comeback since 2005 releasing 3 albums Proceed, Standards and Standards2.
Before he became a professional singer, Yasushi had been an amateur singer at university performing many songs by Stevie Wonder and Billy Joel. In 1986, Yasushi had even been hired by Japanese record labels to be a Japanese Stevie Wonder impersonator and appear on Japanese TV shows.
Yasushi Nakanishi Videos
Yasushi Nakanishi1992 最後の雨 Saigo No Ame “The Last Rain”
The real Yasushi Nakanishi singing “Missing” (by Toshi Kubota)
As Stevie Wonder Impersonator singing “I Just Called to Say I love you”
Like Yasushi Nakanishi’s music? We do! See more or purchase here.
Hi-Prix are a Jpop hip hop duo consisting of cute Japanese girls 18 year old Miki and 17 year old Hina who debuted this summer with their catchy song and album WipeOut 太陽にほえろのテーマ【初回生産限定盤】.
The schoolgirls were picked in 2007 by Sony Music Records after going through a round of auditions. Miki graduated from high school in Niigata while Hina is still in high school in Kobe and Tokyo.
Wipeout got coverage in many of the teen Japanese fashion magazines such as Nicola, pati pati and SCawaii as well as getting plenty of air play time on MTV.
Read more about Hi-Prix at the blog here.
Hi-Prix Videos
More music destruction occurred earlier this year when global superstar Kylie Minogue visited Japan and made an appearance on SMAP’s variety show SMAPxSMAP. Kylie chats with the SMAP boys before singing her big hits I should be so lucky (1988), Can’t get you out of my head (2001) and Two Hearts (2007) with them. Hugely entertaining for the wrong reasons, it’s clear the SMAP boys should not sing in English!
(Japan Sugoi)