Aoi Miyazaki divorces, Aya Ueto marries
2011 ends and 2012 starts with a bang as two marital-related events came to a head.
Sweet actress Aoi Miyazaki (26) has long been the apple of many a man’s eye. Her cad of a hubby, pop singer and actor Sousuke Takaoka (29), though, knows full well that he is regarded as a “ikemen” hunk. So much so that he reportedly had an affair a while back with a gravure idol called Asuka Kinbara, and they have been living separately.
Rumors of a split in the celebrity couple have floated for months and months, but finally the two confirmed their divorce just before the end of the year. The pair got hitched very young and their marriage lasted over four years… so quandruple the big divorce in the west recently between Katy Perry and Russell Brand!
Takaoka’s career has been eclipsed by that of his now ex-wife and his personal reputation nose-dived after his alleged affair. Tweets criticizing Fuji TV’s supposed favoritism for Korean dramas also won him both acclaim (especially from the Japanese Far Right) and agreement (well, he has a point!), but mostly it must have really pissed off industry insiders, his agency and TV producers.
Rather than swiftly apologizing and blaming beers and the just-too-easy-to-tweet convenience of his smartphone, he kept up his argument with the offended fans of the Korean Boom. Eventually he was sacked by his agency, which is tantamount to ostracism in the conservative world of Japanese pop entertainment. Now his marriage is officially over he has a long way to climb up from the hole he has made for himself… Hey, at least he didn’t take drugs and/or cause the death of a hostess.
On the other hand, queen of advertising, the tabloids are reporting that the lovely Aya Ueto (26) will marry her boyfriend, HIRO (42), from the dozens-strong boyband EXILE. Aya will be breaking my heart and that of a million other guys. Their relationship has only been public for a little over a year but perhaps Aya is getting tired of all those commercials and fancies having a kid.
Both Aoi and Aya occupy that cute, always smiling, girl-next-door zone beloved of Japanese advertising. They look so cute but without being “sexy” or lavishly beautiful. Other examples would surely be Ayaka Haruse and Yu Aoi. It’s a genre that I am particularly partial to…
Happy New Year, folks!
