Figure skater Shizuka Arakawa, who won an Olympic gold medal in the Ladies' Singles at Turin in 2006, will appear as a model in an upcoming event at the Prince Hotel Park Tower in Tokyo. The event will feature a haute couture collection from Paris by designer Eymeric Francois.

Music group Sukima Switch will sing the theme song for the 2006 summer Koshien tournament. The press conference at the stadium on Tuesday was the duo's first trip to Koshien. The song, Sphere no Hane, will be released with another single, Garana, which will be theme song to the movie Rough, starring Mokomichi Hayami. The double single goes on sale August 16.

According to numbers by Video Research Ltd., the HERO Special, which aired Monday on Fuji TV, reached ratings of 30.9%. When the original series aired in 2001, all 11 episodes reached ratings of over 30%, peaking at over 36% and averaging at about 34%.

It was revealed on Tuesday that actress/singer/model Anna Tsuchiya and model Joshua are now divorced after two years of marriage. This makes Tsuchiya a single mother, as she gave birth to a boy in 2004.

Digital Manga Publishing announced that they have acquired the license for the Vampire Hunter D manga.

Soccer star Hidetoshi Nakata announced his retirement on July 3, ending his ten-year career. According to the announcement made on his official website, he had made the decision half a year ago that he would retire after the World Cup.

According to Mainichi Shinbun, Horipro announced that actress/talento Son-ha Yoon is engaged to a Korean businessman. The wedding is expected to take place in the fall. A press conference will be held in Seoul on Friday regarding the engagement.