The official website for last year's drama series "Keishichou Sousa Ikka 9 Gakari" has formally announced that a second season will begin in April. It will air on TV Asahi in the same time slot, Wednesday 9:00pm.

Actress Ai Takabe will star in her first stage appearance this summer. The production is CARAMELBOX's "Courage of the Wind" (directed by Yutaka Narui), which was last performed in 2000. The story revolves around a junior college student named Hoshimi who reunites with the ghosts of her family.

33 performances are scheduled from July 2 to August 5 at the Sunshine Theatre in Tokyo. Those will followed by 8 performances from August 7 to August 16 at Osaka's Theater BRAVA!

Singer/actress SAYAKA will star in her first drama since her return to show business last December. The show is a drama special titled "Tatta Ichido no Yuki ~Sapporo 1972~" which will air on TBS on February 25 at 2:00pm.

The story takes place at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, where a female Japanese athlete (SAYAKA) and a male Taiwanese athlete (played by Wilson Chen) fall in love.

The rest of the cast includes Keiko Toda, Mako Ishino, and Nenji Kobayashi.

Takeshi Kitano has recently finished working on a new film titled "Kantoku Banzai!," which is described as an "ultra variety movie."

The story seems to be a reflection of Kitano himself. Kitano, under his stage name of Beat Takeshi, plays a director known for the violence in his films. He decides that he will no longer do violent movies, and proceeds to challenge various other genres, from romance to science fiction to ninja movies. The "movies within the movie" are all based on ideas that Kitano had.

"Kantoku Banzai!" is Kitano's thirteenth film. It is scheduled to open in June.

Hip-hop group RIP SLYME will make its first appearance in a commercial as part of MTV's "Branded Music Video" project. The group has collaborated with Sony to promote the VAIO computer brand.

The commercial will incorporate a new song by RIP SLYME, titled "I-N-G." However, there are currently no plans for the song to be released as a single. The commercial will begin airing on MTV on February 9.

Actresses Sayaka Kaneko and Nagiko Tono will star in a new Fuji TV daytime drama called "Uruwashiki Oni." Kaneko and Tono will play two young women who have the same father but different mothers, who conspired together to kill their father. The mothers will be played by Maiko Kamikawa and Itsumi Osawa.

Takehiro Nakajima is in charge of the screenplay, and Shizuka Kudo will sing the theme song. The series begins on April 2, and will air every weekday at 1:30pm.

Comedian Daisuke Miyagawa (56) has been hospitalized due to a cerebral hemorrhage. On Monday evening, after a rehearsal for a variety program, Miyagawa complained of numbness in the left side of his body. He went to a nearby hospital and was there diagnosed with the hemorrhage. He will need to spend one month hospitalized and another two months regularly visiting the hospital.

Miyagawa and his wife are a comedy duo (Daisuke and Hanako Miyagawa) affiliated with Yoshimoto Kogyo. For the time being, Hanako will continue work as a solo performer.