Naomi Kawase's "The Mourning Forest" ("Mogari no Mori") was awarded the Grand Prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival. The award is the second-highest honor after the Palme d'Or, which went to Romanian director Cristian Mungiu's "4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days."

Kawase has previously been to Cannes twice, winning the Camera d'Or in 1997 for her film, "Moe no Suzaku."

The last Japanese film to win the Grand Prize was Kohei Oguri's "Shi no Toge" in 1990.

Kawase's response to winning the award can be read at the official Cannes website.

Photo tabloid FLASH has revealed that talento Masami Hisamoto is actually two years older than was previously believed.

Her official profile lists her age as 46, but she admitted that her real age is 48. She explained that when she first came to Tokyo at the age of 22 to join the troupe Gekidan Tokyo Vaudeville Show, she established herself as a 20-year-old.

Pop star Seiko Matsuda has been added to the cast of the highly anticipated "Hanazakari no Kimitachi e" drama series on Fuji TV next season.　She will make special appearances as the mysterious principal of the school where the story takes place.

This is Matsuda's first role in a television drama in two years.

The 2007 MTV Video Music Awards Japan were held at the Saitama Super Arena on Saturday. For the second year in a row, Kumi Koda took home three awards, claiming the titles of Best Female Video, Best Video of the Year, and Most Stylish Artist.

The other big winners of the night were DJ OZMA (Best Male Video, Best Dance Video) and Ai Otsuka (Best Pop Video, Best Video from a Film).

A list of the awards can be seen in the forums.

The 4th D-BOYS Audition was completed on Saturday. Out of an initial 12,771 entrants, the Grand Prix winner was 15-year-old Masahiro Usui, who is in his first year of high school.

The Semi-Grand Prix went to 23-year-old Masashi Mikami, who already has some acting experience in film and television.