Actress and pianist Nao Matsushita is working on a one-time collaboration with Tokyo DisneySea. On October 12, a show will be held at the park's Broadway Music Theatre, in which Matsushita will be accompanied by a big band and Disney characters. Together, they will perform original songs by Matsushita, as well as some Disney tunes.

More details will be announced in early August on the Tokyo Disney Resort website.

British band Lucky Soul will make their Japan debut on August 22 when they release a version of their debut album, "The Great Unwanted." They are also making a new music video for the song "Add Your Light To Mine, Baby," which will feature model Izumi Mori. It is unusual for a Japanese celebrity to appear in a PV for a foreign artist.

The video starts airing later this month, only in Japan. However, there is a possibility that the video will receive airplay overseas.

Teen actress Kaho will star in a new film by Kazuya Konaka, titled "Tokyo Shojo."

The story: an earthquake causes a hole in space-time. A young girl named Miho (played by Kaho) accidentally drops her cell phone, and it travels back to the Meiji period. An aspiring writer named Tokijiro (Kazuma Sano) finds the phone, marking the start of a romance across time.

Filming began in March and has already completed. It opens in theaters next February.

Singer-songwriter Jun Shibata will make her acting debut next month. She will play the role of a veterinarian in Fuji TV's drama special "Zou no Hanako," which stars Takashi Sorimachi in a story about animals at the Ueno Zoo during World War II. It will be broadcast on August 4.

Maki Watase, the former vocalist of rock band Lindberg, will release her first new song in five years.

Lindberg broke up in 2002, a few years after Watase had married fellow band member Tatsuya Hirakawa. Since then, she has been focusing on raising their two children (ages 7 and 3). But when she was asked to sing for a popular children's show, she readily accepted.

The song, titled "iroiro," is written by Watase and composed by Hirakawa. Starting in August, it will be used as the monthly theme song on the popular program "Monstudio" on the network Kids Station. On November 21, it will be released as part of a best album for the show.

Actor Yutaka Takenouchi will serve as a narrator for the first time in Takashi Koizumi's "Ashita e no Yuigon" (also known as "Best Wishes for Tomorrow"), due out next March.

The story revolves around the war crimes trial of Lieutenant General Tasuku Okada (played by Makoto Fujita) at the end of World War II. Takenouchi serves as an impartial narrator to the proceedings, and doesn't actually appear as a character in the movie. Still, this will count as his second film role, having only starred in the 2001 "Reisei to Jounetsu no Aida."

TOKIO's Tomoya Nagase will star in a new TBS drama series tentatively titled "Utahime." The announcement comes not long after it was revealed that he has broken up with Ayumi Hamasaki, who is often referred to as an "utahime" (literally, a "song princess").

The drama is based on a play written by Takayuki Takuma (under his pen name of Mikio Satake). Set on the island of Shikoku in the late '50s, it tells the story of a man falling awkwardly in love with a young woman. The play is currently being performed by Takuma's troupe, Tokyo Seleccion Deluxe.

Takuma will also handle the script for the drama. Aki Isoyama will serve as producer; she was in charge of two of Nagase's previous dramas, "Ikebukuro West Gate Park" and "Tiger & Dragon."

The series will air on Fridays at 10:00pm, starting in October.