Comedian Daisuke Matsuda (of Tokyo Dynamite) is now a father. His management announced that his wife gave birth to a boy on Thursday.

Matsuda got married this past June to a woman not in show business.

Teruyuki Kagawa and Kyoko Koizumi are co-starring in "Tokyo Sonata," a new film by Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

Scripted by Australian director/writer Max Mannix, the movie tells the story of a family's collapse and revival. Kagawa plays the father of two, who is hiding the fact that he has been laid off by his company, while Koizumi plays his lethargic wife.

Filming wraps up at the end of this month, and the picture will see release sometime next year. Kurosawa is hoping to take the movie to Cannes.

December 9 marks the anniversary of Hikaru Utada's 1998 debut single, "Automatic." To celebrate the start of her 10th year as a singer, she is making the song available for free as a ringtone.

The promotional campaign starts on December 7 and lasts until December 10. Distribution is being handled by major mobile phone download sites such as Recochoku and MOBAEMI.

Also on the 7th, Utada fans will be able to purchase the ringtone for "Stay Gold," a new song from her double single that is being released on February 20. It is currently being used in Kao's Asience commercials.

Utada is reportedly working on a new album, to be released in the spring.

Minayo Watanabe, once a member of Onyanko Club, suffered a slight injury in a car accident on Wednesday.

Watanabe was driving alone in Shibuya on Wednesday afternoon after taking one of her children to cram school. She was stopped at a red light when she was rear-ended by a van driven by a man in his 30s.

The accident resulted in Watanabe spraining her neck. Shibuya police plan to refer the case to prosecutors.

TV personality Minomonta, known as the busiest man in Japanese television, has been given his first voice acting role in the movie "One Piece: Episode of Chopper Plus." He plays Luffy's enemy, an original character made for the film.

Because of Minomonta's hectic schedule, producers are expecting to make use of his ad-libbing abilities (in addition to the script) in order to get the recording completed in time.

The movie opens in Japan in March. The theme song, "Mata ne" by Dreams Come True, will be available on the duo's new album that goes on sale next week.

Fuji TV announcer Yukino Kikuma is planning to leave the network at the end of this month, it was learned on Thursday. According to several sources, she intends to devote herself to studying law.

Kikuma has been with Fuji TV since 1995 and has received media attention for a couple of incidents. In 1998, while she was reporting on a live broadcast of "Mezamashi TV," she fell from the fifth story of a building, but fortunately suffered only a waist injury due to some safety precautions that had been taken.

In 2005, Kikuma was involved in the underage drinking of former NEWS member Hiroki Uchi, and was subsequently suspended for a few months.

For the past two years, Kikuma has been attending law school while working as an announcer. Now, she has apparently decided to focus on studying with the aim of passing the bar exam. Fuji TV reportedly tried to dissuade her from resigning, but she had already made up her mind.

Nikkan Sports has revealed the winners of its 20th anniversary Nikkan Sports Film Awards. Masayuki Suo's "Soredemo Boku wa Yattenai" won for both Best Picture and Best Director, giving the film its second double-win of this awards season. (It won for Best Picture and Best Actor in Sports Hochi's awards.)

Takuya Kimura's performance in "Bushi no Ichibun" ("Love and Honor") earned him the nod for Best Actor. Takashi Sasano won Best Supporting Actor for the same film.

Yuko Takeuchi picked up Best Actress for "Sidecar ni Inu," while Best Supporting Actress went to Kirin Kiki ("Tokyo Tower"). Yui Aragaki took home Best Newcomer with "Waruboro" and "Koizora."

"Letters from Iwo Jima" was named Best Foreign Film. "Bushi no Ichibun" won a third prize in the form of the Yujiro Ishihara Award. The Yujiro Ishihara Newcomer Award was not given this year.

Oricon published the female half of its "who do you want as your lover" survey, and the #1 woman was actress Yui Aragaki, who has seen a large surge in popularity this year. She outranked two other popular young actresses, Masami Nagasawa (#2) and Maki Horikita (#3).

There were ties at #4 (Yukie Nakama and Haruka Ayase) and at #6 (Ai Otsuka and Aya Ueto). Saki Aibu, Aki Hoshino, and Yuri Ebihara completed the top ten.

Italian animation festival I Castelli Animati has announced the winners of this year's competition, which took place from November 28 to December 2. The Grand Prize went to the short film "Franz Kafka's A Country Doctor" by Koji Yamamura.

The movie previously won the Nelvana Grand Prize for Best Independent Short Animation at the Ottawa International Animation Festival in September.