Popular "animation dance" duo Hamutsun Serve will appear in the music video for Madonna's new song, "4 Minutes." Musician Ryuichi Sakamoto previously appeared in a Madonna video, but this will be the first time the singer has featured Japanese dancers.

The pop star reportedly searched YouTube for talented dancers around the world, and finally decided to work with Hamutsun Serve. The two dancers, Rikiccho and Dayoshi, were surprised by the offer but instantly agreed.

Filming took place in London. The duo also worked with Justin Timberlake, who appears in the video as well.

On Monday, the 2007-2008 Race Queen of the Year was presented at Tokyo's KDDI Designing Studio. This year's winner was 23-year-old Yuuki Aikawa.

Aikawa debuted as a race queen in 2005.

NEWS member Shigeaki Kato has joined the cast of NTV's drama series "Hokaben," set to premiere on April 16. Adapted from a manga by Hiroyuki Nakajima, the show stars Aya Ueto as a novice lawyer.

Kato will play Riichiro Katase, an elite attorney who comes from a family of lawyers. Full of pride, ambition, and intelligence, he happens to work at the same law office as the idealistic rookie Akari (Ueto), whom he has been attracted to for a while.

Ueto and Kato previously appeared together in the sixth season of "3 Nen B Gumi Kinpachi Sensei," which ran from 2001 to 2002.

The cast of "Hokaben" also includes Kazuki Kitamura (as Akari's boss), Ryo, Naho Toda, and Megumi Nakayama.

On Saturday, filming started for the "Detroit Metal City" movie. Today, Sankei Sports published promotional pictures of star Kenichi Matsuyama as both Soichi Negishi and his alter-ego, Johannes Krauser II.

Some cast details have also been revealed. Ryuji Akiyama of comedy trio Robert will be playing the drummer Camus, while Yoshihiko Hosoda is playing the bassist Jagi. Yasuko Matsuyuki plays the domineering manager of the band's label.

Directed by Toshio Lee and distributed by Toho, the movie is scheduled to open in theaters this summer. The movie is based on the manga of the same name by Kiminori Wakasugi.

Rock star Yoshiki and popular tenor Masafumi Akikawa have formed an unlikely combination to create the theme song for a two-part television drama set to air next week.

The drama is NTV's "Tokyo Daikushu," whose cast is led by Maki Horikita and Tatsuya Fujiwara (details previously announced here and here). The drama, which airs on March 17-18, reportedly had a budget of 100 million yen.

The theme song is a currently untitled ballad written and composed by Yoshiki and sung by Akikawa. The two actually never met, as Yoshiki created the song while in Los Angeles. It was brought back to Japan, and Akikawa completed the recording in Tokyo on Monday.

Rock band GO!GO!7188 is handling the ending song to the animated version of the popular manga series "Itazura na Kiss." The comic, written by the late Kaoru Tada, has previously been adapted as a live-action series in both Japan and Taiwan. The anime starts next month.

The ending song is titled "Kataomoi Fighter." It will be released on May 28, coupled with a live version of "Ashinoke."

On that same day, GO!GO!7188 is also releasing their second cover album, "Tora no Ana 2." Several tracks have been announced, including Spitz's "Spider," Juicy Fruits' "Jenny wa Gokigen Naname," and the "Attack No. 1" theme song.

Adult film star Maria Ozawa is apparently expanding into acting, as she will appear in a movie called "Invitation Only," billed as "Taiwan's first-ever slasher horror." The movie is being produced by Three Dots Entertainment and finished production last week.

Ozawa plays a supermodel in the film, and her dialogue includes both English and Japanese.

The film is scheduled for release in Taiwan this August, though it will begin marketing at Hong Kong's Filmart later this month.

More details can be found at Jason Gray's blog.

In December, Hikaru Utada commemorated the anniversary of her debut single "Automatic" by temporarily making it available as a free ringtone, and it was downloaded about 500,000 times in a 4-day span. Now, she is doing the same thing with another one of her hit songs, "First Love."

The free ringtone will be available for a span of four days starting on March 10, which marks the anniversary of the "First Love" album.

At the same time, many of her other songs from her early career are being released (non-free) for the first time under the chaku-uta and chaku-uta full services.

Utada is also collaborating with social networking site mixi for a promotional campaign celebrating Utada's 10th year as a singer. The campaign will run on mixi's mobile site from March 10 to 17.

Gen Ueda, once a keyboardist and vocalist of the rock/ska band LA-PPISCH, died of cancer on Sunday. He was 47.

Ueda left LA-PPISCH in 2002 to pursue a solo career. He also served as a producer for artists such as Chitose Hajime. In 2006, he was diagnosed with cancer and began receiving treatment.

A funeral service will be held on Thursday.

Singer Stephanie will debut as an actress in "Pride," a movie based on Yukari Ichijo's manga series "Pride." The film is being directed by Shusuke Kaneko, whose recent works include the first two "Death Note" films.

"Pride" tells the story of two women aiming to become opera singers. Stephanie stars as Shio Asami, the daughter of a wealthy family who attends a prestigious music university. Hikari Mitsushima plays her eventual rival, Moe Midorikawa. Unlike Shio, Moe's father ran a business that went bankrupt, so her opera dreams have been sidelined while she struggles to pay her own way through school.

Stephanie, 20, made her major label debut in Japan last year and won a New Artist Award at the Japan Record Awards.

The cast of "Pride" includes Dai Watanabe and Mitsuhiro Oikawa. The movie is scheduled to open next year.