On Tuesday, a ceremony was held in Tokyo to announce that Morning Musume will be performing in Shanghai on June 28. The concert is part of a series being held by the city to celebrate its hosting of the 2010 Expo (World's Fair). Past artists include Celine Dion and Tony Leung. Morning Musume will be the first Japanese artist to participate.

It was recently learned that Ongaku Gatas member Mika Mutou will be graduating from Hello! Project on April 30. According to the official announcement, Mutou stated that she wishes to return to an ordinary student life.

Mutou was also a member of Gatas Brilhantes H.P. and Hello! Pro Eggs.

The pop band Budo Grape has announced two shows in the U.S., in addition to their previously announced U.S. debut at A-Kon 19 in Dallas. After performing on May 30 at A-Kon, they will play in San Antonio on June 3, then at the Knitting Factory in New York on June 5 (presented by Karaterice).

Budo Grape's recently released 4th album, "AIMORE," is now available online at JapanFiles.com.

More information can be found in the press release. Manga Cafe magazine also has an interview with the band.

Arashi's Jun Matsumoto made a public appearance on Sunday at the University of Southern California for a special screening of Shinji Higuchi's "Kakushi Toride no San Akunin: THE LAST PRINCESS," a remake of a classic Akira Kurosawa film. The university is the alma mater of George Lucas, whose "Star Wars" was inspired by the original Kurosawa opus.

Matsumoto greeted the crowd in English, and he was joined on stage by actor Anthony Daniels, who played the character of C-3PO in Lucas' "Star Wars." The audience of 300 people consisted mostly of students, and among them were 36 members of a fan club naming themselves the "Arashi Secret Agency" (a reference to the group's show "Himitsu no Arashi-chan!").

The film opens in Japan on May 10, with future openings planned for Thailand and Taiwan. Negotiations are in progress for North American and European releases.

24-year-old gravure idol Izumi Watanabe made a surprising announcement last week in her blog. On Friday, she wrote that she is leaving her management agency and has decided to seriously pursue a career as a detective. She said that she has long been fond of investigating and has been studying to enter that line of work.

Watanabe is reportedly joining a detective agency, though she mentioned that she will continue to write in her blog. On May 10, it will be retitled "Onna Tantei: Watanabe Izumi."

The second award of Nikkan Sports' 11th annual Drama Grand Prix has been revealed. The title of Best Actress was won by Maki Horikita, who starred in the highly popular drama adaptation of "Hanazakari no Kimitachi e" last summer.

Horikita actually lost during the summer edition of the awards, receiving less than half as many votes as Haruka Ayase did.

A special episode for "Hana Kimi" was announced in March. Filming has already finished, though Fuji TV has still not yet set a broadcast date.

TV Asahi announcer Mariko Dou revealed on Monday's broadcast of "Yajiuma Plus" that she held her wedding ceremony on Saturday.

It was first learned last December that she was engaged to an employee of Sony Music Records. The two had reportedly dated for more than two years.

Naoki Tanaka, one half of the comedy duo Cocorico, had his second child last week. According to his management, Tanaka's wife Shie Kohinata gave birth to a boy around noon last Thursday.

The couple married in June 2003, and their first son was born the following year.

Actress Yui Aragaki has achieved her first drama tie-in as a singer. Her "Make my day" will be used as the theme song for Fuji TV's "81diver," which premieres on May 3.

Aragaki released her first album, "Sora," this past December. However, "Make my day" will be her first actual single, scheduled to go on sale July 16. It will come with two other songs - an a cappella version of "Make my day," and a currently untitled song that she wrote the lyrics for.

The single, which features jacket art drawn by Aragaki, will be sold in three editions. One will be CD-only, while the other two are limited first press versions that each come with a DVD. One DVD has the music video for "Make my day," and the other has footage of her concert at the Nippon Budokan in December.