The 5th Cotton USA Awards, meant to help promote the cotton industry, were presented on Wednesday in Tokyo. The awards are given to celebrities who possess "softness" and "freshness," just like cotton.

This year, Maki Horikita was given the title of Miss Cotton, while Eiko Koike was named Mrs. Cotton (she married pro wrestler Wataru Sakata last August). TOKIO's Taichi Kokubun was chosen as Mr. Cotton.

Director Yuichi Sato, known for his recent hit "Kisaragi" and a multitude of television dramas, is at work on a new film titled "Shugotenshi" ("Guardian Angel"). The movie stars comedian Cunning Takeyama in his first lead role, acting opposite the more experienced Shinobu Terajima.

The comedic story (written by author Yu Uemura) originally won the Japan Love Story Award in 2006. Takeyama plays a balding, unattractive, and uncool middle-aged salaryman. During his commute to work, he becomes instantly attracted to a high school girl, and when he ends up saving her from trouble, it regains him the affection of his wife (Terajima).

The supporting cast includes Kuranosuke Sasaki, Ren Osugi, and Shiro Sano. Shooting began at the end of March and is currently in progress in the Kanto area. The movie is targeted for release in spring 2009.

Oricon repeated its survey from last year that asked the public who they think looks best with black hair, though this time around the survey divided the choices for male and female celebrities.

Not surprisingly, the female list was very similar to the previous results, with Yukie Nakama once again in the lead. Mika Nakashima and Chiaki Kuriyama traded places, ranking at #2 and #3, respectively, while Yui Aragaki moved up one place to #4 and Meisa Kuroki jumped three places to land at #5.

On the men's list, Junichi Okada took the top spot, ahead of Ryo Nishikido, who was the only male in last year's top 10 (he was #9). Hiroshi Tamaki ranked 3rd, while Jun Matsumoto tied with Satoshi Tsumabuki for 4th.

TV Asahi is producing a drama special about the life of Yoshiko Kawashima, a Manchu princess who became a spy for the Kwantung Army and was eventually executed by the Chinese government (Wikipedia link here). Her story was partly responsible for the coining of the phrase "danso no reijin" ("beauty in male attire"), referring to her inclination to dress as a man. Though Kawashima has been depicted in various media throughout the years, including TV Asahi's "Ruten no Ouhi" in 2003 (where Kawashima was played by Makiko Esumi), this will be the first television dramatization focusing on her life.

The drama, currently titled "Danso no Reijin ~Kawashima Yoshiko no Shogai~," stars young actress Meisa Kuroki. Kuroki, who prepared for the part with lessons in Chinese and horseback riding, will play Kawashima between the ages of 14 and 35. Yuki Yagi is taking over for the childhood scenes, and Miki Maya is acting out the later stages of Kawashima's life.

Filming started in mid-April. TV Asahi plans to broadcast the drama by the end of this year.

A group of top musicians is collaborating on a song titled "Waratte Misete Kure," meant to be a show of support for the Japanese athletes competing in this year's Olympics.

The Japanese Olympic Committee invited music producer Yoshiyuki Sahashi to handle the song. He recruited the vocal talent of 10 artists, including his wife Takako Matsu, whom he married in December. This is their first work together since they married.

The rest of the lineup features Kosuke Atari, Kenji Okahira, Kazumasa Oda, Chikuzen Sato, Tortoise Matsumoto, Ayaka Hirahara, Fumiya Fujii, Bonnie Pink, and Kazufumi Miyazawa. Together, the entire group is taking on the name "Band for 'Sanka'".

Sahashi worked with Oda and Matsumoto to provide the lyrics and composition, and Sahashi was also in charge of arrangement and the song's guitar accompaniment. The song will be released as a single on June 25.

Theater idol group AKB48 is getting a show on satellite television called "AKB48 Nemousu TV," billed as a "reality-documentary-variety" program. The show captures the unit's members as they are forced to participate in various activities, such as attending their first goukon (group date).

The show will run on the Family Gekijo channel at 1:00am on Sunday nights, starting on July 13.

NEWS was the big winner in the singles chart this week, with "SUMMER TIME" racking up 201,000 in sales to take the #1 seat. This puts them at 9 consecutive chart-toppers since their debut, pushing them past Hikaru Genji (who had 8) but still nowhere close to KinKi Kids (currently at 26).

Aqua Timez's "Niji," which is being used at the "Gokusen 3" theme song, entered at #2 with 55,000 copies sold. "Diamond Crevasse" by May'n earned the #3 spot with close to 43,000. Meanwhile, Shuchishin is still sticking around at #4, falling only slightly after several weeks in 2nd place.

At #5 was SEAMO, and #7 was the Tomoyasu Hotei-KREVA-Seiji Kameda collaboration (The THREE) that provided the theme song for the remake of "The Hidden Fortress." Visual-kei band D made #8 with their major-label debut, and Base Ball Bear barely managed their first Top 10 appearance.

No new releases made the Top 10 on the albums chart, leaving Madonna's "Hard Candy" at #1 for the second week in a row. The last foreign artist to stay on top for two weeks was The Backstreet Boys last November, though the last female to do so was Avril Lavigne in 2004. The rest of the chart looked very similar to last week, particularly with BENNIE K and Perfume still at the #2 and #3 spots, respectively.

"Shibatora," a manga written by Tadashi Agi (under the pen name Yuma Ando) and illustrated by Masashi Asaki, is being turned into a live-action series this summer. The popular comic currently runs in Weekly Shonen Magazine and has so far sold 420,000 volumes.

The comical story revolves around a young-looking detective named Taketora Shibata (nicknamed Shibatora). Because of his appearance, he is able to easily blend in with the juvenile delinquents he deals with on a regular basis.

Tsuguaki Tatematsu, the Fuji TV producer in charge of planning for the series, said that after reading the comic, his only choice for the lead role was WaT's Teppei Koike. Koike happily agreed to play the part, which will be his first time starring in a television series.

Nikkan Sports reports that Suzuka Ohgo will play the heroine, while Muga Tsukaji (of Drunk Dragon) plays a former genius hacker. Miki Maya and Daisuke Miyagawa play Shibatora's co-workers. Tsukaji's comedy partner, Taku Suzuki, is also in the cast, along with Koji Imada as a guest actor.

Fuji TV will air the drama on Tuesdays at 9:00pm, starting in July.

The premiere episode of the Fuji TV drama series "CHANGE" aired on Monday night. It received a respectable 23.8% rating, though it was surely lower than the network had hoped for (especially with a promotional campaign giving away a free car). It failed to beat out NTV's "Gokusen 3" which started out last month at 26.4%. This is the first time since the 1998 drama "Nemureru Mori" that a Takuya Kimura series has not had the highest-rated first episode of the season.

On the other hand, the series can also be seen as a minor triumph in an era of declining ratings, given that it has the highest-rated premiere for an original series in the past 3 years.