The female pop-rock band SCANDAL has been invited as a musical guest to this year's Japan Expo in Paris. This will be the group's first European performance.

Japan Expo is being held on July 3-6.

Anime music supergroup JAM Project has scheduled a performance at the Expo Manga Comic TNT 16 in Mexico City. The convention is being held on October 16-19.

Earlier this month, rock band ELLEGARDEN announced that they are going on hiatus later this year. Before they do, they will release a best album titled "ELLEGARDEN BEST" on July 2, featuring 21 songs from throughout their decade-long career.

The New York Asian Film Festival 2008 has sent out a press release with its lineup of films, though a few more are still to be announced. Currently, the Japanese films being screened are:

• "Sweet Rain: Shinigami no Seido" ("Accuracy of Death") - Masaya Kakehi
• "Adrift in Tokyo" - Miki Satoshi
• "Always: Zoku Sanchome no Yuhi" - Takashi Yamazaki
• "Dainipponjin" - Hitoshi Matsumoto
• "Sidecar ni Inu" - Kichitaro Negishi
• "Zenzen Daijoubu" ("Fine, Totally Fine") - Yosuke Fujita
• "L change the WorLd" - Hideo Nakata
• "Sad Vacation" - Shinji Aoyama
• "Sukiyaki Western Django" - Takashi Miike
• "Oretachi no Sekai" ("This World of Ours") - Ryo Nakajima
• "United Red Army" - Koji Wakamatsu

On June 1, an annual event known as Japan Day will be held for the second time in New York's Central Park. This year's festivities will include performances by two artists from Japan: the pop/hip-hop duo HALCALI and the recently debuted singer Shota Shimizu. Two local bands have also been invited to perform.

The festival is scheduled to run from 10:00am to 5:00pm. The musical performances will take the stage near the end of the event, starting at 3:15pm.

The folk music duo Hirakawachi Icchome have announced that they are disbanding after they complete their final concert tour in August. The two brothers, Ryunosuke and Naojiro Hayashi, said that they began talking about it a year ago, and they decided to separately search for their own futures.

Originally from the island of Sadogashima in the Niigata Prefecture, the pair made their debut as middle schoolers in 2003. At the time, they weren't really aspiring for musical fame. Ryunosuke revealed that they have three other siblings, though their mother had run away from home with their youngest brother. By starting Hirakawachi Icchome, the duo had hoped to find their mother and brother.

They recalled that playing their music had been sad and painful at first, but with the support of their fans they eventually grew to enjoy it. As of now, their family has been reunited.

The younger Naojiro, who made his solo debut last year, has entered his last year of high school and says he is studying hard with the goal of entering university like his friends. He mentioned that if he does go on to higher education, he plans to do so in Tokyo. For now, he is also continuing an acting career, with an appearance in Isshin Inudo's "Gou-Gou Datte Neko Dearu," which stars Kyoko Koizumi and opens on September 6.

Meanwhile, Ryunosuke has already started living by himself in Tokyo, and he says that one of his dreams is to open up a restaurant.

Hirakawachi Icchome's last tour will start on July 29 in Shizuoka and end in Tokyo on August 23. On July 30, they plan to release two works: a single titled "Tokyo 2008" (presumably a new version of their debut single "Tokyo") and a tentatively self-titled best album.

The next big role for actress Kyoko Hasegawa is playing the heroine in Max Mannix's "Rain Fall," a movie based on a series of suspense novels by American author Barry Eisler. She is joining a cast that includes Kippei Shiina and British actor Gary Oldman.

Shiina stars as John Rain, a half-Japanese, half-American assassin who once worked for the U.S. military. He becomes entangled in a political plot, leading a CIA agent (Oldman) to hunt him down. Hasegawa is taking on an important role as a jazz pianist being pursued by John Rain.

Hasegawa is currently taking lessons in piano, as she will perform the music scenes herself on camera. She first learned piano as a child but stopped by the age of 9, though a year ago she happened to buy an electronic piano and had been playing it since then. However, she stated that she was glad to be playing on a grand piano for the first time in 20 years.

"Rain Fall" is scheduled to open in Japan in April 2009.

TBS's Monday 8:00pm drama time slot, typically known for jidaigeki series such as "Mitokomon," will see its first female lead in 39 years. Shihori Kanjiya has been chosen for that honor, starring in a live-action version of the manga "Ando Natsu."

"Ando Natsu," written by Yuji Nishi and illustrated by Terry Yamamoto, is currently serialized in Big Comic Original and has sold more than 700,000 copies of its tankoubons. Kanjiya plays the role of the protagonist Natsu Ando, a young woman striving to be a pastry chef. (The title is sometimes spelled "AnDonuts," referring to a type of doughnut with sweet bean paste.)

The drama is the latest in a string of starring roles for Kanjiya, who recently played an aspiring rakugo storyteller in the NHK morning drama "Chiritotechin." This will be her first time leading a series during golden time (7pm-10pm).

Kanjiya's co-star is Jun Kunimura, who plays the role of her mentor. Toshinori Omi and Jun Fubuki also appear in the series. Broadcast begins on July 7.

Actress Minako Tanaka (40) became a mother on April 15, it was announced on Monday. According to her management, the baby girl was born via c-section about a month ahead of schedule, which happens to give her the same birthday as her father, actor Taro Okada (34).

Tanaka and Okada have been married since last September. The actress is expected to return to work by July.

Popular model Moe Oshikiri (28) is off the market, it was learned on Monday. Sankei Sports has broken the news that she has been in a relationship with Yomiuri Giants pitcher Takahiko Nomaguchi (24) for most of the past three years.

According to the newspaper's source, the pair first met in the fall of 2004 during the birthday party of a mutual friend. They continued to hang out as part of a group of friends, and it gradually developed into a serious relationship through various encounters, such as when Nomaguchi visited Oshikiri after she had been hospitalized for a fractured bone.

The couple began seriously dating in 2005. They broke up around last spring, but they got back together in the fall. Despite their busy schedules and their focus on their careers, they have managed to keep their romance alive.

Oshikiri's agency has confirmed the relationship.

GReeeeN has reclaimed a digital download record with their newest single "Kiseki," which is being used as the theme song for the drama series "ROOKIES."

The group's hit song "Aiuta" had previously set a record for reaching 1 million chaku-uta downloads in only 91 days. In March, Thelma Aoyama broke that record with "Soba ni Iru ne," taking only 43 days to reach a million. Now, "Kiseki" has set the new record in less than a month - it was released on April 19 and achieved a million downloads as of May 18. It has also been #1 on Recochoku's weekly chaku-uta rankings for four consecutive weeks.