reblog

Actress Mao Inoue will finally be making her long awaited return to acting! According to Yahoo! Mao will be playing the role of a female teacher in a Fuji TV drama series that will begin airing in October.

This will be Mao’s first appearance in a drama series since the 2015 Taiga drama “Hanamoyu”. After the release of “Hanamoyu” Mao did not sign on to appear in many projects, her sole role being a voice acting spot in the CGI children’s movie Rudolf the Black Cat. The same month the movie was released Mao announced that she would be parting ways with her agency “Seventh Avenue”, whom she belonged to since the start of her career as a child actress.

Even though Mao signed to another agency, tabloids had a field day using this as evidence that Mao was ready to settle down and perhaps marry her longtime rumored boyfriend Jun Matsumoto, member of the Johnny’s group Arashi. No marriage announcement was made and Mao continued to keep a low profile. She would occasionally be tracked down by paparazzi who would ask her about Jun, only for her to dodge the question.

The drama series is tentatively titled “Tomorrow’s Promise”, and will deal with the heavy issue of suicide among high school students. It’s rumored that Yukie Nakama will also be starring in the drama series.

Mao debuted at 1992 in the drama series “Gakko ga Abunai!”, she was only five years old! Her breakthrough came with the 1999 TBS drama series “Kids War: Zaken na yo“. Eventually Mao went on to star in a remake of “Hana Yori Dango” in 2005 which further launched her career to new heights. Mao continued to appear in multiple acclaimed and successful projects including “Oba: The Last Samurai”, “Ohisama”, and “Rebirth” cementing her status as one of Japan’s top actresses.

They are designed to encourage landlords and hospitals to treat gay couples the same way as married ones.

However, the documents do not provide the same legal status as marriage.

BBC Tokyo correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes says campaigners are welcoming "a small step forward in a deeply conservative country".

Younger people in Japan generally support gay rights but the prime minister has previously urged caution over changing the law.

Hiroko Masuhara, 37, and Koyuki Higashi, 30, were the first to register their partnership in Shibuya district.

Ms Higashi, an actress, told reporters she hoped the measure would spread across Japan and eventually lead to same-sex marriage being legalised.

Japan does not have any national legislation specifically banning discrimination against gay people. Couples complain of being blocked from tenancies and prevented from visiting loved ones in hospital.

"I hope the day will come soon when there will be equality in society," Ms Higashi said, according to the AFP news agency.

Shibuya district mayor Ken Hasebe, congratulated the couple.

"It took a long time to get to here," he said.

Another wealthy district of the capital, Setagaya, has also started to offer the certificates.

Setagaya's mayor Nobuto Hosaka issued five same-sex couples with the papers on Thursday afternoon, according to the Kyodo news agency.

Mobile phone networks NTT DoCoMo and KDDI have previously said they would offer their family discounts to same-sex couples who provide a certificate.

Popular Japanese actress Satomi Ishihara is set to marry her non-celebrity boyfriend within the year, her agency said Thursday.

"I felt confident I could overcome any difficulties with him while sharing various experiences," the 33-year-old actress said in a statement.

The would-be groom, a company employee also in his 30s, was introduced to Ishihara through a married couple who are mutual friends, her agency said.

Ishihara, who won the grand prix of a scout competition hosted by talent agency HoriPro Inc. in 2002, debuted the following year as the heroine of the NHK television serial "Teru Teru Kazoku."

She also appeared in the live-action film adaptation of the popular manga series "Attack on Titan," and the 2016 movie "Shin Godzilla."

Most recently, she played the leading character in the television series "Unsung Cinderella."

Ishihara was selected in 2016 to be the face of Tokyo Metro's "Find My Tokyo" campaign, and has also been appointed as one of the official ambassadors of the 2020 Summer Olympics torch relay.