The big show business news last weekend was the wedding of model-actress Norika Fujiwara to comedian Tomonori Jinnai at a shrine in Kobe. The press were not permitted to attend the Shinto ceremony, but Fujiwara and Jinnai did come out a few times in their costumes to talk to reporters, which was nice of them.
The relaxed, joking mood of these impromptu press conferences seemed to indicate that the Jinnais expected the media to hang around even though they had asked them not to. One might even assume that they actually encouraged it. The wedding has been seen as a boost for Jinnai's career. "I have to try harder," he said to the reporters, though it wasn't clear what he was referring to -- being a better partner of his now-wife or being a funnier TV personality.
Jinnai is a minor, regionally-based comedian with Osaka's powerful Yoshimoto talent agency, while Norika Fujiwara is one of Japan's most popular and recognizable women. Discovered as a magazine model back in the '90s, Fujiwara has a statuesque silhouette that helped set the aesthetic standard for full-figured women who previously weren't much appreciated in Japan except as objects of adolescent-minded lust.