Marriage still tops for idol

Press, 5 March 1984, Page 9

Marriage still tops for idol

Fame, adulation, and an annual income of about 1500,000 — but Japan’s hot-test-selling teen-age idol, Seiko Masuda, would give it all up for marriage. Miss Matsuda, aged 21, left Christchurch yesterday for a Fijian holiday after a busy 11 days filming a love story at South Island tourist spots. With the help of an interpreter the sweet and unassuming singer, dancer, and actress said she loved her career, but like most Japanese women would stop working when she married (before she was 25, she hoped) to devote herself to her husband and children. Yes, she had a boyfriend — a well known Japanese entertainer, but laughingly declined to name him. Miss Matsuda has been singing publicly since she was about five, but her

career boomed after a series of auditions three years ago. At fust she was not sure if she wanted to be in the entertainment industry, but said she decided to try it because she made so many friends. Since then the 12 albums and 13 singles she has recorded have grossed more than |125 million and the film she has just finished in New Zealand is her third. The daughter of a Tokyo public servant, she still lives at home with her parents and brother, and laughed and shrugged when told she had been .described as Japan’s equivalent to Olivia Newton-John. Her success has had its disadvantages. She said she could not go anywhere without being recognised and had .to travel door-to-door by dk

Toho Pictures did not release details of her New Zealand itinerary in Japan for fear her huge number of fans would follow her and disrupt shooting of the film. Filming sessions in Japan are often hampered by fans chanting her name. But the tourist industry is relying on this same popularity to boost the number of Japanese visitors to New Zealand. Like her previous films, “Summer Dress in the Eve” is a love story. Miss Matsuda plays the role of a former tutor to the family of an unsuccessful Japanese businessman who emigrates to New Zealand. She visits him, but an old boyfriend follows her and she has to choose between them. Scenes have been filmed in Christchurch, Queenstown, Wanaka, Milford Sound, and Mount|fook and

Miss Matsuda has been impressed by New Zealand’s “clean air, beautiful scenery, and kind people.” The film will be released in Tokyo in July or August and is expected to draw more than five million viewers. Miss Matsuda believed this was the sort of film the Japanese people wanted to see, especially those in their 20s and 30s and the elderly. Hawaii became a popular holiday destination after she made a similar film there last year. As a lead up to this, a 75minute programme devoted to New Zealand and its lifestyle will be screened on Japanese television on March 12 and New Zealand will again be featured in a mass circulation glossy magazine a few weeks later.