Utada Hikaru and Kiriya Kazuaki Divorce

It's sad news but I concur with others that it's better to end it now than to just live in an unhappy marriage. Judging by the notes left on her HP, it seems that they still care about each other but they couldn't make the marriage work.

According to news sources, it's not a problem of age difference, they simply didn't communicate much since neither of them is very talkative. Different goals also add to stress on a marriage.

[truehappiness]

Yeah.

I think they were fine with the age thing.. it was just that they were talking...

I mean imagine if you and your girlfriend or boyfriend barely exchanged words.. maybe once every few weeks..

I think you'd probably be like: "This isn't working!"

[Partino]

Her lyrics lately had some kind of twist in it ... I didn't give it so much thoughts about it but now .... I wish them both the best and maybe they can stay friends like my parents do it. Good luck for the future. xoxox partino

[kayokyokufan]

Here is another article concerning Utada Hikaru's divorce, but it includes another bit of information. It looks like her parents are also getting a divorce... for the 7th time!

Singer Utada Hikaru (24) and filmmaker Kiriya Kazuaki (38) have divorced. And it was revealed that her parents also divorced yet again last year - for the seventh time! Just as her marriage to Kiriya was announced on Hikki's website four and a half years ago, on Saturday she used the same website to reveal that they had divorced the previous day. She thanked fans fopr their support and apologized for the sudden announcement. She cited different views of the future and a lack of communication due to her business international work schedule as the main reasons for the split. Kiriya posted his message on the same site, an indicator of the one-sided nature of their respective levels of success and fame. The two met in 2000 during the design of the sleeve for Hikki's 7th single, "Can You Keep a Secret?" Two years later, she underwent surgery for ovarian cancer and just five months later they were married. They worked together in several different capacities, one being Utada's title song for "Casshern", Kiriya's 2004 debut as a movie director. He also supported her during her attempt the same year to break into the U.S. market. According to a friend of the couple, neither of them are particularly sociable or talkative types and so communication was a problem for them. Utada, whose parents have divorced and re-married each other a ridiculous seven times since 1981, was looking to him as an older man who could support her emotionally. She made no mention of the split during her live appearance on Friday's "Music Station", where she performed her new single "Flavor of Life". Bittersweet is probably the flavor one would use in English to refer to her life right now, though she referred to it as being like "green pepper tempura".

You can find the article here. It's a day old.
http://www.japan-zone.com/news/archives/2007_03.shtml

[nmskalmn]

Where's the ring now?
Hikaru confirms she's divorcing after fans notice its absence
March 07, 2007

HER missing wedding band gave it away.
When J-pop queen Hikaru Utada took this publicity shot for her new single Flavor Of Life a few weeks ago, the ring was on her left hand.

But eagle-eyed fans noticed it was missing when she performed on a live music programme on Japanese television last Friday. By midday the next day, both Hikaru, 24, and her director husband Kazuaki Kiriya, 39, had posted messages on Hikaru's official website to announce that they were divorcing after 4 1/2 years of marriage.

It was the same way they announced their surprise wedding in September 2002.

Hikaru wrote in Japanese: 'We've learnt a lot and matured in our 4 1/2 years of marriage, but we've also gradually developed differences in our future visions and what we want as a married couple.'

Romance had blossomed on the job when Kazuaki started shooting music videos for Hikaru in 2000.

He reportedly stayed by her side when she bowed out of the limelight to undergo surgery to remove a benign ovarian tumour in 2002.

Although there was constant media speculation over how long the marriage could last, especially surrounding their glaring 15-year age gap and the fact that Hikaru was only 19 when they wed.

Kazuaki supported her through her English debut in the US in 2004, while she wrote the theme song for his first directing attempt, the 2004 sci-fi film Casshern.

When Hikaru returned to the J-pop scene last year, Kazuaki pitched in by taking charge of the visual effects for her comeback concert tour.

WORK TO BLAME

But it seems work was what drove them apart.

Hikaru wrote: 'While developing our work internationally, we've spent more time apart than together and we lacked communication.'

She reportedly works from New York, where she is born, while he is based mostly in Tokyo.

However, Hikaru maintained it was an amicable split.

They agreed it was a pity their marriage had ended in divorce, she said, but they will remain friends.

Kazuaki added in his posting that he was thankful for all the wonderful memories they shared.

A return to singlehood may turn out to have an upside for Hikaru.

It means the talented singer songwriter will have more time to focus on her J-pop career, which suffered during her forays into the US market.

Given the meteoric rise of sexy songbird Kumi Koda and the emergence of new talents like Mika Nakashima and Ayaka in recent years, Hikaru has lost some of her shine.

Her comeback album last year, Ultra Blue, reportedly sold 1.17 million copies - a far cry from the 4 million of her previous album, Deep River.

Her post-Hollywood CD singles also failed to make an impact, shifting on average of only 130,000 copies each in Japan.

Her earlier singles sold at least 500,000, with her debut Automatic/Time Will Tell holding the record at 2 million copies.

But things are set to change with Hikaru's latest single, the power ballad Flavor Of Life.

Launched in January as the theme song for the ongoing drama serial Hana Yori Dango 2, it grabbed headlines when it was downloaded more than 2 million times as a ringtone from an official website.

The CD version was released last Wednesday, and it has hogged the No 1 spot on the Oricon's daily ranking chart since. It will be available here next week.

It may just catapult Hikaru back to the top J-pop tree where she belongs.

http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/show/st...124340,00.html

[criminal]

They both seem calm and not too stressed about it. They also wish each other all the best. I don't think all of that is just to make it look like everything's OK, I do believe that they're both fine and there's no major harm done with the divorce.

[slashess]

i myself am glad this has happened, she should find someone more her age ...-_-***

other than that, yeah, that does suck having to go throught that.

[extepan]

i am surprised. it comes so suddenly. from the messages that the couple left, it seems it is the guy who initiated the divorce, as he said he could not emotionally depend on hikki anymore. while hikki gives an external reason for divorce (working internationally)