In 1981, Frankenheimer travelled to Japan to shoot the cult martial-arts action film The Challenge, with Scott Glenn and legendary Japanese star, Toshiro Mifune.

Other spin-off titles include Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland for the Nintendo DS – an RPG released in September 2006 in Japan ( Summer of 2007 in the UK ) to star supporting character Tingle.

Other notable guest stars included: Cesar Romero as Chico's absentee father ; Tony Orlando as Chico's look-alike, the ex-fiance of a hostile woman he wants to date ; José Feliciano, who wrote the theme song, as Chico's womanizing famous-singer cousin Pepe Fernando ; Sammy Davis Jr. as himself ; Herbie Faye appeared as Bernie in the 1975 episode " Louie's Retirement "; Shelley Winters ( reuniting with Albertson, with whom she'd costarred in The Poseidon Adventure ) as the owner of the local bakery, Shirley Schrift ( her real name ); Jim Backus as Ed's friend who uses him as a " beard "— pretending to be playing cards with him when cheating on his wife ( Audra Lindley ); silent-film actress Carmel Myers as a former star who has fallen on hard times, brings in her car for repairs, and stays in the garage while looking for work ; George Takei as Ed's supposed long-lost son from his time in Japan during World War II ; Cesare Danova as Aunt Connie's Spanish aristocrat boyfriend, the Count de Catalan, in the second episode in which she appeared ; comedian Joey Bishop as an inept robber ; Bernie Kopell as a plastic surgeon ; Rose Marie as a CB radio enthusiast with whom a lonely Ed connects on New Year's Eve ; Penny Marshall, as a waitress ; football star Rosey Grier as himself, Della's date for a charity benefit dance ; Larry Hovis as a customer in the second episode of the first season ; and Jim Jordan ( of radio's Fibber McGee and Molly ) as a mechanic who used to be a big businessman, until he was victimized by his own company's retirement-age mandate ).

The film premiered in Japan first on April 15, 1995, with a longer version ( 103 mins ) that is closer to the director's cut and features a previously composed score by Mychael Danna, different editing, and more scenes with Japanese star Takeshi Kitano and Dolph Lundgren notably.

RPO players have been involved with many performances away from the classical repertory, including Yanni Live at the Acropolis, a concert held in Greece in 1993, conducted by Shahrdad Rohani ; the Hooked on Classics series of records ; orchestral arrangements of rock music by the likes of Pink Floyd, Elkie Brooks ( on the album Amazing ), Oasis, Queen, George Michael, R. E. M., U2, and ABBA ; the song / album, Art of Life by Japanese rock band X Japan, composed by Yoshiki Hayashi ; the official theme music of the UEFA Champions League ( UEFA Champions League Anthem ), tracks on the British folk metal band Skyclad's 2004 album A Semblance of Normality the Symphonic Rock: A Symphony of Hits 2004 album ; and the BBC Grandstand Theme in 1982 ; Seotaiji Symphony, a concert held in Seoul in 2008, with South Korean rock star Seo Taiji, conducted by Tolga Kashif.

Japanese star anise ( Illicium anisatum ), a similar tree, is not edible because it is highly toxic ( due to containing sikimitoxin ); instead, it has been burned as incense in Japan.

Their first goal was scored by Japan star midfielder Homare Sawa.

Dairo became perhaps the biggest star of African music by the ' 60s, recording numerous hit songs that spread his fame to as far away as Japan.

Born in Yokohama Chinatown, Japan ( though she is of partial Chinese descent ) as Linn Minmei, Minmay moved in with her uncle Shaochin ( 少江 ) and aunt Feichun ( 慧中 ) on South Ataria Island in hopes of finding the path to fulfill her dream of becoming a star.

Magnolia stellata, sometimes called the star magnolia, is a slow-growing shrub or small tree native to Japan.

The original assassination plan had included killing the English film star Charlie Chaplin-who had arrived in Japan on May 14, 1932-at a reception for Chaplin, planned by Prime Minister Tsuyoshi.

They are led by ace pitcher, Ryo Hayakawa, a daughter of a former rising pitching star in Japan.

Shamrock, now an enormous star in Japan, defeated world kickboxing champion and future UFC Heavyweight Champion Maurice Smith and Alex Cook in the Opening Round of the 16 man King of Pancrase Tournament and Masakatsu Funaki and Manabu Yamada in the Second Round to become the first King of Pancrase before crowds of 11, 000 fans both nights at Tokyo ’ s Sumo Hall in December 1994.

An occultation of a star by Atala was observed from Japan on March 11, 1994.

Hilda was observed to occult a star on December 31, 2002, from Japan.

The Observatory — along with observatories in Cincinnati, Ohio ; Ukiah, California ; Mizusawa, Japan ; Charjui in Russian Turkestan ; and Carloforte, Sardina, Italy — performed in concert to carry out a coordinated program of star observation designed to investigate and calculate the degree of earth “ wobble ” or latitude variation.

That same year Eric was unable to promote the album as much as he wanted, due to a call from the biggest guitar star in Japan, Tak Matsumoto.

* Cheburashka's New Adventures – After stealing hearts at the Turin Winter Olympics, the famed Soviet cartoon character is about to become a movie star in Japan ( The Moscow Times.

It has been sold since 1983, and is popular in Japan, partially due to its well-known television commercials that star Jean-Claude Van Damme.

She continues to be a lucrative star and brand in Japan, fetching high licensing / broadcasting rights for her dramas and selling out concerts and merchandise ( tvN E News compiled a list of the top Hallyu stars in Japan based on their approximate gross incomes for the first half of 2011, and Choi was # 5 with approximately $ 2 million USD ).

Sanada began training at age 11 with actor and martial arts star Sonny Chiba's Japan Action Club where he developed good all-round martial arts ability, and soon became Chiba's protégé.

In 1973, this collective toured England and Japan behind Motown soul star Edwin Starr.

The next thing he knew he was reporting for duty as commanding officer of Troop H, 7th Cavalry, in the middle of corps maneuvers in Japan.

My hotel rooms on the trip were arranged by Masu and the Japan Travel Bureau and were more elegant than I would have chosen, but it was fun for once to be elegant -- I did explain to the students, however, that this was not my usual style, for their salaries are very small, and it seemed out of place for me to be housed so well.

It, along with Nara, was untouched by the war -- and is now a beautiful example of the loveliness of prewar Japan.

They knew that I was still grieving over the tragic event, and they felt that if I could see the recovery and the spirit of the people, who hold no grudge, but who also regret Pearl Harbor, I would be happier and would understand better a new Japan.

This leader must be a man who lives above illusions that heretofore have shaped the foreign policy of the United States, namely that Russia will agree to a reunited Germany, that the East German government does not exist, that events in Japan in June 1960 were Communist-inspired, that the true government of China is in Formosa, that Mao was the evil influence behind Khrushchev at the Summit Conference in Paris in May 1960, and that either China or Russia wants or expects war.

It was night on this hemisphere, but the light blazed from the megalopolises of Australia, Japan, China, Southeast Asia, India, Siberia.

The Intelligent Mechatronics Lab, directed by Hiroshi Kobayashi at the Tokyo University of Science, has developed an android head called Saya, which was exhibited at Robodex 2002 in Yokohama, Japan.

But probably the most influential and original of these schools was the Chan sect, which had an even stronger impact in Japan as the Zen sect.

‘ … The development of Japan's large northern island had several objectives: First, it was seen as a means to defend Japan from a rapidly developing and expansionist Russia.

It was not until June 6, 2008 that Japan formally recognised the Ainu as an indigenous group ( see Official Recognition, below ).

On June 6, 2008, a bi-partisan, non-binding resolution was approved by the Japanese Diet calling upon the government to recognize the Ainu people as indigenous to Japan, and urging an end to discrimination against the group.

Mark J. Hudson Professor of Anthropology at Nishikyushu University, Kanzaki, Saga, Japan, said Japan was settled by a " Proto-Mongoloid " population in the Pleistocene who became the Jōmon and their features can be seen in the Ainu and Okinawan people.

In another study, ancient DNA recovered from 16 Jomon skeletons excavated from Funadomari site, Hokkaido, Japan was analyzed to elucidate the genealogy of the early settlers of the Japanese archipelago.

The southern half of Sakhalin was acquired by Japan as a result of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 – 05, but at the end of World War II in 1945, the Soviets declared war on Japan and took possession of the Kuril islands and southern Sakhalin.

The last known deportation of Ainu to Japan occurred in 1982, when Keizo Nakamura, a full blooded Northern Kurils Ainu was deported to Hokkaido after serving 15 years hard labor in the province of Magadan.

In the years before the Tokugawa shogunate, that innovative daimyo from Western Japan had been actively involved in negotiating trade and diplomatic treaties with Spain and with the colonies of New Spain ( Mexico ) and the Philippines ; and it was anticipated that the mere presence of the Princess could serve to underscore the range of possibilities which could be inferred from that little-known history.

The work of Lavoisier was translated in Japan in the 1840s, through the process of Rangaku.

Birdsey Northrop of Connecticut was responsible for globalizing it when he visited Japan in 1883 and delivered his Arbor Day and Village Improvement message.

In Japan armour continued to be used until the end of the samurai era, with the last major fighting in which armour was used happening in 1868. Samurai armour had one last short lived use in 1877 during the Satsuma Rebellion

Akio Morita was born in the village of Kosugaya, Japan.

Morita was vice chairman of the Keidanren ( Japan Federation of Economic Organizations ), and was a member of the Japan-U. S. Economic Relations Group, also known as the " Wise Men's Group ".