“I used to change her diapers, and take her to and from kindergarden when she was little. I took care of her a lot,” said Sumiko Takeyama, grandmother of singer Hikaru Utada, 24. “But ever since she left for New York when she was seven, I lost contact with her. I wasn’t even aware of her recent divorce. Maybe if they had a baby, things would have turned out differently. She has witnessed her parents getting divorced. Maybe she couldn’t fight the family blood in her.”

The recent divorce of J-pop diva Hikaru Utada, announced on her website on March 2, has not only shocked her family and fans but also the people who work with her.

Utada married auteur Kazuaki Kiriya, 38, in September of 2002. About her reasons for the divorce, Utada wrote on her blog: “Our future vision and the direction we, as wife and husband, wanted to head toward were different. We lacked communication as the differences became apparent.” What kind of married life did the two have?

“Each of their jobs often took them overseas. They had bases in Tokyo, New York and Los Angeles, but they barely spent time together. Utada dreamed of continuing being a singer while building a family. So her lonely feelings accumulated over the lifestyle they had,” said a showbiz reporter.

Starting last year, Utada was seen bar-hopping or going to karaoke until late night with her music colleagues. The not-so-good relationship between her father, Teruzane Utada, and her husband Kiriya, was also causing a strain, say insiders.

“After their marriage, Utada became more Kiriya-influenced. Kiriya’s status has risen, while Utada’s CD sales struggled,” said one music industry insider. “Her father brought up his daughter to be a money-making star since her youth and he was unhappy to see the situation in which Kiriya was benefiting the most from the marriage, he was quoted as saying. The quarrel between the father and the son-in-law became apparent during the tour Utada conducted last year. The two wanted to produce the tour differently. Not only the staff, but Utada was caught in between, so it is no wonder she was confused. The fact that her new single was a hit without the involvement of Kiriya must have been another factor in Utada’s decision to get divorced.”

Utada’s income for 2004 is estimated at around 1 billion yen. Since her debut in 1998, she has sold more than 33 million CDs. She has easily earned more than 10 billion yen throughout her career.

What will happen to the money with the divorce? “Both sides agreed to a divorce, so there won’t be any consolation money,” said a lawyer specializing in divorce. “The focus is on distributing property. Everything that the two had earned since their marriage will be shared, including royalties Utada has earned. Negotiations usually settle such issues without going to court.”

There are other concerns for Utada, especially the fact that her parents, Teruzane Utada and Keiko Fuji, filed for divorce. In their case, they will most likely end up in court.

“There are reports of Fuji receiving 500 million yen in exchange for resigning from Utada’s office,” said one acquaintance. “But the pattern of their past relationship reveals as soon as Fuji, who has a habit of going on a spending spree and gambling, runs out of cash, she asks her husband to marry her again. She is likely to demand a bigger share this time around.”

The dispute over money is likely to go deep as Utada faces her own divorce as well as her parents, who manage her career. (Translated by Toshiya Fujii)


Utada married Kiriya in 2002 at the age of 19. (Mainichi)