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Tuesday, 6th September 2011
In Japan Entertainment News,
Heartthrob returns to Japan for promos
A South-Korean heartthrob popular with Japanese housewives returned to the country to promote the DVD release of his latest drama.
Better known in Japan as Yon-sama, Bae Yong Joon visited Saitama Super Arena on Sunday (September 4th) to announce the launch of Dream High, Japan Today reported.
From the early hours of the morning, queues of fans began forming to see the star emerge from his car before midday.
A crowd of 12,000 enthusiastic Yon-sama followers were invited to the event after they pre-ordered their copies of the TV series.
According to the publication, Bae told the gatherers: "I'm glad to see you, my Japanese family, again."
Having donated approximately 71.8 million yen to the nation's recovery efforts after the twin tragedy of March 11th, he continued: "I was really worried about you. Now I've seen your beautiful smiles, I feel relieved."
Dream High centres around six pupils at the Kirin Art High School in South-Korea who aspire to great success in the music industry.
In a Glee-esque series, the characters develop both personally and professionally as they strengthen their musical abilities, such as singing, song writing and dancing.
Bae is a charitable soul, because aside to his Japanese disaster donations, he has also visited sick fans in hospital.
During a promotional visit to Taiwan in 2005, the China Post reported he heard about a cancer-stricken fan that hoped she could meet him one day.
The patient had drawn many portraits of the actor and wanted to show them to him.
Upon hearing this, Bae asked organisers of his April Snow promotional tour if a meeting could be arranged.
From there, he also expressed interest in working with Chinese directors, furthering his inter-cultural links with directors from varying Asian countries.
His reasons for this?
"This is a good way to see better cooperation between film makers from different cultures," he was quoted in the publication as saying.
Posted by Graham McPherson