Ai Otsuka & Kumi Koda Vie For Ayumi Hamasaki's J-pop Queen Crown

J-pop diva Kumi Koda, who is widely considered as the heir to chart queen Ayumi Hamasaki, has recently been challenged by a vibrant new competitor, Ai Otsuka. Ai's not only more popular in this month's Oricon ranking, but even her billing from Avex was higher than Kumi in the past 2 months. Unlike Koda who spent a lot more time working her way up the music charts, Otsuka's rise has been meteoric in comparison. Her debut album Love Punch which released in March 2004 hit the musical charts and won her a nickname 'the New Guru of Love'. 8 months after that, she launched her second album Love Jam which again topped the Oricon rankings. Besides singing, Ai also has a popular radio show called 'Otsuka Ai ai-r Jack' and she's frequently appeared in various TV commercials. Other than that, Ai pens columns in two Japanese magazines, 'Love Column' in Zipper and 'Love World-Eye love Pictures' in B-Pass. Now her popularity even expands into the film industry. Her latest film 'Tokyo Friends' proved to be a smash hit and sold over 50000 copies.

However, Ai's sudden rocket to stardom has Kumi peeved, especially because Ai is better paid. The two started to defame each other in every possible way. According to Mainichi Daily News, "Koda and Otsuka are bitterly opposed to each other and make little secret of their rivalry. Koda goes around saying that Otsuka has no talent. And Otsuka says that Koda is 'vulgar' and 'acts like a cheap, nightclub hostess."

It seems pretty childish and stupid to try to improve one's situation with these tactics, but at the same time this probably does bring them both into the spotlight and more media coverage all around. Hopefully there won't be any cheating boyfriends adding to the rivalry between them. (i.e. Lindsay Lohan getting cheated on by Aaron Carter with Hilary Duff)