Ayumi Hamasaki to marry American grad student 10 years her junior

OHMYGOSSIP — On December 12, Hamasaki Ayumi (35) announced on her official fan club site “Team Ayu” her engagement with an American man.According to her announcement, her fiance is a 25-year-old graduate student at UCLA.

The couple met each other through a friend’s introduction during the New Year holidays in January 2013, and began dating in the spring.

They got officially engaged on December 12, but they have not decided exactly when they would register their marriage at this moment.

Hamasaki previously married Austrian actor, Manuel Schwarz who she co-starred with in her music videos in January 2011, but divorced in January the following year.

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Ayumi Hamasaki (浜崎あゆみ, also 濱崎歩; born October 2, 1978) is a Japanese recording artist, lyricist, model, and actress. Also called “Ayu” by her fans, Hamasaki has been dubbed the “Empress of Pop” because of her popularity and widespread influence in Japan and throughout Asia. Born and raised in Fukuoka, she moved to Tokyo at fourteen to pursue a career in entertainment. In 1998, under the tutelage of Avex CEO Max Matsuura, she released a string of modestly selling singles that concluded with her 1999 debut album A Song for ××. The album debuted atop the Oricon charts and stayed there for four weeks, establishing her popularity in Japan.

Hamasaki’s constantly changing image and tight control over her artistry has helped her popularity extend across Asia; music and fashion trends she has started have spread to countries such as China, Singapore, and Southeast Asia. She has appeared in or lent her songs to many advertisements and television commercials. Though she originally supported the exploitation of her popularity for commercial purposes, she later reconsidered and eventually opposed her status as an Avex “product”.

Since her 1998 debut with the single “Poker Face”, Hamasaki has sold over 53,000,000 records in Japan, ranking her among the best-selling singers in the country. As a female singer, Hamasaki holds several domestic records for her singles, such as the most number-one hits overall by a female artist, the most consecutive number-one hits by a solo artist, and the most million-sellers. Since 1999, Hamasaki has had at least one single each year topping the charts (except 2011, which she released a mini-album, Five, without any singles). Hamasaki is the first female singer to have eight studio albums since her debut to top the Oricon and the first artist to have a number-one album for 13 consecutive years since her debut. She is considered one of Japan’s most beautiful women.