Miyuki Hatoyama

Miyuki Hatoyama

Miyuki Hatoyama do not end there. As well a being a musical actress, cookery writer, clothesmaker and television personality, she is also a friend of the actor Tom Cruise, whom she knew in a past life when he was temporarily incarnated as a Japanese. She would be regarded as bit of a fruitcake anywhere in the world — in Japan’s staid political culture, she is unique. To his credit, Mr Hatoyama, who will formally become Prime Minister in a fortnight’s time after a landslide election victory last Sunday, does not appear in the least embarrassed by his wife’s eccentricities, and nor do his fellow citizens. She falls into the category of public figure known as “tarento”, or “talent” — televisual artists or entertainers who are expected and encouraged to be more unpredictable, flamboyant, and vividly coloured than the rest of us.

She began her career in a unique Japanese institution — the Takarazuka Revue, an troupe of female singers and dancers who perform romantic musicals to packed audiences of middle-aged Japanese women. She was living in California, as the wife of a Japanese restaurateur, when she met the young Mr Hatoyama, who was studying engineering at Stanford University. Their marriage in the US, after her divorce, was mildly scandalous for the scion of a political family like Mr Hatoyama. “Most men choose a partner from among single women,” as he said proudly. “But I chose from among all womankind.” Since then she has established herself as a lifestyle consultant, or “life composer”, and the author of several books, including Welcome to the Hatoyama Restaurant, Welcome to the Hatoyama Home, Miyuki Hatoyama’s Spiritual Food and Miyuki Hatoyama’s Have a Nice Time. It was in a book of interviews with prominent people, entitled Most Bizarre Things I've Encountered, that she revealed her extra-terrestrial jaunt which occurred during her first marriage.

“While my body was sleeping, I think my spirit flew on a triangular-shaped UFO to Venus,” she said. “It was an extremely beautiful place and was very green.” Her first husband suggested that it was probably just a dream — but Mr Hatoyama, she insisted, would not be so dismissive. “My current husband has a different way of thinking,” she said. “He would surely say, ‘Oh, that's great!’” Since it became likely, earlier this year, that Mr Hatoyama and his Democratic Party of Japan were likely to form Japan’s next government, she has been extensively interviewed on the daytime “Wide Shows” aimed at Japanese housewives. It was during one of these that she spoke of her past-life friendship with Cruise and her ambition to make a film with him. “He was Japanese in his past life, and we were together so when I see him, I will say, ‘Hi. It’s been a long time,’ and he will immediately understand,” she said. “This film will change your values. I will win the Oscar for sure. About seven years ago, my husband Yukio said to me, ‘Yeah, yeah, that’s a nice dream . . .’, but these days, he encourages me and he sits at his computer translating the script into English even though he is tired after work.”