It's generally assumed by the media that pop singer Namie Amuro's recent divorce from dancer Masaharu "Sam" Maruyama is the first step in an earnest attempt to reinflate a career that lost a lot of air after the 24-year-old dance-music diva took a year's maternity leave. If that sounds like a cynical assessment, bear in mind that the media never really accepted the marriage as something that would last and, worse, that it was exploited by people who certainly weren't thinking about the couple's well-being.

Amuro married Sam at the height of her popularity, when she had just turned 20. It was a well-publicized dekichatta kekkon, a marriage occasioned by an unplanned pregnancy. However, instead of tsk-tsking about the loose morals of youth and the carelessness of a man who was 16 years older than the girl he knocked up, the media responded positively because the two were "doing the right thing" and getting married.

The media -- and even the government -- boosted them as a model couple, because Amuro's fans, all young girls like her, were in thrall to her image. With young women increasingly foregoing marriage and the birthrate dropping, the powers that be latched on to the Amuro-Sam team and gave them support, hoping that young people would follow their lead. Sam was tapped by the government to spearhead a campaign to encourage young men to be more responsible fathers.