For the past few weeks, America's showbiz media has lingered over the alleged beating that R&B star Rihanna received at the hands of her boyfriend, the equally popular singer Chris Brown. Below the titillating layer of scandal is the story's more sobering subtext of domestic violence (DV), a social problem that still remains mostly out of sight. Quite a few commentators, including talk-show goddess Oprah Winfrey, have pointed out that such a sad case might have a silver lining if it prompted battered women and their violent mates to seek help. The effectiveness of the example was undermined, however, when it was reported that Rihanna had returned to Brown's arms.

A similar story made the headlines here recently when 50-year-old singer Koji Tamaki and 45-year-old actress Mariko Ishihara were declared an item23 years after a domestic violence episode shattered their relationship. Tipped off by a scoop in the tabloid Nikkan Sports, reporters met the couple at Tokyo Station on Feb. 25. Dressed in matching reversible winter coats and caps that reminded one journalist of the kind of tacky "pair look" you see on honeymooners, the couple told the media they were on their way to register their marriage.

Few celebrities are as famously dysfunctional as Tamaki and Ishihara, whose affair goes back to the early 1980s, when he was gaining stardom as the lead singer of pop group Anzen Chitai and she was the hottest teen ingenue in the land. Legend has it that Tamaki, married at the time to a woman who was a fan prior to his breakthrough, met Ishihara even before the release of his first hit single, "Wine Red no Kokoro," in 1984. Ishihara later claimed that the song was written for her.