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eiko Chiba, a Japanese model, actress, and teen idol, hates the daylight, preferring instead to tap away at her computer deep into the night. Not particularly conducive to maintaining celebrity status, you might think. Then again, 20-year-old Reiko isn't your garden-variety, bubble-gum chewing kiddie star. Sure, she started her career as the Pink Ranger in the original Power Ranger crew, but Reiko quickly moved from high-flying karate kicks to zooming through cyberspace in a direction that many larger Japanese companies are just beginning to try. Having been introduced to HTML programming by Joichi Ito, a young visionary known as Mr. Internet in Japan, Reiko picked up the skill in one sitting. With her new found knowledge in hand, Reiko was soon publishing her own home page, digitally communing with fans, and basically bucking the traditional star-making machinery of Japan.
The corporate powers-that-be were shocked. Why would a teenage idol quit her management company at the height of her career? How could she go it alone? According to Joichi, Tokyo's online in-crowd understood exactly what she was up to and celebrated her courage in breaking away from the norm. Today, Reiko reigns royal on the Web, amassing more fans everyday as she sends out her star appeal through cyberspace.
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