Kaori Manabe recommences blogging

Kaori Manabe, Japan's blog queen, on Tuesday started blogging again after an absence of over a year. Manabe stopped updating her popular blog in January of last year before closing the site down in October.

Sources close to the television personality and model say that when Manabe was updating her blog regularly, page views surpassed 100,000 per day. Even after she stopped updating her blog, Manabe's homepage still received 70,000 hits every day.

The same sources say that the pressure on Manabe to resume blogging was great and that she wanted a way to reply to the fans who had supported her all along. She was also deluged with offers from sponsors and hosting companies encouraging her to maintain her following and continue blogging.

Manabe's exit from the world of blogging coincided with the expiration of her contract with talent management agency Avilla, with whom she was in a dispute over her contract conditions. Manabe's return to blogging coincided with her 31st birthday on Tuesday. Her new blog is hosted by Livedoor.

© Compiled from news reports