The big foreign celebrity in Japan story this week is the visit of Johnny Depp and the Pirates 3 cast to Japan. Here’s a video of the cast arriving at Narita Airport on May 23:

Johnny Depp and other cast members of “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” arrived in Japan by private jet on Tuesday night to attend the Asia premiere of the film at Nippon Budokan on Wednesday night. About 2,500 fans shrieked out in delight when Depp, 43, and Orlando Bloom, 30, entered the arrival terminal at Narita just after 9:30 p.m. Airport officials said as many as 400 fans had come to the airport from early Tuesday morning to get a good spot in the terminal. (JapanToday)

The following day Narita Airport was once the scene of a foreign celebrity arrival. South Korean pop star Rain, who had come to perform at the prestigious Tokyo Dome, was greated by as many as 800 fans (unconfirmed). His arrival was not treated as a top news story in the way that Johnny Depp’s was, but a fan did manage to take a home video and post it to YouTube:

Star M Entertainment announced the news in Japan with Rain and said, “With Japan as the axis, Rain spread the wave to Southeast Asia. Now he’s reconfirming his stature with the concert at the Tokyo Dome.”

The performance at the Tokyo Dome means Rain is one step further from being just an Asian celebrity and one step closer to being a world star. The Dome can hold up to 42,000 people but it requires a minimum of 35,000 tickets to be sold. Only top-selling performers attempt to play there. Among Korean celebrities, Lee Byung-heon held a fan meeting at the Dome last June with 42,000 guests. The Japanese press at the time made a great fuss, calling it the biggest event in the history of the “Korean Wave.”

According to Kyodo News,a mostly female crowd of around 35,000 came to watch the South Korean hearthrob give his solo concert at the Tokyo Dome last night.