Jacko Bags £1,800 Handshakes

Michael Jackson will give a whole new meaning to the term "golden handshake" tonight when he greets Japanese fans prepared to pay large sums to press the flesh and have their photo taken with the troubled pop star.

Jackson is to attend a Premium VIP party at Shin-kiba Studio Coast for guests who have forked out up to $3,500 (£1,800) for a chat lasting 30 seconds to a minute. Depending on how many hands he shakes, the 48-year-old singer - who is not expected to perform at the event - could walk away with enough cash to make a dent in his debts, reported to run into million of dollars.

Fans of more modest means can catch up with Jackson tomorrow, when he will eat brunch and have photos taken with the winners of a "fan art" competition. The cost: a mere 15,000 yen (£67).

Jackson's handlers in Japan insisted that aesthetics, not finances, were uppermost in his mind.

"Over the years, as Michael Jackson has performed in cities around the world, he has been pleased, honoured, and impressed by the large amount of fan art of him," organiser Broderick Morris told the Associated Press. "He would like to meet fan artists, and more fully appreciate and enjoy their creative expressions."

Jackson, who has spent most of his time living overseas since he was acquitted in June 2005 of molesting a 13-year-old boy, has called Japan "one of my favourite places in the entire world". For their part, the Japanese don't seem to have tired of the singer.