Announced at today’s AKB48 Janken Tournament 2016 at Kobe World Memorial Hall, AKB48 will setup a new sister group in Summer 2017: STU48.

As soon as the Janken Tournament was over, the curtains dropped on the crying AKB48 member Tanabe Miku, who was awarded the title of Janken Queen 2016. Rumors of AKB48 sister groups for Naha, Sendai and Sapporo have been swirling for a while, so when a map of Japan was projected it came to no surprise, but the reveal of a group for the Setouchi region did.

Their official web site has been launched, and the official announcement video is uploaded on Youtube.

This week on Recochoku, RADWIMPS retook the top spot with the movie version of “Zen Zen Zense”, making it fifth non-consecutive week the song has topped the chart.

RADWIMPS also topped the iTunes chart with the song, for the eighth non-consecutive week.

It also topped the Recochoku monthly chart for September.

This week’s guest was Sada Masashi.

Sada Masashi x Kanjani8 – Shunjinkou

We’re back with this week’s edition of Oricon Flashback. This is where we look back on what topped Oricon this week 5, 10, 15, and 20 years ago. Think of it as a way to reminisce and learn about the past of Japanese music.

On October 8, Rinko Kikuchi gave birth to her first child! This news was announced on her husband Shota Sometani’s official site. In his statement, he said that Rinko and their child were both healthy. He also said that wants to work hard to build their new family. The family is happy and looks towards the future with hope. The gender of the baby was not disclosed in his statement though.

After their summery single “Paradive”, Da-iCE is back with their 10th single! Titled “Koigokoro”, this song slows the pace since their latest single, with November 2nd as release date. The MV, directed by Toshiyuki Suzuki (MV director of Flower, JUJU and Girls’ Generation amongst others) puts an emphasis on a lyrical choreography on a very minimalist setting in which light and mirrors are almost the only element. Check the MV, cover arts and tracklists for the nine different editions this single will feature just after the jump!

This week’s guests were Hoshino Gen and miwa.

Hoshino Gen – Koi

miwa – Yui

This week’s guests were SEKAI NO OWARI, Ikimonogakari, MACO, and BiSH.

SEKAI NO OWARI – Hey Ho

Ikimonogakari – Last Scene

MACO – love letter

BiSH – Orchestra