TV A sahi’s “Doctor X ~ Gekkai Daimon Michiko ~ SP”  starring Ryoko Yonekura as the surgeon Michiko Daimon aired last July 3 and got an average audience rating of 22.0%. “Doctor X” is a popular drama series that already aired 3 seasons so far. The first season in 2012 got 19.1%, 2nd season got 23.0% and the 3rd season had 22.9%.

For the SP, Beat Takeshi  plays Kantaro Kurosu, the hospital director of Kurosu Medical Centre, Japan’s first drug development hub. He requests Michiko to perform surgery on national figure skater Kojiro Himuro played by Hey! Say! JUMP’s Kei Inoo who is suffering from a complicated disease CTEPH (chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension). Whether she is able to perform the surgery successfully is one of the highlights of the story.

The regular cast are also back including Yuki Uchida, Ittoku Kishibe, Kenichi Endo, Masanobu Katsumura, Kosuke Suzuki and Toshiyuki Nishida. 

On July 6, rap group Public Musume. releases their debut album, “Hatsukoi Towa Nanzo ya.” The group has spent some time before appearing on various compilations by the likes of Maltine Records and Ano(t)raks, as well as releasing material on BandCamp. A while back, tofubeats remixed the album’s title track.

Public Musume. recently released the music video for the album’s eighth track, “Ochin Gin Choudai.” The video uses a green screen. Check it out below, along with the more information on the album, including its video teaser!

This week, GENERATIONS topped the Oricon single chart with their new single “Namida”, selling 93,928 copies in its first week.

THE IDOLM@STER topped the Oricon album chart with their new album “THE IDOLM@STER CINDERELLA MASTER Cool jewelries! 003”, selling 52,447 copies in its first week.

This week on Recochoku, Kuwata Keisuke topped the chart with his new single, “Taiga no Itteki.”

On iTunes, SawanoHiroyuki[nZk] topped the chart with his new single, “Into the Sky.”

Today Tower Records, one of the largest physical music retailers in Japan, published their mid-year charts for 2016.  These rankings reflect the combined total sales of the Japanese, Imported, Limited, Analog, etc. versions of each Album from January 1st through June 30th of this year.

Popular rock act BUMP OF CHICKEN stand atop the Japanese Album Chart with their latest full-length “Butterflies”, while David Bowie’s “Blackstar” claims the honor on the Western Album Chart.

Read on below to see what other releases comprise each respective list’s top 10s.

Hello, Arama! Japan readers and welcome to this week’s installment of #1 Song Review! Last week saw Sandaime J Soul Brothers top BTOB. This week, we have 2 newcomers facing off! Find out what various staff members thought of the songs that topped the physical and digital charts this week and share your thoughts on them too!

The delightfully weird and blatantly sexual Paipaidekami has released two bizarre tunes recently- both with the same message- to practice safe sex. The two songs “Love Katsu☆Non Non Ready Go” (an original) and “Love Katsu☆ Heart Kyururi” (a Michyo Honda cover) tie in with Paipaidekami’s current main gig- as the spokeswoman for the condom brand “Glamorous Butterfly” (and who more appropriate, really?), and they’re both as insane and delightfully trashy (in the best way possible) as you’d expect. Watch the two videos below the gap!

Kemuri Karakara’s Donten ni Warau (Laughing Under the Clouds) manga will be getting a live action. The official website and twitter account is up and it was announced that Sota Fukushi will play the protagonist Tenka Kumo, the eldest of the three Kumo brothers. This will be Fukushi’s first period film.  The released visual for the movie features the actor as Tenka Kumo.

Katsuyuki Motohiro (Psycho-Pass) is directing the film, and Yuuya Takahashi (Laughing Under the Clouds, Lupin the Third, Luck & Logic) is penning the script. The movie will be released in 2017.