back number’s “Christmas Song” topped Recochoku this week, making it the song’s fifth non-consecutive week at #1.

back number topped iTunes for the sixth week in a row with “Christmas Song.”

Hello Arama! Japan readers and welcome to this week’s installment of #1 Song Review! Last week saw Kanjani win against Urashima Taro (Kiritani Kenta) and back number. back number is back again this week, along with a newcomer. 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!

From December 24 – 27, this year’s Japan Figure Skating Championships took place in Sapporo. Yuzuru Hanyu and Satoko Miyahara both retained their titles, the fourth time in a row for Yuzuru and the second consecutive time for Satoko. This competition determined who Japan will be sending to the Four Continents Championships in Taipei, Taiwan in February and the World Championships in Boston, Massachusetts in March.

Yuzuru Hanyu won the men’s portion of the Japan Figure Skating Championships with a total score of 286.36. He had the best short program, with a score of 102.63. He fell on his opening quad salchow. “Being honest I’m really frustrated, but was rated highly with the score. It feels as if I’m being told I can do better. I’ll shed light on things that need reflection,” he said afterward. “I don’t feel fatigue. In this string of games I was aiming to perform without mistakes under any circumstance, and that’s something I couldn’t achieve today.”

The next day, Yuzuru had the highest scoring free skate, with a score of 183.73. He fell on his second quad toe loop and the following triple axel. “I’m frustrated, seething even. I wasn’t overawed by the atmosphere or giving into the pressure, but it was definitely a bad performance,” he later said. “The most important thing is the world championships. I’ll keep going to make sure I don’t put in a performance like this again.”

Over the next few days, we’ll be looking back on the end year charts for the years that were covered in the 2015 editions of Oricon Flashback. This is the second part of this series, the year 2000.

At 5:30 PM JST on December 30, the 57th Japan Record Awards will air on TBS. The show will be about 4 and half hours long. Many acts are nominated for the Grand Prix, including AAA, AKB48, Sandaime J Soul Brothers, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Nishino Kana, Gesu no Kiwami Otome., and Nishiuchi Mariya. The Best New Artist Award will also be given out to lol, Kobushi Factory, Hanaoka Natsumi, or Yasuda Rei. All the nominees will perform as well as some other acts.

Arama! Japan will be live streaming the show and hosting a chat as well so that readers can chat with each other during the show! Links to the show and the chat are after the jump!

On January 20, Koda Kumi will release a new ballad collection album titled “WINTER of LOVE.” The album will feature past hits as well as 2 new songs. Today, she released the short music video for one of those new songs, “On And On.” The music video itself is cellphone-friendly, seeing as how it’s meant to be viewed vertically on the phone as opposed to horizontally like most videos. Check it out after the jump!

This week, Sexy Zone topped the Oricon single charts with their new single “Colorful Eyes”, selling 173,041 copies in its first week.

back number topped the Oricon album chart for the second week in a row with their album “Chandelier.” It sold 53,342 this week.

On March 2, Charisma.com will released their new mini album, “Aidoro C.” This release comes nearly 8 months after their major label debut, the mini album “OLest.” “Aidoro C” will come in 2 editions: a CD only Regular Edition and a CD only Tower Records Limited Edition that comes with a bonus track. Charisma.com has been performing some of the songs on their new mini album at recent shows.

Check out the cover and tracklist for “Aidoro C” after the jump!