Earlier today, the Opening Ceremony of the Toyko 2020 Olympics was held. MISIA performed the Japanese national anthem, “Kimigayo.” She did so in a white Tomo Koizumi dress with multicolor detail. Her porformance was short, but impactful. Check it out below!

On July 23 at 8 PM JST, the Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics will air. Nothing is known about the show, besides MISIA performing the Japanese national anthem.

There is a live stream of the ceremony and Arama! Japan will be hosting a chat on Discord so that readers can chat with each other during the show! See more below!

Anticipation was high about who would perform at the Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. However, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and Japan’s mismanagement of the Olympics, that anticipation is now a whimper. There is now some good news though: MISIA will sing the Japanese national anthem!

MISIA has been involved in several charitable efforts throughout her career, including as of late supporting medical staff during the pandemic. Last November, she fractured two vertebrae after falling off of a horse while filming a segment for the TBS news program “news23” about mentally disabled atheletes. She recovered in time to close the “71st NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen.” MISIA has a voice that represents Japan to the world, which can bring light in these dark times.

Ichikawa Ebizo will also appear in the Opening Ceremony, in a role that will showcase Japanese culture to the world.

The fact that there is still an Opening Ceremony is a miracle. With the recent resignation of Cornelius and the firing of Kobayashi Kentaro, the situation was troubling. About 20 members of the Olympic organizing committee requested that the Opening Ceremony be canceled or simplified. This simplified ceremony would consist of only the march of the athletes into the stadium, the lighting of the Olympic cauldron, and the Olympic opening declaration.

This week, BTS topped the Hot 100 single chart with for the fourth non-consecutive week their digital single “Butter”, with 12,909 points.

UraShimaSakataSen topped the Hot Albums chart.

BTS also retook the top spot on the Artist 100 chart.

Ayase topped the Hot 100 Lyricists chart for the third consecutive week.

Ayase also topped the Hot 100 Composers chart for the third consecutive week.

BTS also topped the Streaming Songs chart for the eighth consecutive week with “Butter.”

BTS also topped the Download Songs chart with their new digital single “Permission to Dance.”

YOASOBI retook the top spot on the Download Albums chart with their mini album “THE BOOK”, topping the chart for the 11th non-consecutive week.

The day before the Opening Ceremony of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, another scandal has surfaced! Kobayashi Kentaro, the director of the ceremonies, has been fired for making a joke about the Holocaust in 1998. During a comedy show that year, he used the Holocaust as part of his act, including the phrase “Let’s play Holocaust.”

“We found out that Mr. Kobayashi, in his own performance, has used a phrase ridiculing a historical tragedy,” organizing committee president Hashimoto Seiko said. “We deeply apologize for causing such a development the day before the Opening Ceremony and for causing troubles and concerns to many involved parties as well as the people in Tokyo and the rest of the country.”

After a video and the script for Kentaro’s performance surfaced, social media became abuzz.

On July 21, Ryuji Imaichi of Sandaime J SOUL BROTHERS will release his third solo album, “CHAOS CITY.” This release comes about a year and half after his previous album, “ZONE OF GOLD.”

“CHAOS CITY” is a conceptual album that tells the stories of the fictional city that the album is named after. The lead song from the album is the 80s-influenced “FUTURE LOVERS.” Ryuji was inspired to write the song by the Hajime Sorayama statue “Sexy Robot.” The song is based on the theme of forbidden love between man and robot.

In the music video for “FUTURE LOVERS”, Ryuji falls in love with an android in the futuristic CHAOS CITY. “Sexy Robot” is one of the prominent features of the city and of Ryuji’s album cover, which can be seen below!

On July 21, Shota Shimizu will release his ninth album, “HOPE.” This is his first album since June 2018’s “WHITE.”

A number of guests are featured on this album, including Taka from ONE OK ROCK, Aimer, ASOBOiSM, and Kouichi Arakawa. Shota and Taka launched [re:] Project last year, and their song on Shota’s album, “Curtain Call”, is a continuation of that patnership. [re:] Project also lead to Shota collaborating with Aimer for this new album, on the song “Prologue.”

The music video for “Curtain Call” was recently released and can be seen below, along with more information on Shota’s new album!

Johnny’s group Snow Man continues their winning streak with the release of their latest single “HELLO HELLO“. It has topped both the Oricon and Billboard charts selling over 800k copies, with Billboard listing 820k units sold. The last time a male artist sold over 500k in the first week for three consecutive releases was Arashi, who accomplished this over 10 years ago.

Snow Man joins the very elite group of other male artists who did this including Mr. Children, B’z, GLAY, and L’Arc~en~Ciel. The MV for the track is also a hit digitally, almost hitting 14 million views on YouTube alone.

Snow Man’s official YouTube channel recently uploaded an alternate version of “HELLO HELLO” featuring recording footage and alternate scenes from the MV. Check it out below: