This week’s guest was Sakamoto Fuyumi.

Sakamoto Fuyumi x Kanjani8 – Mata Kimi ni Koishiteru

KAT-TUN’s Kamenashi Kazuya will be starring in the new NTV drama “Kaito Yamaneko” (The Mysterious Thief Yamaneko) based on the novel “Kaito Tantei Yamaneko Series” by Manabu Kaminaga. Kamenashi has played a wide range of roles such as a monster in “Yokai Ningen Bem” and a spy. This is his first time challenging the role of a thief. The drama will air on January 2016, Saturdays, 9 pm.

Kamenashi will play the role of Yamaneko who is a thief that steals money from the evil through brilliant tricks, while at the same time exposing their evil deeds. He focuses more on “How to steal…” rather than “Why steal…” which leaves the target of the theft almost not noticing the crime.

There will be elements of action in the drama and Kamenashi will challenge jumping from building to building. Kamenashi says that it is fun rather than scary, as he has experience flying many times in concerts and musicals.

The drama will be directed by Inomata Ryuichi (Kaisefu no Mita) and script written by Muto Shogo (Wakamonotachi 2014, Kazoku Game).

Ayase Haruka and Saito Takumi will be playing as lovers in the romantic comedy movie “Kodaike no Hitobito” (The people in Kodai’s family). The movie is based on Morimoto Kozueko’s (Gokusen) manga and will be shown on June 2016.

Ayase will play Hirano Kie, an OL with a large-scale imagination. She gets to know Kodai Mitsumasa, played by Saito, a handsome colleague, who also happens to be a telepath who can read people’s thoughts. Mitsumasa is charmed by Kie’s personality, and they start a relationship. Mitsumasa’s mother Yuko judges Kie to be unfit to marry her son, but the family matriarch Ann makes Yuko retract the statement. Now Ann teaches Kie how to be a proper lady, and Kie’s life becomes intertwined with the Kodai family.

Popular manga Hana Yori Dango will be having a stage musical adaptation opening on January 5 next year. The play will run at Tokyo’s Theater Crea from January 5-24, at Fukuoka’s Sun Place Hotel and Hall on January 28, at Nagoya’s Aichi Prefectural Art Theatre from February 6-7, and at Osaka’s Sankei Hall bReeze from February 11-14.

The main cast was first announced last August. Kato Ririka, was chosen from among 3,000 participants in a country-wide open audition to play the lead character Makino Tsukushi. Matsushita Yuya (X4) will be playing the F4 leader Domyoji Tsukasa. Completing the rest of F4 are Shirasu Jin as Hanazawa Rui, Mackenyu as Nishikado Sojiro, and Kamiyama Ryuuji as Mimasaka Akira. A press conference for the play was held last October 22.

Check out a video of the presscon, Matsushita Yuya and the rest of the cast video commentary below or at Toho Stage Youtube channel.

My review of Arashi’s new album, “Japonism”, for The Japan Times was released online today. It comes out in print tomorrow. I’m going to start things off by saying that I actually didn’t mind the album. I thought it was a cute look for a boyband in their 30s. It’s not something that I personally would seek out, but I didn’t mind listening to it.

I did bring up something that was a talking point when the album was announced: the extra edition. It’s clear that they wanted to take the best selling album of the the year title from Sandaime J Soul Brothers, which they ended up doing.

Hello, Arama! Japan readers! We are back with our monthly wrap up feature. A few of the staff members have come together to share their faves for the month of September. Find out what the staff was loving that month! Also feel free to post what you loved this past September in the comments!

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 December 24, AAA member Nissy will release a new solo single titled “Playing With Fire.” This limited edition CD+DVD single will only be available on mu-mo. The single comes with a photobook and a candle.

Nissy recently released the music video for “Playing With Fire.” The video features Nissy dancing in a white suit.  He then performs before an audience of fans, which were selected via a lottery. The end of the video features the candle that comes with the single. Check it out after the jump, along with more information on the single!