GACKT is the face of a new advertising campaign with Hokto, leading producer of premium Shimofuri hiratake (oyster) mushrooms.

Apparently, correct me if I’m wrong, GACKT is a connoisseur of quality mushrooms making him the best candidate for this campaign. In the commercial, which will begin airing September 10th nationwide, GACKT is blindfolded for a smell, touch, and taste-test where he identifies this deluxe type of mushroom.

Check out the CM below and RELISH in these HIGH QUALITY mushrooms with him.

After some slight delays the remake of bird dating sim Hatoful Boyfriend is now available worldwide!

Hatoful Byofriend is a dating sim developed by mangaka Moa Hato. The game was originally created for an April fools joke in 2011, it was a simple browser game made with adobe flash. Due to strong word of mouth via social media the game received a lot of attention, and was shortly taken down after receiving immense traffic. A full CD-rom version of the game was eventually released in October 2011.

A high definition release was announced in June 2014 and was slated to be released via Steam in August, however the release date got pushed back one month so some final adjustments could be made to the game. The remake includes a new route for the character Azami, full screen capability, and redrawn backgrounds.

Check out the trailer and some screenshots below.

Check out a calendar of this week’s CD releases from acts like MAX, MONKEY MAJIK, E-girls, MIYAVI, Southern All Stars, Shinsei Kamatte-Chan and more!

This is not an exhaustive list, just a compilation of various J-Pop release charts like CDJapan. Let us know if there are any errors or duplicates due to multiple versions and feel free to discuss anything not on this list in the comments.

Idol group Chu-Z’s major debut single ‘Bombastic!‘ will be released on October 1st.

The group first released an album Nippon Columbia titled ‘Chu-Z My Music‘ back in July, and now they’re finally getting to release their first single: an aggressive EDM number. In the video, the girls show off a lively performance at the club and in a pro-wrestling ring.

Available in three versions, the first press will get a special trading card out of a total 30. Collect them all…!(?)

Hi ARAMA! JAPAN readers! The featured artist this time around is a little different from the previous ones. We’re turning back the clocks to shine the spotlight on one of the 90s biggest j-pop divas, Tomomi Kahara!

Who is Tomomi Kahara?

Kahara started her career as a visual idol and popular model for non-no, similarly to fellow 90s divas Ayumi Hamasaki and hitomi. She was soon introduced to Tetsuya Komuro, who made her his latest muse and lover. At the time she was known by her birth name Shimogawara Tomomi, but Komuro decided on giving her a new stage name “Kahala Tomomi”, so that their romaji name initials would be the same. [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/eSsH7aa.gif[/IMG]

Kahara made her  musical debut in September 1995 with the single “keep yourself alive”, it was met with instant success reaching the top 10 on oricon and selling over 350k copies. The following year her debut album “LOVE BRACE” was released cementing her status in the Japanese industry. The album shot straight to #1 and sold over 2.4 million copies. A string of hit #1 singles followed but soon Kahara’s personal life started to overshadow her musical success. She was constantly in the tabloids for her alleged drug use and hard partying, her increasingly erratic behavior only dampened the public’s perception of her.  Still, her second album “storytelling” was met with acclaim and topped the oricon charts selling over 1.3 million copies.

Popular model and actress Yu Yamada recently unveiled a completely new look. Over the past few weeks she’s been teasing about the new look on her official instagram and blog , but she only shared a clear view of the change earlier in the week.

Her newly short, blonde dyed hair has been receiving mixed opinions online. Fans seem to like it, with many calling it “cool” and leaving comments such as “I want to be blonde!”. Fans also noticed that the new style makes her resemble her brother, Shintaro Yamada. Others have been a bit more critical, to say the least.

Visual kei rock band DIAURA released a new single ‘blind message‘ on the 3rd and performed a surprise live concert for fans in Shinjuku – but things got rough and it was shut down premature.

September 3rd is a special day for DIAURA fans (who are also known lovingly as Gumin) because ‘gu’ can bewritten as the number 9 and ‘min’ is the 3rd – thus September 3rd is Gumin day.

At 12:00, DIAURA took to their official blog and summoned fans to the live event that would happen later that day. Fans quickly took note and began piling up at the venue one by one to secure their spot in the crowd.

Following the release of their 4th album back in March, Fudanjuku will return with their 13th single ‘BE HERO’.

Fudanjuku is the male alter-ego of the group Nakano Fujo Sisters, but have in away replaced it since they went on hiatus in 2011. They follow their concept closely and each member has their own male name: Momotaro Bukiya (Chiaki Kyan), Uramasa Seimyoji (Erika Ura), Kojiro Akazono (Yuka Konan), Kyohei Midorikawa (Yuka Kyomoto), Koki Seto (Kana Seguchi), Kensui Aiba (Ai Hasegawa), Ryoma Yukimura (Maki Fukumi).

Check out the video below!