Girl band Silent Siren will release their 6th single ‘BANG! BANG! BANG!‘ tomorrow on August 13.

They are one of the most popular new girl bands out there, and just two years and two months since major debut, they have announced they will be ending their 22-date tour with a performance at Budokan on January 17th of next year.

To keep up with that momentum, they are releasing this upbeat summery tune. It will be available in 5 versions: one regular edition and 4 limited edition versions featuring a different ‘SPECIAL TALK’ from each member.

Yet another acting project for Ikuta Toma slated for next year. He has been cast in the lead role of upcoming live-action adaptation of Tsutsui Tetsuya’s manga ‘Yokokuhan’. This comes after recent announcements of him starring in revenge thriller movie ‘Grasshoper’ and television drama ‘Ouroboros’ with Oguri Shun. 

‘Yokokuhan’ is a suspense-thriller depicting terrorism using the internet. It tells the story of a mysterious man who posts his “prophecies” on the internet, which includes the worst type of crimes. Ikuta will play a man named Gates, head of ‘Shinbunshi’ organization. He hides his face, except his eyes, with a mask made of newspaper and punishes those who were freed from police judgement.

Tomomi Kahara has revealed that she is releasing a new cover album on October 1. The album is titled “MEMORIES 2 -Kahara All Time Covers-.” It is the follow up to her cover album “MEMORIES -Kahara Covers-“, released in March of this year. This new cover album sees her covering hit songs by the likes of GLAY, Akina Nakamori, Mika Nakashima, LUNA SEA, and more.

Check out the covers and tracklist after the jump!

Pop duo TVXQ have recently wrapped up their live tour promoting latest album ‘TREE‘. The tour ran from April of this year to June, with 29 dates stretching across the country for the estimated 600,000 fans in attendance. Finally, an August 27th release date has been set for the concert footage DVD! Avex has uploaded a special documentary film clip onto their official YouTube channel to give fans a glimpse of what’s in store.

Earlier today, vocalist of four-member rock band SEKAI NO OWARI Satoshi Fukase (28) admitted on Twitter that he has been dating singer Kyary Pamyu Pamyu (21) for the past two years.

When asked by a fan if they were dating after both of them posted about going to a beer garden, Fukase wrote “Well, yeah.” This led to a short question and answer session where he continued to divulge information about their relationship. These tweets blew up and acquired tens of thousands of retweets and favorites.

When asked why he liked her and what about her he fell in love with, he replied “she is nice to old people and kids.”

This casual social media announcement follows rumors of them being in a relationship that date back to as early as June 2013.

As you may remember, HMV shut down its flagship retail store in Shibuya, Tokyo in August 2010. The Shibuya outlet which opened in 1990 was the first HMV store in Japan. It had 4 floors and was the largest HMV retail outlet. The store was a local landmark and is credited with having helped popularize Shibuya-kei music. Plans to reopen a new Shibuya store, albeit a smaller one was made known since HMV was bought by convenience store chain Lawson in December 2010.

Last August 2, 2014, HMV finally opened its Shibuya outlet, this time specializing in vinyl and used CDs and skewed to a different demographic. 

It has been reported Satoshi Tsumabuki (33) and actress Maiko (29) have been in a serious relationship for the past 2 years.

The two met as costars in episode 6 of Fuji TV’s mystery drama ‘Higashino Keigo Mysteries’ broadcast in the summer of 2012. They immediately hit it off and starting dating shortly after.

In the past two years, fans have reported the two meeting together at local bars in restaurants. Despite their demanding shooting schedules (Tsumabuki is starring in 6 films and a drama this year alone), the couple was able to find time for each other.

(via NPN, Goo)

Thanks Z for the tip!

Update: Negative press has caused Maiko to skip press event for film ‘Kuime’ to not ’cause inconvenience’ to the event. (via)

A new teaser video for kindan_no_tasūketsu‘s upcoming release ‘Entertainment‘ has been published to their label’s official YouTube channel.

The teaser consists of shots of the three-member group on Skype and in the OS X application Photo Booth giving us a slight LQ net art aesthetic.

Check out the teaser and release details below.