During Nippon Television’s annual 24 Hour Television charity telethon, the station airs a drama special that aims to touch the viewers’ hearts. For this year’s telethon, NTV is adapting ‘Hana-chan’s Miso Soup’, a collection of blog entries written by the late Yasutake Chie.

The 24 Hour TV drama will center on a family. It tells the story of a news reporter played by Kanjani8’s Okura Tadayoshi, and his wife  Chie played by Ono Machiko (Like Father Like Son) who is a music teacher, and was diagnosed with breast cancer. After she gave birth to a daughter Hana, played by popular child actress Ashida Mana, she had her breast cancer recurrence when her daughter turned nine-months-old.

For the rest of her counted life, Chie considered what she should leave to her child. She decided to pass on her housework abilities, such as making meals or taking care of the family, which can help the child to stay alive in any extreme environments.

Up-Front Promotion representative director Ohama Minoru has reported that idol group Berryz Kobo has mutually agreed to go on an “indefinite suspension” after touring together next Spring.

“Berryz Kobo is our youth, with precious memories, so we won’t break up. We will take an indefinite suspension,” member Momoko Tsugunaga said holding back tears during the MC session of the concert earlier today.

BITTER & SWEET, a pop duo under UP-FRONT CREATE consisting of soloist Tasaki Asahi (18) and Hasegawa Moemi (20) has revealed more details for their 2nd DVD single ‘Darenimo Naisho (A Secret From Everyone)/ Gesshoku’. To be released on September 3, the single’s jacket covers and tracklist are up. They also unveiled the full music video for ‘Darenimo Naisho’ with English subtitles.

With subs you can easily follow the PV and the easy listening summer track of the duo.

After announcing their plans to thwart online piracy, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) has revealed its Manga-Anime Guardians project which will actively work to remove illegally uploaded anime and manga.

The committee consists of top anime and manga studios and distributors including Aniplex, Kadokawa, Good Smile Company, Kodansha, Sunrise, Shueisha, Shogakukan, ShoPro, Studio Ghibli, Tezuka Productions, Toei Animation, TMS Entertainment, Bandai Namco Games, Pierrot, and Bushiroad. Together, they will be targeting 580 sources of illegal content worldwide over the span of the next 5 months. The operation has launched a new website to guide fans to legitimate sites that offer popular titles at a cost of no more than several hundred yen.

300 women from Shibuya were asked by TBS show ‘Rank Oukoku‘, who they think has a “cool body” (kakkoi) among male celebrities. The episode was broadcasted last July 26. Find out who they voted for.

Arama, who would you vote for?

Yesterday, we brought you news on AKLO’s forthcoming second album “The Arrival.” Today, he released a video teaser for the album. In addition to the teaser, we now have a revised tracklist as well as details on special editions of the album available at Tower Records and TSUTAYA. Check it all out after the jump!

Mana Ashida – Fight!!

SKE48 – Bukiyou Taiyou

D-LITE (from Big Bang) – SHUT UP

Dempagumi.inc – Chururi Chururi ra

P.IDL – Samishii Nettaigyo

Previously we have reported on the music show Ongaku no Hi’s guest line up. With 100 acts performing on August 2nd, this show is expected to run from 2PM JST to 5AM (Aug 3rd) JST.

The list of performers can be viewed here and here. Not only that, Ongaku no Hi has come out with a time table so you can see when your favorite artists are performing. Likewise, a list of streams have been found so that international fans can also enjoy the show.

Please check out the streams and performance time table below.