To coincide with his 30th birthday, the US independence day, and Arama’s comeback , this July 4th Japanese national icon Jin Akanishi has announced his entertainment industry comeback on his website .
At the beginning of 2014, controversial idol unit BiS announced that, after three years of activity, they would disband at Yokohama Arena on July 8th, a few thousand seats short of the Budokan performance they’d dreamed of since their debut. However, in a free live held to promote the concert on July 2nd, the members revealed through tears that 10,000 of the venue’s total 17,000 seats still had yet to sell.
“When we debuted, we were honestly ugly and couldn’t dance or sing, and idol otaku criticized us harshly,” leader Pour Lui (23) told a crowd of 2,000 fans. “But we sang that we wanted to change the world. That seems like it might not be possible now. However, if a lot of people come to Yokohama Arena, and if those many people think we put on a great show, maybe we can go down as legends after BiS is over. So please, everyone, to let BiS live on forever, please come and see us at Yokohama Arena on July 8th!”
Check out footage from the event below:
As part of the special on relationships for 2014, we’re going to feature who is dating who so far for the year. In our last article, we focused on marriage, this time we’re going to look at dating. One of the biggest dating rumors to come out is ex-AKB48 member Tomomi Itano and EXILE vocalist TAKAHIRO. And while netizens were abuzz and some Japanese EXILE fans demanded they break up, it seems the couple has been going strong for a while? We also have one of the top actresses Anne who is now dating her former co-star. Even though the tabloids had everything to say, the agency left the couple to their own devices.
Please check out the list of celebrities who are dating in 2014 so far.
Today, BARKS has reported that EXILE ATSUSHI will be performing alongside Tim Janis at Carnegie Hall. It will be at the “Christmas Carol Concert”. It has been taking place every year on the first week of December since 2006. ATSUSHI is the first Japanese person to participate.
The concert is a charity event and all proceeds will be donated to a foundation. Their aim is to be able to fulfill dreams and wishes of children through the power of music. The collaborators this year would also like to build a bridge between Japan and the world, as well as help the children affected by the 2011 Tohoku disaster.
At the press conference, EXILE ATSUSHI, Tim Janis, Ogami Amy Toshiyo and Hata Yuichiro were present. Ogami is the representative director of Diamond Select Club Worldwide, while Hata is a member of the House of Councillors and a director of the Children’s Dream Fund, a non-profit organisation. These two are responsible for offering ATSUSHI a place in this wonderful concert.
ATSUSHI mentioned that he wants to to whatever he can to help those in need, and will reach them with his music. Tim is also looking forward to showing ATSUSHI’s talents and performance to this year’s audience. The two of them are working to create new songs that they will perform at the concert. They plan to perform 3 songs together.
The second half of 2014 will be exciting for fans of Japanese music as many acts are going international! In the upcoming months, a handful of fan-favorite artists, groups, models and everything in between will make special appearances overseas to perform for foreign crowds. This is definitely a brief list so let us know what we missed.
Going on right now
Japan Expo (July 2 – July 6; Paris)
For it’s 15th anniversary, Japan Expo in Paris is going to be bigger than ever. Its prime location gives easy access to most European countries, so if you live in a neighboring country this is not an event to miss! The musical guests of honor include not only one Hello! Project group but two this year.
Read more the guest list and a bunch of other conventions and concerts.
Reggae singer-songwriter lecca has revealed her new music video for ‘Vibes Up’ featuring JUMBO MAATCH to promote her upcoming album ‘tough Village’. The dancehall track will also be available early on iTunes on July 9th, ahead of the album’s release date.
In addition to dropping her 9th album on August 6th, she will also be releasing ‘lecca LIVE TOUR 2014 “TOP JUNCTION”’ on DVD & Blu-ray at the same time. Check out the new video below!
Rie Miyazawa is set to make her silver-screen comeback this fall in the highly anticipated film “Paper Moon” (紙の月). Paper Moon was originally a novel written by Mitsuko Kakuta. It also had a drama adaption by the same name starring Tomoyo Harada. Eigapedia tells us that Rie will be playing the role of Rika Umezara, a middle-class housewife who works part-time at local bank collecting deposits from customers homes. Despite getting praise from her co-workers and customers she soon starts to feel a void in her life. This void becomes worse once she feels her husband Masafumi Umezara, portrayed by Seiichii Tanabe, is starting to become distant and cold towards her.
Soon, she beings to embezzle money from the bank deposits she collects and starts an “licit” affair with Kota (Sosuke Ikematsu), a University student. She then begins to alienate her husband completely, spending more time with Kota in the process. Her theft starts to dramatically become worse in-order to support her “second life” with Kota as well as her newly formed shopping addiction.
The film also stars former AKB48 member Yuko Oshima as a bank teller and Yoshima Kondo as Rika’s boss. The film will be released November 15th, 2014. Check out the trailer below!
The Japanese government has identified the culture industry as one of five potential areas of growth. As part of its Cool Japan Strategy Promotion Program, the Ministry of Economy enacted Tomomi Itano as MC of a TV ASAHI show in 2013. She has continue with her efforts with ”Tomomi Itano no JAPANEEDS’ to further spread Japanese culture abroad.
The swaggalicious singer has been working with them for a while with ‘Tomomi Itano no ii ne! JAPAN‘ which was translated to many languages including English. ‘Tomomi Itano no JAPANEEDS’ uses a ranking format and sums up a variety of points why Japan is so appealing. Previously she filmed in Taipei and made a guest appearance on MTV program “I love idols of Asia” as well as the fashion show ‘FamilyMart Asia Collection BIGSTAGE‘.