Girl group Sakurazaka46 has announced the release of their 2nd single titled “BAN“, the announcement was made today via the groups official website.

The single will be released in 4 limited edition CD+blu-ray editions, with first press editions coming with a random photocard. A standard CD only will also be available. This will be the groups first release of the year, with their debut single “Nobody’s fault” coming out back in December, 2020. “BAN” will be released on April 14th, 2021.

This week’s guests were First Summer Uika, SHE’S, sumika, and ATEEZ.

First Summer Uika – Chameleon

SHE’S – Oikaze

sumika – Shukusai

ATEEZ – Answer (Japanese Ver.)

This week’s episode featured BUMP OF CHICKEN. The band is currently celebrating their 25th anniversary. In this episode, frontman Fujiwara Motoo visits the live house in Tokyo’s Shimokitazawa where he made his start.

BUMP OF CHICKEN – Acacia / Aurora / Flare / Mahou no Ryori ~Kimi kara Kimi e~

This week’s guests were Saito Yuki, Moriuchi Hiroki, Kawasaki Takaya, and Kis-My-Ft2.

Saito Yuki – Sotsugyou

Moriuchi Hiroki – Ai no Katachi

Kawasaki Takaya – Mahou no Jutan

Kis-My-Ft2 – Luv Bias

This week, SixTONES topped the Combined Single chart with their new single “Boku ga Boku Janai Mitai da”, with 432,262 points in its first week.

NCT 127 topped the Combined Album chart with their new mini album “LOVEHOLIC”, with 136,706 points in its first week.

SixTONES also topped the Single chart with “Boku ga Boku Janai Mitai da”, selling 430,553 copies in its first week.

NCT 127 also topped the Album chart with “LOVEHOLIC”, with 133,606 copies in its first week.

Hoshino Gen topped the Digital Single chart with his new digital single “Souzou”, selling 43,632 copies its first week.

Mr.Children topped the Digital Album chart with their album “SOUNDTRACKS”, selling 3,154 copies in its second week of digital release.

Ado retook the top spot on the Streaming chart with her digital single “Usseewa”, with 12,092,146 streams in its 18th week, topping the chart for the second non-consecutive week.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Avex has formed a new joint venture! AEGX is a new project formed with American concert promotion company AEG Presents. The goal of AEGX is to to spread JPop worldwide and further expand the Asian market for American artists. This will be done by Avex and AEG Presents pooling resources and local expertise in the fields of artist development, venues, festivals, and global touring.

AEG Presents helped break BTS and BLACKPINK in the US, creating a blueprint for how non-English-speaking artists can gain a global audience. The company believes that the same can be done for JPop, and on a bigger scale.

Part of this is due to streaming. JPop streams outside of Japan have grown 117% from January 2019 to January 2021, according to Spotify. “Streaming has kicked down the borders of music discovery and acceptance on the world stage,” says AEG Presents Chief Executive Jay Marciano. “It’s made music borderless.”

Alternative rock trio Quruli have announced that they will be releasing a new full-length album titled “Tensai no Ai” on April 28th. This record comes two-and-a-half years after the group’s previous studio album “songline” and will be their thirteenth such release together.

“Tensai no Ai” will include the band’s previously released tracks “Masurao-san”, “Osaka Banpaku”, and “Koto Koto Kotoden”, as well as eight new songs for a total of 11. Particularly notable among these are the detail-driven album opener “I Love You” and the gorgeously melodic “Shiokaze no Aria”.

Read on below to find the cover and track list for “Tensai no Ai”.

LDH group EXILE has announced the release of their 51st single titled “PARADOX“! The announcement was made in a live video on the distribution service CL.

This single will be released on the anniversary of Takanori Iwata, Alan Shirahama, Mandy Sekiguchi, Sekai, and Sato Taiki joining the group. This will also be the first single without main vocalist ATSUSHI, who retired from EXILE in December, 2020. The lyrics were a coloration between EXILE members TAKAHIRO and SHOKICHI, with SHOKICHI also composing the track.