This week, Nogizaka46 topped the Hot 100 single chart with their single “Boku wa Boku wo Suki ni Naru”, with 36,450 points.

Colon topped the Hot Albums chart with his debut album “Aster.”

YOASOBI topped the Artist 100 chart for the third consecutive week.

Ayase topped the Hot 100 Lyricists chart for the sixth consecutive week.

Ayase also topped the Hot 100 Composers chart for the sixth consecutive week.

Yuuri topped the Streaming Songs chart for the second consecutive week with his digital single “Dry Flower.”

Ado topped the Download Songs chart for the second consecutive week with her digital single “Usseewa.”

YOASOBI also topped the Download Albums chart for the fourth consecutive week with their EP “THE BOOK.”

Former SMAP members Masahiro Nakai & Shingo Katori, along with Ayumi Hamasaki and AAA‘s Takahiro Nishijima have been awarded the Medal with Dark Blue Ribbon by the government of Japan. This honor is given to people who give exceptionally large financial contributions for the well-being of the Japanese public.

Last year, Shingo established the charity “LOVE POCKET FUND” with the Nippon Foundation, along with his Atarashii Chizu groupmates Goro Inagaki and Tsuyoshi Kusanagi. Masahiro also contributed to the charity.

Last year, Japan was in uproar over the social media harassment and untimely death of Hana Kimura, whose suicide was widely linked to the severe online bashing she received by antis. While one would hope this would have changed people’s mindsets about how real their comments online can be perceived as, clearly nothing has changed, as Moga Mogami’s experience highlights.

Back when she was in Dempagumi.inc, Moga mentioned that there was a ban on replying, opening, or reading any direct messages from anyone online. She says that she is going back to those days because of the severe backlash that she is getting as a result of announcing that she is pregnant with her first child out of wedlock.

If you’ve been watching music videos at all from Japan within the last year and a half, you might have noticed a trend. Ronald calls this the “anime hikkikomori” trend, whereas I call it the songs of my (weeb) people. While this style of music video has always existed there is an argument to be made that no one has popularized this combination of stylistic animation and palette selection as much as the 2020 breakout hit duo YOASOBI.

This week, Nogizaka46 topped the Combined Single chart with their single “Boku wa Boku wo Suki ni Naru”, with 603,674 points in its first week in the chart’s top 10.

Colon topped the Combined Album chart with his debut album “Aster”, with 94,533 points in its first week.

Nogizaka46 also topped the Single chart with “Boku wa Boku wo Suki ni Naru”, selling 589,338 copies in its first week.

Colon also topped the Album chart with “Aster”, with 93,774 copies in its first week.

Ado topped the Digital Single chart with her digital single “Usseewa”, selling 25,152 copies its 15th week.

YOASOBI topped the Digital Album chart for the fourth consecutive week with their EP “THE BOOK”, selling 5,503 copies in its fourth week.

Ado also topped the Streaming chart with “Usseewa”, with 10,969,546 streams in its 15th week.

We’re back with this week’s edition of Oricon Flashback. This is where we look back on what topped the charts this week 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 years ago. Think of it as a way to reminisce and learn about the past of Japanese music.

LDH group THE RAMPAGE from EXILE TRIBE has released a brand new MV for their latest track titled “SILVER RAIN“. Currently available now as a digital single, SILVER RAIN will serve as the lead promotional song for the groups third studio album titled “REBOOT”.

The MV for “SILVER RAIN” features THE RAMPAGE members in stylish black and white outfits, dancing in a futuristic area. In usual LDH fashion the focal point of the MV is high energy choreography. Check out the full MV below:

Icon TOWA TEI has released the MV for his brand new song “BIRTHDAY”. It will serve as the lead promotional song for his upcoming album simply titled “LP” celebrating his 30th anniversary of music activities. Described as a “party tune” it featured vocals from two guests.

Joining the track is model HANA and Haruomo Hosono, leader of the famed band Yellow Magic Orchestra. The MV features many gorgeous models including HANA herself eating cake and dancing along to the song. “BIRTHDAY” will be released February 10th, while the full album “LP” is due out on March 3rd.

Check out the full MV for “BIRTHDAY” below!