On December 30 at 5:30 PM JST, the 62nd Japan Record Awards will air. Many acts are nominated for the Grand Prix, including Daichi Miura, Junretsu, Little Glee Monster, Eito, Nogizaka46, DISH//, AKB48, Hikawa Kiyoshi, DA PUMP, and LiSA. The Best New Artist Award will also be given out to Sanada Naoki, Novelbright, Mameshiba no Taigun, or Rinne. The show will feature performances by many of the acts named above!

There is a live stream of the show and Arama! Japan will be hosting a chat on Discord so that readers can chat with each other during the show! See more below!

This week, King & Prince topped the Combined Single chart with their new single “I promise”, with 567,356 points in its first week.

Hey! Say! JUMP topped the Combined Album chart with their new album “Fab! -Music speaks.-”, with 249,536 points in its first week.

King & Prince also topped the Single chart with “I promise”, selling 567,356 copies in its first week.

Hey! Say! JUMP also topped the Album chart with “Fab! -Music speaks.-”, selling 249,536 copies in its first week.

LiSA topped the Digital Single chart for the tenth consecutive week with her single “Homura”, selling 29,227 copies its tenth week.

Arashi topped the Digital Album chart for the second consecutive week with their album “This is Arashi”, selling 2,403 copies in its second week of digital release.

LiSA also retook the top spot on the Streaming chart with her single “Homura”, with 10,632,183 streams in its tenth week, topping the chart for the eighth non-consecutive 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.

An announcement on Ayumi Hamasaki’s official website was posted confirming the cancelation of her upcoming concert “ayumi hamasaki COUNTDOWN LIVE 2020-2021 ~MUSIC for LIFE~“. A staff member who was preparing for the broadcast felt unwell, and after receiving a PCR test they tested positive for COVID-19. The staff member was immediately sent to a nearby health center to receive treatment and instructions for recovery.

TC Candler has released their highly anticipated list of the most beautiful faces in the entire world. The project originally began in 1990, but became much more renowned within the past decade mainly due to social media.

For the female list this year six Japanese celebrities were able to make the ranking. An estimated 105,000 female celebrities from all around the world were all in the running to make the list this year. According to TC Candler’s official website, looks do not play the only role in how the ranking is determined.

“Aesthetic perfection is only one of the criteria. Grace, elegance, originality, daring, passion, class, poise, joy, promise, hope… they are all embodied in a beautiful face.”

E-girls are set to disband at the end of the year, as is the subunit Sudannayuzuyully. Of the three members of Sudannayuzuyully, Yuzuna Takebe is the only one set to remain under LDH.

It has now been revealed that Yuzuna will be joining a new girl group, SWEET REVENGE, as YUZUNA. The other four members of SWEET REVENGE were selected after the LDH EUROPE auditions, which took place in eight cities around the world. ASAMI is from Tokyo, while the other three members, LARISSA, AGNES, and ESMEE, are from The Netherlands. Check out their photos below!

In just a few short days Japan’s national boy group Arashi will be suspending all of their activities until further notice. The group is currently making the rounds appearing on countless television shows, and holding interviews with various publications for the last time until the foreseeable future.

During an interview with Daily, Arashi shared some insight for plans of their oversea expansion that unfortunately had to be cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Arashi had a very special performance planned for the United States but those plans ultimately had to be completely scrapped.

Over the next few days, we’ll be looking back on the year end charts for the years that were covered in the 2020 editions of Oricon Flashback. Next up is 2000.