The year is coming to an end, and Oricon has now released its year end charts for 2020. These charts measure the period from 12/9/19 – 12/13/20.

Arashi is the best selling artist of the year, topping this chart for the ninth time.

SixTONES & Snow Man‘s “Imitation Rain / D.D.” is the best selling single of 2020. This is the first time in 11 years that a male act has topped this chart, and the first time in 14 years that a debut single has. “Imitation Rain / D.D.” is also the first debut single to crack 1.5 million copies sold.

Yonezu Kenshi‘s “STRAY SHEEP” is the best selling album of the year.

LiSA‘s “Gurenge” is the best selling digital single of 2020.

Kenshi’s “STRAY SHEEP” is also the best selling digital album of the year.

YOASOBI‘s “Yoru ni Kakeru” is the most streamed song of 2020.

SixTONES & Snow Man’s “Imitation Rain / D.D.” also topped the combined single chart.

Kenshi’s “STRAY SHEEP” also topped the combined album chart.

At 5:00 PM JST on December 25, “MUSIC STATION ULTRA SUPER LIVE 2020” will air. The show will feature performances by Arashi, Tokyo Jihen, NiziU, Perfume, LiSA, Daichi Miura, E-girls, Hoshino Gen, MISIA, Mr.Children, BoA, Billie Eilish, and more.

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! Links to the show and the chat are after the jump!

On December 23, Ame no Parade will release their fifth album, “Face to Face.” This is the band’s second album of 2020, following January’s “BORDERLESS.” The decision to release a second album this year came about due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Because Ame no Parade could not play live shows for much of this year, this album serves as a thank you to their fans.

“Face to Face” will feature 11 songs, plus a bonus track (an untitled Christmas song) on the limited edition. One of the songs on the album, “IDENTITY”, serves as the ending theme for the second season of the NHK E anime series “Major Second.”

Another of the songs, “scapegoat”, deals with the timely issue of bullying on social media, featuring frontman Fukunaga Kohei‘s single voice multiplied into a chorus, mirroring what often happens in these instances of bullying. Another timely song on “Face to Face”, “Child’s Heart”, conveys feelings to loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ame no Parade recently released the simplistic video for “Child’s Heart.” It can be see below, along with more information on the band’s new album!

One of the newer avex groups WARPs UP has released a brand new digital single titled “Cloud 9″. They have officially been described as a
Japanese-Chinese male dance collective group.

The group includes two members from Japan and two from China. In addition to RIKIMARU, the Japan side also features SANTA, a top-level dancer who has earned the title of World Champion at a world-renowned dance battle. Meanwhile, Chinese members MINGJUN and LANBYI gained performing experience as trained idols in China.

Following the release of ‘Hali Gali’ in November, WARPs UP collaborated on ‘Cloud 9’ with producer/songwriter team Tony Esterly and Paige Blue, whose past hits include ‘Satisfied’ by Australian singer Sia and several tracks for South Korean group BTS.

Miki Matsubara’s song “Stay With Me” has been enjoying a huge popularity revival lately, so much in fact that for 11 days it topped Spotify’s global viral chart! The global viral chart has around 320 million followers from all around the world.

“Stay With Me” was released 40 years ago and is categorized as a City Pop song, a style of Japanese music that has continued to gain recognition from oversea listeners within the past few years. One facet to the continuing City Pop boom was born in the Club scene, with DJ’s mixing Japanese City Pop music with modern beats.

A big surge for the songs popularity took place due to the song being covered by Indonesian YouTuber Rainych. In October she performed a cover of “Stay With Me” to 1.3 million of her subscribers, and it’s just shy of hitting 1 million views. The song has also became popular on the platform TikTok.

On December 23, Ai Furihata will release her second mini album, “Makeup.” This release comes three months after her debut mini album, “Moonrise.”

Ai wrote all six songs on “Makeup”, while Honma Akimitsu was in charge of composition and arrangement. This mini album sees Ai continuing the city pop sound of her first release, a sound that she has become synonymous with. “Makeup” features the songs “Purple Eyeshadow” and “Mafuyu no Sheer Mind”, which serve as the opening and ending themes, respectively, for the TOKYO MX program “Nichiyou wa Colorful!!!”

“Makeup” comes in a CD+Blu-ray+Photobook limited edition and a CD only regular edition. The photobook that comes with the limited edition is 20 pages.

Ai recently released the music video for “Purple Eyeshadow.” The video features a love triangle set in an 80s drama. Check it out after the jump, along with more information on Ai’s new mini album!

Miho Nakayama is currently celebrating her 35th anniversary! As part of this celebration, she will release a new best album, “All Time Best”, on December 23. This release will feature 40 songs on three CDs.

“All Time Best” will be released in a 3CD+Blu-ray limited edition and a 3CD regular edition. The limited edition’s Blu-ray will feature a HD remastered version of “VIRGIN FLIGHT ’86 MIHO NAKAYAMA FIRST CONCERT”, which was held at Tokyo’s Nakano Sun Plaza. It will also feature the music video fo the song “Kimi no Koto”, which appeared on Miho’s 2019 mini album, “Neuf Neuf.”

Check out more information on this release below!

On December 23, KREVA will release his new single, “Fall in Love Again.” The song sees him once again collaborating with Daichi Miura, who he has worked with multiple times over the past decade or so.

“Fall in Love Again” is described as a love song born out of COVID-19, which encourages listeners to overcome the pandemic so that they can eventually be together again with loved ones when the pandemic is over. The song was debuted this past September at KREVA’s audience-less online festival, “908 FESTIVAL ONLINE 2020.”

“Fall in Love Again” will come is three editions: CD+DVD Limited Edition A, CD only Limited Edition B, and a CD only regular edition. Both of the limited editions come in a large book format, with Limited Edition A featuring a DVD containing, among other things, footage of all 18 songs performed during KREVA’s June online live event, “KREVA Streaming Live ‘1 (Maruichi)’.”

The music video for “Falling in Love Again” was recently released. In keeping with the times and the song’s theme, KREVA and Daichi are socially distanced throughout the video. Check it out below, along with more information on this release!