Earlier this week, Snow Man‘s Ryota Miyadate tested positive for COVID-19. Johnny & Associates released the news as quickly as possible, as a courtesy to people that may have been in close contact with Ryota. The company started contact tracing and has arrived at the conclusion that the remaining eight members of Snow Man are close contacts. Due to this, the entire group will temporary suspend their activites so that they can quaratine, even though they all tested negative previously.

This temporary hiatus means that Snow Man will not debut on Kohaku Uta Gassen this year as planned. They will also miss this year’s Johnny’s Countdown and “MUSIC STATION ULTRA SUPER LIVE 2020.”

Today marks the release of the 16th album from Johnny’s group KinKi Kids. Still continuing their theme of naming albums after the order of the alphabet, their latest album is titled “O“.

The album contains 13 tracks in total, with the regular version of the album containing two exclusive bonus tracks titled “100 Nen Go No Sora Niha Nani Ga Mierundarou” and “Stars”, along with a 20 page booklet. Fans who opt for the DVD or blu-ray version of the album will have it’s own different 24 page booklet.

Johnny’s official YouTube channel uploaded a full MV for one of the promotional tracks “Atarashii Jidai”. Check it out below!

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics & Paralympics were delayed a year. The continuing pandemic now has another casualty, the committee in charge of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

At a press conference on December 23, it was announced that the committee, which includes Shiina Ringo and choreographer MIKIKO, will be disbanded, after a review of the ceremonies’ production in light of the pandemic.

One member of the formerly eight person committee, Sasaki Hiroshi, Executive Creative Director for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Paralympic Games, will now handle the Opening and Closing Ceremonies for both the Olympics and Paralympics. He will now have the title of Chief Executive Creative Director, a role which he takes over from kyogen actor Nomura Mansai.

There have been two late additions to this year’s Kohaku Uta Gassen, YOASOBI and Yumi Matsutoya!

YOASOBI will make their Kohaku debut on the Red Team, singing their monster hit “Yoru ni Kakeru.” This appearance also marks the duo’s first time performing, live or on TV. Both members of YOASOBI, Ayase and ikura, expressed nervousness about their upcoming debut performance, but also said that they have dreamed of appearing on Kohaku their entire lives.

On December 31, CDTV will air this year’s edition of its annual New Year’s Eve special, “CDTV Live! Live! Toshikoshi Special 2020→2021.” The show, which will be in its 22nd edition, will start at 11:45 PM JST and end at 5 AM JST the next day. The show will be hosted by TBS announcer Eto Ai.

The first set of performers was recently announced and the roster includes names such as NiziU, BiSH, LiSA, DISH//, HiHi Jets, Bishonen, Hirate Yurina, and AKB48. See who else is performing below!

This week, Sakurazaka46 topped the Hot 100 single chart with their debut single “Nobody’s fault”, with 32,818 points.

Masaharu Fukuyama topped the Hot Albums chart with his new album “AKIRA.”

Sakurazaka46 also topped the Artist 100 chart.

Akimoto Yasushi topped the Hot 100 Lyricists chart.

Derek Turner topped the Hot 100 Composers chart.

BTS retook the top spot on the Streaming Songs chart with their digital single “Dynamite”, topping the chart for the seventh non-consecutive week.

LiSA topped the Download Songs chart for the ninth consecutive week with her single “Homura.”

Arashi topped the Download Albums chart with their album “This is Arashi.”

This week, Sakurazaka46 topped the Combined Single chart with their debut single “Nobody’s fault”, with 425,768 points in its first week.

Masaharu Fukuyama topped the Combined Album chart with his new album “AKIRA”, with 136,578 points in its first week.

Sakurazaka46 also topped the Single chart with “Nobody’s fault”, selling 408,926 copies in its first week.

Masaharu also topped the Album chart with “AKIRA”, selling 133,166 copies in its first week.

LiSA topped the Digital Single chart for the ninth consecutive week with her single “Homura”, selling 36,530 copies its ninth week.

Arashi topped the Digital Album chart with their album “This is Arashi”, selling 7,100 copies in its first week of digital release.

BTS topped the Streaming chart with their digital single “Dynamite”, with 12,162,524 streams in its 17th week, topping the chart for the seventh 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.