This week’s episode was a two-hour special. The show mainly consisted of archive performances by the likes of Utada Hikaru, Arashi, MAX, Tomomi Kahara, V6, Crystal Kay, Every Little Thing, and CHEMISTRY. However, it did feature new at home performances by AI and Kis-My-Ft2, as well as a new studio performance from SEVENTEEN.

Ai to Minna – Happiness

SEVENTEEN – Mai Ochiru Hanabira (Fallin’ Flower)

Kis-My-Ft2 – Kimi Omoi

This week, Official HIGE DANdism retook the top spot on the Combined Single chart with their single “I LOVE…”, with 21,585 points in its 15th week, topping the chart for the second non-consecutive week.

THE ORAL CIGARETTES topped the Combined Album chart with their new album “SUCK MY WORLD”, with 16,257 points in its first week.

LUNA SEA topped the Single chart with their new single “THE BEYOND GUNPLA 40th EDITION”, selling 6,082 copies in its first week.

THE ORAL CIGARETTES also topped the Album chart with “SUCK MY WORLD”, selling 15,072 copies in its first week.

LiSA topped the Digital Single chart with her single “Gurenge”, selling 22,105 copies in its 54th week, and topping the chart for the fifth non-consecutive week.

Gesu no Kiwami Otome. topped the Digital Album chart with their new digital album “Streaming, CD, Record”, selling 1,528 copies in its first week.

Eito topped the Streaming chart with “Kousui”, with 3,967,292 streams in its second week in the chart’s top 10.

Talent Akemi Darenogare has been making headlines lately due to rumors surrounding her personal life. This all stemmed from a blind item in a tabloid, claiming that a certain mixed talent was using drugs and the authorities already had their eye on them. The tabloid further went on to claim that the talent’s office was starting to that this may start to hinder their entertainment activities.

While Akemi wasn’t directly named, they heavily implied that it was her. The article was actually removed from the tabloids website, but it had already spread to multiple other news outlets, and social media. As many are aware Japan is no joke when it comes to public figures using recreational drugs.

In response to this, Akemi directly took to her official social media accounts to denounce the article. Furthermore, she vowed to take a hair follicle drug test to prove that she was clean.

In the past pop/rock idol group BiSH officially described themselves as a “punk band without instruments”. That has changed for their latest single “TOMORROW”, where the girls officially transform into a “punk band with instruments“.

Serving as the official theme song for the anime series “Kingdom”, “TOMORROW” was released as a digital single back on April 13th, 2020, but the MV has only been released now.

Directed by Kentaro Osawa, the girls perform a high energy rendition of the song accompanied by them playing various instruments such as guitar, drums, and the upright bass. Check out the full MV for “TOMORROW” below:

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.

This week’s episode featured a mixture of new at-home performances, previously recorded performances, and old performances. This week’s guests included D.A.N., Kishidan, Okuda Tamio, and the peggies.

Ayumi Hamasaki has given her fans a new means of entertaining themselves during the coronavirus pandemic: “Ayu Creator Challenge”! This is a project in which people are allowed to create new versions of Ayu’s songs using her vocals. To enable the creation of these remixes, Ayu has uploaded 25 acapella versions of her songs on YouTube and her website. In total, 100 will be posted. When completed, the remixes should be posted on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, tagged with the hashtag #ayumix2020. Check out the acapellas below!

The Japanese goverment has proposed a law that would raise the age of retirement for public prosecutors from 63 to 65. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe‘s Cabinet would be the ones to decide on the prosectors’ retirement. Critics of the proposal say it could damage the fairness of the judicial system by allowing the Abe administration to decide which prosecutors can stay in office for longer.

Earlier this year, Abe’s administration came under scrutiny when it let Kurokawa Hiromu, chief of the Tokyo High Public Prosecutors Office, remain at his post after he turned 63. It is widely believed that Kurokawa is favored by the administration, which is why he was allowed to remain.

Outrage over the proposal generated over 3.8 million tweets over the weekend, causing the hashtag #検察庁法改正法案に抗議します (“I oppose the revision of the public prosecutor’s office law”) to trend. The Japanese public is angry that the government would attempt to pass such a law while they are dealing with COVID-19 pandemic, a more urgent issue that they feel the government hasn’t done enough about.

Several celebrities also tweeted about this, including Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, SKY-HI, Tadanobu Asano, Ikimonogakari‘s Mizuno Yoshiki, and Koizumi Kyoko.

Shirota Yu questioned why there was such a rush to pass this law, without it being explained to the public.

Theater director Miyamoto Amon tweeted, “In this confusion over the coronavirus, we should focus on (saving) people’s lives. It’s a tragedy for Japan to forcibly decide on the bill, which is far from democracy.”

“Please do not twist the law or politics anymore for the sake of self-protection. Please do not destroy this country,” actor Iura Arata tweeted.

Nikkan Sports published a list of celebrities who tweeted about the prosecutor proposal, which an be found below.