LE SSERAFIM, already set to make their first Kouhaku appearance, has publicly announced that they will finally make their first Japanese release in January of next year.

On December 7 and 14, “2022 FNS Kayousai” will air. As previously announced, performers include Snow Man, Ayumi Hamasaki, JO1, LiSA, Official HIGE DANdism, Koda Kumi, Kudo Shizuka, and DISH//.

A second set of performers has been announced. This set includes the likes of King Gnu, Naniwa Danshi, Travis Japan, Nakayama Miho, Kou Shibasaki, Yuzu, Liella!, and AK-69. See who else was added below!

Cool Japan! It’s been a while since you’ve heard that phrase, no?

Over the years, the Japanese government’s soft power push overseas has been met with criticism from all corners, from pop culture icons like Takashi Murakami and Ryuichi Sakamoto, to the intended audience itself, this writer included.

But did you know that the Cool Japan Fund was still going, five years after reporting came out that it was a money-losing flop?

This past June, The Asian Shimbun reported that nine years after its founding, the Cool Japan Fund “may be merged with other investment funds or eliminated if it cannot turn around its losses soon.”

This came from a proposal a subcommittee of the Fiscal System Council, an advisory panel to Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki, made that month.

As of the end of March 2022, the government had contributed a total of ¥106.6 billion to the fund. At the end of fiscal 2020, however, the fund had accumulated losses of ¥23.1 billion. This loss is in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In May 2021, the Cool Japan Fund released a plan for improving its business operations and set a goal of keeping accumulated losses at ¥25.7 billion at the end of fiscal 2021. However, losses increased to ¥30.9 billion.

At the June subcommittee meeting, Cool Japan Fund officials said they expected a turnaround alongside general improvement in the economy as the pandemic is brought under control.

While Cool Japan Fund officials planned to create another business improvement plan by autumn, the subcommittee consensus was to consider merging the fund or eliminating it if there was no improvement in its financial situation.

That brings us to this week.

Earlier today, “TV Tokyo Music Festival 2022 Winter” aired. The show featured performances by the likes of Travis Japan, Maki Goto, Ami Suzuki, BE:FIRST, Tani Yuuki, yama, Daichi Miura, and =LOVE. Check out the full show below!

After last week’s article through Shukan Bunshun, Okada Nana has mostly kept silent. This morning however she finally responded to the situation through her twitter.

On November 23 at 5:30 PM JST, “TV Tokyo Music Festival 2022 Winter” will air. The show will feature performances by the likes of Travis Japan, Hey! Say! JUMP, BE:FIRST, Maki Goto, Ami Suzuki, and Nakayama Miho.

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!

Prolific artist and enka legend Hikawa Kiyoshi announced earlier this year that they would be taking a break from activities at the end of 2022. Before they left, however, they dropped a special gift for all their fans soon.

Yesterday Mentalist DaiGo commented on YouTuber Sunny Journey‘s cancelled crowd funding attempt. In an unusually harsh tone, the famous talento strongly criticized antis of the YouTube couple.

Known for their cheerful travelogs, the YouTube channel Sunny Journey features couple Kohei and Mizuki as they travel around Japan in a camper van.

Recently, however, the couple went viral as they revealed that Mizuki unfortunately had advanced pancreatic cancer with only a few months left. While they had attempted to cover some of her medical fees and assure a certain quality of life with a crowd funding campaign, some people reacted extremely negatively. The sheer amount of backlash led to the couple deciding to cancel the campaign.

許せん。

応援したい人は応援すればいいし、そうでない人は黙ってればいいのがクラファン。

がんステージ4の人の残された人生の幸せのためのクラファンにすら、文句を言う奴らがいるとは…

恥を知れ。自分の人生の現実と向き合う勇気もない奴らは他人の人生に口出すな。https://t.co/Ug2LQExiJf

— メンタリストDaiGo (@Mentalist_DaiGo) November 21, 2022

Upon hearing about the cancellation, DaiGo responded on his Twitter:

I can’t stand it.

The people who wanted to support should, and those who were against it should have just shut the hell up.

That there would actually be people who would complain about a crowdfunding campaign for someone who has a few months to live… Consider having some decency. Just because your life is trash doesn’t mean you have to drag people down with you.

DaiGo, November 21, 2022 through Twitter

Unfortunately at the time of this writing, there seems to be no word from the couple.

Source: Yahoo JP