Snow Man‘s leader Hikaru Iwamoto is the cover boy for the 837th issue of the fitness magazine Tarzan, out July 7.

A frequent star of the magazine, this issue sees Hikaru poolside at a Tokyo mansion. His body has become so defined that the staff on set cheered and sighed upon the sight of it. Even the magazine’s writer who has interviewed him many times of the years noticed the change in definition of his back muscles.

In the magazine, Hikaru talked about his new and improved back, the result of a change in his workout, saying that the back should not be neglected.

You too can cheer and sigh over the sight of Hikaru’s body below! While you’re there, also check out the music video for Snow Man’s new B-side, “Feel the light, Lovely”!

This week’s episode featured Yuzu. The duo is loved across generations, from children to the elderly. The episode tries to uncover the charm of Yuzu that makes this so.

Yuzu – Sayonara Bus / Natsuiro / Niji / Kimi wo Omou

We are now at the midpoint of 2022, meaning that mid-year charts are here! Oricon has released its charts for the first half of 2022! This chart covers the period from 12/13/21 to 6/12/22.

Snow Man is the best selling artist of the year so far, while ITZY is the best selling new artist of the year so far.

King Gnu topped the Combined Single chart with their single “Ichizu / Sakayume” with 1,085,366 points.

SixTONES topped the Combined Album chart with their album “CITY” with 560,466 points.

Snow Man also topped the Single chart with their single “Brother Beat” with 859,133 copies.

SixTONES also topped the Album charts with “CITY” with 560,466 copies.

Aimer topped the Digital Single chart with her single “Zankyou Sanka” with 363,876 copies.

Ado topped the Digital Album chart with her debut album “Kyogen” with 36,836 copies.

Aimer also topped the Streaming chart with “Zankyou Sanka” with 173,989,571 streams.

Tomita Lab is currently celebrating his 20th anniversary. As part of this celebration, he’ll release a new album, “7+”, on June 29. This is his first album since October 2018’s “M-P-C ‘Mentality, Physicality, Computer’.”

Tying into the 20th anniversary concept, “7+” will feature 20 different artists collaborating with Tomita Lab in regards to vocals and lyrics. Some of these artists include Haruomi Hosono, Maaya Sakamoto, AAAMYYY, bird, Nagaoka Ryosuke, and Fujiwara Sakura.

The album will come in a CD+Blu-ray+Book limited edition and CD only regular edition. The limited edition’s Blu-ray and book both document the making of the album.

Check out more information on Tomita Lab’s new album below!

HYBE LABELS JAPAN, the Japanese branch of HYBE, the company behind BTS, is looking to create a boyband in Japan that will debut on the world stage. They will do this through their audition series “&AUDITION -The Howling-.” The eight episode series will debut on Hulu on July 9 at 1:30 PM JST as an hour long show, and then on NTV on July 14 at 12:59 AM JST as a 30 minute show.

This show is a continuation of the 2020 Korean survival series “I-LAND”, which created the KPop group ENHYPEN. Four of the trainees from that show (K, NICHOLAS, EJ, and TAKI) are already set to debut in the the new Japanese group. The show follows them and a new group of eleven trainees who are aiming to make it into the Japanese group.

Ahead of the show’s debut, a signal song has been released, “The Final Countdown.” Check out its music video and the “&AUDITION -The Howling-” contestants below!

On July 2, Nippon TV’s midyear music special, “THE MUSIC DAY”, will air. The show will feature performances by the likes of Snow Man, Nogizaka46, Kudo Shizuka, Creepy Nuts, BiSH, Ryokuoushoku Shakai, BE:FIRST, and NiziU.

The second set of performers was recently announced and it includes names such as Perfume, DISH//, and milet. At the same time, it was revealed that eight Johnny’s group will participate in this year’s “Johnny’s Shuffle Medley”, which will consist of twelve songs.

The third set of performers was also recently announced. Suda Masaki will be making his “THE MUSIC DAY” debut this year. Other performers in this set include Mika Nakashima, Thelma Aoyama, AI, and DA PUMP.

See who else is performing, as well as the “Johnny’s Shuffle Medley” song list below!

This week, NEWS topped the Combined Single chart with their new single “LOSER / Sanjuushi”, with 132,566 points in its first week.

BTS topped the Combined Album chart with their final best album “PROOF”, with 546,373 points in its second week.

Tomomi Itano is currently recovering after having an anisakis removed from her digestive tract, according to her Twitter earlier today. The parasite was discovered after she went to the hospital, complaining of abdominal pain that left her unable to sleep at night. She posted her hospital visit on her YouTube channel yesterday.

In the video, doctors used a camera to look inside of Tomomi’s digestive system, finding the anisakis. The parasite usually enters humans through consumption of infected raw fish.

Doctors then removed the parasite from Tomomi, an excruciating ordeal for her. She cried a lot during the removal, saying it was the worst pain of her life, even more so than childbirth.

Check out the Tomomi’s hospital visit below, including a photo of the parasite in her below!