The second headliner for the 2019 edition of the “SUMMER SONIC” music festival has been announced, and it’s none other than legendary rock duo B’z.

B’z will be hitting the stage from August 16th – 18th at the ZOZO Marine Stadium & Makuhari Messe located in Osaka. Even though SUMMER SONIC is one of Japan’s most prolific music festivals, this is actually the very first time a Japanese artist is serving as headliner.

On Janaury 16, Thelma Aoyama will release her new single, “In This Place~Futari no Kizuna.” The song serves as the ending theme for the Japanese release of the Disney film “Ralph Breaks the Internet.” Thelma wrote the lyrics and arranged the song. The single also include a Japanese version of the film’s original end song, Julia Michaels‘ “In This Place”, as well as a new song, “Konna ni mo.” Check out more information on Thelma’s new single below!

This week, Yonezu Kenshi topped the Hot 100 single chart for the fifth non-consecutive week with his single “Lemon.”

Hoshino Gen topped the Hot Albums chart for the fourth consecutive week with his album “POP VIRUS.”

Aimyon topped the Streaming Songs chart for the second consecutive week with her single “Marigold.”

Kenshi also topped the Download Songs chart for the 18th non-consecutive week with “Lemon.”

Gen also topped the Download Albums chart for the fourth consecutive week with “POP VIRUS.”

This week, Aimer topped the Combined Single chart with her new single “I beg you / Hanabiratachi no March / Sailing”, with 67,807 points in its first week.

The Bohemian Rhapsody soundtrack topped the Combined Album chart with 21,349 points in the chart’s fifth week.

Aimer also topped the Single chart with “I beg you / Hanabiratachi no March / Sailing”, selling 30,737 copies in its first week.

Hoshino Gen topped the Album chart for the fourth consecutive week with “POP VIRUS”, selling 16,471 copies in its fourth week.

Yonezu Kenshi topped the Digital Single chart for the 20th non-consecutive week “Lemon”, selling 68,287 copies in its 48th week.

Gen also topped the Digital Album chart for the fourth consecutive week with “POP VIRUS”, selling 4,570 copies in its fourth week.

Aimyon topped the Streaming chart for the second consecutive week with her single “Marigold”, with 1,805,367 streams in the chart’s fifth week.

Hello, Arama! Japan readers and welcome to this week’s installment of #1 Song Review! Last week saw Aimyon defeat THE IDOLM@STER and Yonezu Kenshi. Aimyon (with a different song) and Kenshi are back is back this week, facing off against a newcomer. Find out what Ronald thought of the songs that topped the singles charts this week and share your thoughts on them too!

Former Tackey & Tsubasa member Hideaki Takizawa has a new position! At the beginning of 2019 he officially retired as a performer, it was previously reported that Hideaki would have a full time behind the scenes role.

It is now revealed that Hideaki will become the president of a brand new subsidiary of Johnny & Associates called Johnny’s Island.

Late last year, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ohashi Trio announced that he would be releasing a new full-length album on February 13th.  Now that this date has drawn closer, he has chosen to publish all of the details about this upcoming release online.

Ohashi’s thirteenth studio effort will be titled “THUNDERBIRD” and is planned to include both of his digital singles released last year – “Natural Woman” and “S M I L E S” – as well as eight new tracks for a total of ten.  Notably, the record’s sixth track, “kite”, will feature piano duo Kitri’s Mona as a guest vocalist.

Read on below to find the cover and complete track list for “THUNDERBIRD”.

Piano-playing duo Kitri have announced that they will be making their major debut with Nippon Columbia’s BETTER DAYS label.  Their first release under this new contract – an EP titled “Primo” – will be released next week on January 23rd, though it is already available in its entirety via digital distribution services.

Kitri is composed of a pair of sisters, Mona and Hina, whom play the piano together in many of their songs.  Mona additionally handles songwriting, composition, and is the duo’s main vocalist, while Hina is in charge of the guitar, percussion, and choral vocals.  “Primo” will be produced by multi-instrumentalist and composer Ohashi Trio, and also feature contributions from other musicians such as Akai Kutsu’s Junpei Kamiya – who serves as Ohashi Trio’s support drummer – and METAFIVE’s Tomohiko Gondo.

To coincide with the EP’s release, the pair have also uploaded the music video for its lead track “Rashin Dori” to their YouTube channel.  You’ll find this PV, as well as the cover and track list for “Primo” right after the jump.