News of disgraced film producer Umekawa Haruo‘s sexual harassment has made global headlines and continues to make waves in the entertainment industry both locally in Japan and abroad. Umekawa is an associate of the director Sono Sion, who was also accused of sexual harassment.
Actress Yuriko Yoshitaka took to Twitter to share her thoughts on the allegations. Yuriko has previously worked with Sono Sion in the past, back in 2006 for her very first feature film role “Noriko’s Dinner Table”.
Legendary singer Ami Suzuki has announced that she is pregnant with her 3rd child! She made the announcement on her official Instagram account.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry has released “Global Music Report 2022”, this year’s edition of its annual report detailing what happened in the music industry worldwide last year.
The report says that the worldwide music industry saw revenue grow for the seventh consecutive year, by 18.5% in 2021, totaling $25.9 billion. This is the highest amount of revenue this millennium.
Streaming revenue grew by 24.3%, and now makes up 65% of global revenue, at $16.9 billion. There was streaming revenue growth in every region of this world. This was driven by a 21.9% growth in paid subscription revenue. At the end of 2021, there were 523 million users of paid streaming services worldwide, accounting for 47.3% of global revenue. Ad-supported streaming services make up of the remaining 17.7% of global revenue that streaming accounts for.
After streaming, the next biggest source of revenue is physical, which now makes up 19.2% of global revenue, at $5 billion. This is up 16.1% compared to 2020, and marks the first growth in the physical market in 20 years. The reason for this increase was the return to physical retail which was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. CD revenue grew for the first time this millennium, with particularly strong interest in Asia. Vinyl sales continued to grow, with 51.3% in 2021 compared to 2020’s 25.9% growth.
Physical is followed by performance rights, which makes up 9.4% of global revenue, at $2.4 billion, a increase of 4%. This increase comes amid the world’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
After performance rights is downloads and other digital, which now makes up 4.3% of global revenue. This segment brought in $1.1 billion last year, a 10.7% decline. This is the only channel to see a decline in revenue in 2021, as digital music consumption changes from an ownership model to an access one. Downloads fell by 15.3% to $839.3 million, making up 3.2% of global revenue. However, other digital grew by 6.8%
The last segment is synchronization. It makes up 2.1% of global revenue at $549.1 million. This segment grew by 22% compared to 2020, once again, as the world continues to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Another Johnny & Associates group is coming to Youtube! On April 10, Kis-My-Ft2 will officially launch their own YouTube channel!
The channel will have a focus on music videos and other music-related content, spanning from the group’s debut through the present day. The channel will feature no geographic restrictions, so fans worldwide can enjoy the group’s content!
Ahead of the channel’s launch, a teaser video was released. Check it out below!
Singer Ayumi Hamasaki has announced a brand new single! Titled Nonfiction, she made the announcement on her official SNS profiles. This is her first single of 2022, the last being “23rd Monster” released almost exactly 1 year ago.
On April 4, Shukan Josei PRIME released an article in which several actresses anonymously accused director Sono Sion of sexual harrassment. He is said to have boasted of making sexual advances towards “most of [his] leading ladies.” Sono’s predatory behavior has been linked to his acting workshop.
Today, in response to the accusations, Sono’s company released a statement which read, “To whom it may concern. Thank you very much for your continued support. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience and concern this may have caused to all parties concerned. We will make a new announcement after sorting out the facts.” His upcoming acting workshop was also canceled.
In response to the statement from Sono’s company, Milla Araki, a self-described “former actress” and “sexual victim in the Japanese entertainment world”, took to Twitter to accuse Sono. On March 19, she called him to see if he would “agree to cooperate in supporting sexual abuse victims.” “Of course, he said, ‘That’s impossible for me’,” she reported.
This week, Nogizaka46 topped the Combined Single chart with their new single “Actually…”, with 474,321 points in its first week.
Fujii Kaze topped the Combined Album chart with his new album “LOVE ALL SERVE ALL”, with 159,208 points in its first week.
Nogizaka46 also topped the Single chart with “Actually…”, selling 463,439 copies in its first week.
Kaze also topped the Album chart with “LOVE ALL SERVE ALL”, selling 143,637 copies in its first week.
Mr.Children topped the Digital Single chart with their new digital single “Eien”, selling 31,318 copies its first week.
Kaze also topped the Digital Album chart with “LOVE ALL SERVE ALL”, selling 10,028 copies in its first week.
INI topped the Streaming chart with their new digital single “CALL 911”, with 9,399,055 streams in its second week.
On April 27, Naniwa Danshi will release their second single, “The Answer / Sachiare.” This single explores the concept of yin and yang, with “The Answer” showing Naniwa Danshi’s dark side, while “Sachiare” shows their light side.
“The Answer” serves as the theme song for NTV’s new drama version of “Kindaichi Shonen no Jikenbo”, starring Shunsuke Michieda. The series will stream worldwide on Disney+ under the title “The Files of Young Kindaichi”, making it the first NTV drama to be available worldwide. This is the first project of NTV and Disney’s new partnership.
“Sachiare” serves as the theme song Fuji TV’s morning show “Mezamashi TV.” The song was written and co-composed by Yuzu‘s Kitagawa Yujin.
Naniwa Danshi’s new single will be released in five versions: CD+DVD / Blu-ray limited edition 1, CD+DVD / Blu-ray limited edition 2, and CD only regular edition. The limited editions will include 12 page booklets.
Today, Naniwa Danshi released the music video for “The Answer.”Gone are the bright colors and cheer of their debut “Ubu LOVE”, replaced by something darker and with more attitude. Check out the video below!
In some unfortunate news, it was also revealed today that Shunsuke has tested positive for COVID-19. It was confirmed via a routine PCR test yesterday. The other members are negative.