It has been announced that enka singer Jero will be halting all of his activities in the entertainment industry.

According to reports, he has decided to return to his original profession in the field of IT (information technology). Prior to his debut, Jero actually worked for a Japanese IT company for roughly two years.

His new job will specialize in Internet security, he already got hired for the Tokyo office of an unnamed foreign company. Starting in 2016 Jero brushed up on his skills by successfully completing a graduate school program via Boston University.

It has been announced to the delight of dozens that the younger Koda sister misono will be making her grand return to the music scene!

misono originally got her start in 2002 with the successful band day after tomorrow. After they parted ways at the end of 2005 she embarked on a solo career, debuting in 2006 with the single VS.

In October 2014 the legend’s music career went on hiatus after her 4th studio album UCHI failed to sell 10,000 copies. The album cover featured giant text that read:

“If this album doesn’t sell 10,000 copies, misono can’t release anymore CDs”.

According to Oricon it ended up selling around 3k copies. Since the album release she continued to be a regular on various variety programs, and married Nosuke, a drummer from the band HighsidE.

Avex’s official YouTube channel has released a one minute clip for Crazy Rays, the new MV from Johnny’s group V6.

As previously reported, the Johnny & Associate acts under Avex Trax would finally begin to have videos of them uploaded onto YouTube. V6, Kis-my-ft2, and Busaiku are the current groups affiliated with Avex.

Johnny has only agreed to allow the videos to be a maximum of one minute however.

This is an interesting one. “Prisoners of the Ghostland” is the title of visionary director Sono Sion‘s latest film. The ‘Love Exposure‘ and ‘Suicide Circle‘ auteur ventures into new territory with his post-apocalyptic thriller- by creating a film entirely in the English language. Furthermore, the film is set to star everyone’s favorite goofball- Nicolas Cage.

As reported last year, South Korean television channel Mnet will be making a change with the third season of its popular survival reality show “Produce 101.” Collaborating with AKB48 under the name “Produce 48”, the show will produce a girl group featuring both Korean and Japanese members. After today’s episode of the music show “M Countdown”, Produce 48’s host, Lee Seung-gi, introduced the 96 girls who will compete on the show. Composed of 48 girls from each country, the group sang “Nekkoya (Pick Me)”, a Korean / Japanese hybrid version of the song that the previous contestants of “Produce 101” have made their first appearance with. HKT48’s Sakura Miyawaki appeared as the center for the Japanese group, while After School’s Kaeun was her Korean counterpart. “Produce 48” will premiere on June 15. Check out the video below!

The film world is currently focused on the south of France, where this year’s Cannes Film Festival is currently taking place. The American magazine The Hollywood Reporter recently did a feature on four Japanese actors that it thinks could go global. The magazine noted that few Japanese actors have international careers, in part because of the language barrier, but also due to limited training and powerful agencies that would rather promote boy and girl group members as actors rather than actual actors.

Nearly 10 years after going on an indefinite hiatus, punk rockers ELLEGARDEN have announced that they will be making their return to the music scene.  This announcement came suddenly yesterday evening, the news blowing up across both Twitter and Japanese media sites.

While no new music has been confirmed, the band will be embarking on their “THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN” tour in August, intending to play three venues and conclude with a show at ZOZO Marine Stadium.  Of note, the tour will commence at Shinkiba’s Studio Coast, the final venue the group played prior to their hiatus.

Look forward to further information about ELLEGARDEN’s return as it is made available!

(via natalie)

Fusion band Suchmos recently revealed that they will be releasing a new mini-album titled “THE ASHTRAY” on June 20th.  Their first release since last year’s “FIRST CHOICE LAST STAND”, it will come with seven songs including the already released “808”, their NHK soccer theme “VOLT-AGE”, and the group’s first love ballad “FUNNY GOLD”.

“THE ASHTRAY” will issued in two different versions, with the Limited Edition planned to include a DVD containing footage from the Zepp Tokyo show of the band’s recent “TOUR FIRST CHOICE LAST STANCE”.  To coincide with this announcement, the group have uploaded a live video of their song “Burn” to their Youtube channel.

You’ll find this live PV, as well as the cover and complete track list for “THE ASHTRAY” right after the cut.