“The 94th Academy Awards” were held tonight and “Drive My Car” took home the award for Best International Feature Film. It was nominated for three other awards: Best Film, Best Director (Ryusuke Hamaguchi), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe).

“Drive My Car” is the second Japanese film to win this award competitively, following 2008’s “Departures.” Japan previously won three Honorary Oscars before the (previously named) Best Foreign Language Film category was created in 1956. Those honorees were Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashomon” in 1951, Teinosuke Kinugasa’s “Gate of Hell” in 1954, and Hiroshi Inagaki’s “Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto” in 1955.

In addition to the film’s director, several of the cast members attended the show as well, including Hidetoshi Nishijima, Masaki Oda, and Reika Kirishima.

Check out Hamaguchi’s speech and video from the red carpet below!

The Netorabo Survey Team and Voice Note recently held a poll asking the Japanese public which Japanese vocalists they thought were world class level.

MISIA topped the ranking with 11.9% of the vote. She has an overwhelming vocal ability and is very popular in the club scene. She debuted in 1998 with the single “Tsutsumi Komu You ni…”, which opens with her whistle register. Her biggest hit, “Everything”, came in 2000. In 2004, she became the first female soloist to hold a five dome tour. Being Japan’s preeminent world class singer, she was chosen to sing “Kimigayo”, the Japanese national anthem, at the Opening Ceremony of last year’s Tokyo Olympics.

See the rest of the ranking below!

This week’s episode is the fourth part of the show’s 2900th episode celebration. This week’s guests were Kobukuro, NEWS, Koda Kumi, LiSA, Erika Ikuta, Daichi Miura, LA DIVA, Sada Masashi, and DA PUMP.

Kobukuro x NEWS – Sakura

Koda Kumi x LiSA – Ai no Uta

Erika Ikuta – On My Own

Daichi Miura – Backwards

LA DIVA – Jidai (Miyuki Nakajima cover)

LA DIVA x Sada Masashi x DA PUMP x Koda Kumi x Kobukuro x LiSA – Music Fair Theme Song

Generation Z is generally described as the generation born between 1997 and 2012. Talent Power Ranking recently took a look at who are the most popular celebrities in this digital native generation.

The male ranking was topped by Chidori, followed by Aiba Masaki and Chidori’s Nobu.

The female ranking was topped by Aragaki Yui, followed by Ishihara Satomi and Hashimoto Kanna.

Hey, Arama Japan! It’s Friday, so it’s Open Post time! Feel free to chat with your fellow readers about whatever you like! Enjoy!

This week’s guests were KICK THE CAN CREW, Snow Man, Nogizaka46, and AXXX1S.

KICK THE CAN CREW – Boots

Snow Man – Brother Beat

Nogizaka46 – Actually…

AXXX1S – Special Force

This week’s guests was BE:FIRST.

BE:FIRST – Sexual Healing (SKY-HI cover) / Bye-Good-Bye

Earlier today, “2022 FNS Kayousai Haru Meikyoku Library” aired. The show was hosted by Aiba Masaki and Fuji TV announcer Nagashima Yumi. The show consisted mainly of clips of old performances, with a cast of talk guests that included AI, Koda Kumi, Takamizawa Toshihiko, Dacho Club, Domoto Koichi, Nogizaka46‘s Kaki Haruka and Shibata Yuna, Fitz Mangrove, and Bishonen‘s Ukisho Hadaka, Fujii Naoki, and Kanasashi Issei.

The performers were Yuuri, Bishonen, and Sakanaction (making their FNS Kayousai debut).

Yuuri – Dry Flower

Bishonen – Sakura Sake (Arashi cover)

Sakanaction – Tsuki no Wan