This week, KinKi Kids topped the Oricon single chart with their new single “Topaz Love / DESTINY”, selling 198,361 copies in its first week.

AKB48 topped the Oricon album chart with their new album “Bokutachi wa, Ano Hi no Yoake wo Shitteiru”, selling 576,123 copies in its first week.

Mr.Children topped the Oricon digital single chart for the second consecutive week with their single “here comes my love”, selling 35,884 copies in its second week.

WANIMA topped the Oricon digital album chart for the second consecutive week with “Everybody!!”, selling 4,747 copies in its second week.

Hello, Arama! Japan readers and welcome to this week’s installment of #1 Song Review! Last week saw RYUJI IMAICHI defeat SKE48 and Namie Amuro. This week, we have two newcomers facing off against a blast from the past. Find out what various staff members thought of the songs that topped the singles charts this week and share your thoughts on them too!

This past October and November, Tajima Takao, also known as ORIGINAL LOVE, was joined on tour by Nagaoka Ryosuke (also known as Ukigumo) of the band Petrolz. During this tour, the duo performed each other’s songs as well as covers of songs by Patsy Cline and The Everly Brothers. These shows were recorded and the resulting album is titled “SESSIONS”, out January 31.

“SESSIONS” will be in released in a limited edition and a regular edition. The limited edition is limited to 3000 copies and features a photobook shot by Matsumoto Naoya and Aratani Norma.

Check out more information on Tajima Takao and Nagaoka Ryosuke’s live album below!

From January 22 – 28, this year’s Four Continents Championships took place in Taipei, Taiwan. Japan sent three male skaters, three female skaters, two teams of pairs skaters, and three ice dance teams to this event. In the end, the Japanese team swept the podium in the women’s competition, and received a medal in the men’s competition and the ice dancing competition.

Kaori Sakamoto won the women’s portion of the Four Continents Championships with a total score of 214.21. This score, along with her short program and free skate scores, are new personal bests for Kaori. Her short program was given a score of 71.34, placing her in second place. “I am really happy to surpass 70 points in international competition for the first time,” Kaori later said. “The step sequence was a level three, which still can be improved. But other than that I was very satisfied with the performance.”

Kaori’s free skate was the highest ranked of the event, with a score of 142.87. After the free skate, she said, “Last March here in the Junior Worlds, I skated perfect short and free programs. It’s a good venue for me, and I came in with that in mind.” She added, “For the Olympics, I want to train in order to be perfect in both the short and free programs and deliver a performance I’m satisfied with.”

It has been announced that Nogizaka46 member Rina Ikoma will be graduating from the group, the short announcement was just shared on the official Nogizaka46 website. This is a little bittersweet for fans, considering that their 20th single was just announced. Ikoma will be participating in the upcoming single.

A specific date for her graduation has not been announced yet, it will be determined once details for future schedules are more concrete. The staff thanked fans for their continued support, and asked to continually support Ikoma until her graduation.

Ikoma made her debut in June, 2011 when she was announced as one of the 1st generation members of Nogizaka46. Always one of the more popular members, she was known for liking to playfully harass her group-mates by pulling pranks on them.

She was included in the Senbatsu for every single Nogizaka46 single, and she made idol history by being the very first Nogizaka46 member to appear in an AKB48 single (not counting Kennin positions), when she appeared in their 38th single Kibouteki Refrain as a Senbatsu member.

(via nogi46.net)

Singer Koda Kumi has released the covers for her upcoming 15th studio album AND due out on Feburary 28th, 2018.

AND will be released in four versions. A CD only, CD+DVD, CD+Blu-ray and deluxe CD+3DVD version which will exclusivity be sold via her fanclub Playroom. For each cover Koda dons a different outfit while posing in front of a giant AND sign, all highlighted by various bold colors.

A full tracklist has not been determined yet for AND, but it will include two of her previous limited edition singles LIT and NEVER ENOUGH. One new song titled PARTY has been teased, and it will have it’s own MV. The album will have 10 tracks in total.

Furthermore the Twinkle ~English Version~ hitmaker will be embarking on a fanclub tour starting in April 29th to support the album. Members of Playroom can participate in the lottery right now to try and obtain the best seats. The tour will last for nearly two months, concluding in the SOUND SHOWER Ark venue in the Shizuoka Prefecture.  It’s rumored that Koda will set out on a standard tour after the release of her next studio album, which will be coming out later this year!

All four covers of AND can be seen below.

YUKI is currently celebrating the 15th anniversary of her solo debut. As part of this celebration, she will release a new best album, “Suteki na 15 Sai”, on January 31. This is YUKI’s first best album since her 10th anniverasary best album, 2012’s “POWERS OF TEN.”

“Suteki na 15 Sai” will pick up where “POWERS OF TEN” left off, with the single released three months after that album, “Play Ball / Sakamichi no Melody.” YUKI’s new best album will contain all the singles released since then up to her most recent single, this past November’s “Flag wo Tatero.” The album will close with three new songs, plus a demo.

With “Suteki na 15 Sai”, YUKI ends the Sony portion of her career, and looks to begin anew.

Check out more information on YUKI’s new best album below!

This week, NEWS topped the Hot 100 chart with their single “LPS.”

WANIMA topped the Oricon album chart with their new album “Everybody!!”

DAOKO x Yonezu Kenshi retook the top spot on the Streaming Songs chart with “Uchiage Hanabi”, topping the chart for the 12th non-consecutive week.

Mr.Children topped the Download Songs chart with their new single “here comes my love.”

WANIMA also topped the Oricon digital album chart with “Everybody!!”, selling 15,225 copies in its first week.