Hello, Arama! Japan readers! We are excited to announce that we are having our third annual awards show! The 2017 Arama! Japan Awards will be honoring the best in music, movies, television, anime, manga, and more this coming January! And the winners of these awards will be selected by you, the Arama! Japan readers!
The first step of this awards show is figuring out who will be nominated. That is where you guys come! Since you guys are picking the winners, you should also be picking who is in the running to win. We are asking that you fill out a survey, telling us your faves in various categories during the period of December 1, 2016 – November 30, 2017. Voting during this round will be open for a week starting now, with the final nominees to be announced a few days later. Voting for the final round will commence after the announcement of the final nominees. Voting in every category is not mandatory. If you don’t want to vote in a certain category, feel free to skip it.
The voting form is below!
This week, Sandaime J Soul Brothers topped the Hot 100 chart with their single “J.S.B. HAPPINESS.”
Busaiku topped the Hot Albums chart with their debut album “Busaiku no, Wa!.”
Spitz topped the Streaming Songs chart with their single “Kaede.”
Utada Hikaru topped the Download Songs chart for the second consecutive week with “Anata.”
Shiina Ringo topped the Download Albums chart for the second consecutive week with her self-cover album “Gyakuyunyuu ~Koukuukyoku~.”
We’re back with this week’s edition of Oricon Flashback. This is where we look back on what topped Oricon this week 5, 10, 15, and 20 years ago. Think of it as a way to reminisce and learn about the past of Japanese music.
This week, Sandaime J Soul Brothers topped the Oricon single chart with their new single “J.S.B. HAPPINESS”, selling 141,592 copies in its first week.
Busaiku topped the Oricon album chart with their debut album “Busaiku no, Wa!”, selling 79,293 copies in its first week.
Oricon introduced its digital single chart this week! Utada Hikaru topped the chart with her single “Anata”, selling 63,871 copies in the chart’s first week, the single’s second.
Shiina Ringo topped the Oricon digital album chart for the second consecutive week with her self-cover album “Gyakuyunyuu ~Koukuukyoku~”, selling 3,399 copies in its second week.
On December 25 at 7 PM JST, CDTV Special! Christmas Ongakusai 2017 will air. The show will feature performances by Nishino Kana, Hoshino Gen, back number, Ken Hirai, Keyakizaka46, Kanjani8, Kinki Kids, B’z, and more.
There is a live stream of the show and Arama! Japan will be hosting a chat on Discord so that readers can chat with each other during the show! Links to the show and the chat are after the jump!
Actress and television personality Izumi Mori has come under fire for inappropriate reaction towards the recent death of SHINee member Jonghyun when she appeared on the variety show Viking on December 20. During the show, the panel was discussing recent news, one of which included Jonghyun’s tragic suicide on December 18. The MC, Shinobu Sakagami, asked Mori, “Did you know [about SHINee]?” to which she abruptly replied, “No, [I didn’t know who he was].” This caused the entire studio to burst out in laughter, breaking the mood of the conversation.
The full main cast has been revealed for the upcoming WOWOW drama series Bye Bye, Blackbird, starring Kengo Kora and Yuu Shirota.
Kengo Kora plays the main role of Kazuhiko Hoshino, a notorious womanizer who will date any woman that he’s able to attract. Always with at least one girlfriend, it gets to the point where Hoshino is dating five different women all at the same time. Besides his playboy ways Hoshino isn’t the best when it comes to money management and finding work, resulting in him being in deep dept.
Wanting to “start over” in life, Hoshino is promised an era of new beginnings by a mysterious organization. He can only arrive to the destination promised by the organization on a special bus, but in-order to ride the bus he has to break up with all five of his girlfriends. While on his task he is accompanied by a giant hulking woman named Mayumi (Yuu Shirota). Towering over Hoshino, Mayumi is basically a giantess. She’s tasked with keeping an eye on him making sure that he properly completes the task.
Singer Miliyah Kato has some fans worried over the condition of her body, with new pictures and even her latest MV always sparking the topic “Is she too thin!?”
One recent picture in particular had fans very worried for Kato’s health. Earlier in the month her staff uploaded a video promoting a special Christmas Box campaign featuring the singers various goods. In the video her cheeks look very gaunt, and her eyes have deep dark circles. Many fans were shocked saying she resembled a ghost, while a plethora of others commented that they hope she’s been able to rest properly.
