Last night, it was announced that popular TV news presenter Mao Kobayashi had passed away after a long and publicized battle with breast cancer at 34-years-old.

Her husband, leading kabuki actor Ichikawa Ebizo, held a news conference today after a performance at the Bunkamura Theater in Tokyo to talk about the passing of his late wife–his last moments with her, how their children are handling it, and the lessons we can learn from Mao’s experience.

UNIVERSAL MUSIC JAPAN has uploaded a short lyric video to their official YouTube Channel for new single from male dance and vocal group Da-iCE.

The song “Kimiiro” is a mid-tempo pop tune. With its acoustic guitar riff, it’s a warm-hearted yet melancholy summer song meant to cheer up people who cannot easily convey their feelings to those they admire.

The single will also include coupling track “Fly Higher” penned by group leader Taiki Kudo, as well as an English version of the A-side.

Following her previous original album “THE MEMORY HOTEL” released in 2015, singer-songerwriter HITOMITOI has released an audio preview for upcoming album “Ecstasy“.

Natalie reports Dorian is in charge of composing and producing all songs.

The two last collaborated back in 2011 on a track from his third original album “Studio Vacation EP” entitled “summer rich” that featured vocals and lyrics from HITOMITOI. In the past, Dorian has also worked with acts like Towa Tei and ZEN-LA-ROCK.

The audio teaser was uploaded on the official YouTube channel of Billboard Records, including “Let It Out” penned by Shohei Takagi from indie band cero.

Rilakkuma will be soon be gracing your television and computer screens all around the world! The lovable lazy bear will be receiving his own animated series produced exclusively for Netflix, tentatively titled “Rilakkuma Series”. The series can be considered an “anime short”, since each episode will only be 11 minutes long. Instead of typical cell animation stop-motion technology will be used to create the series, 13 episodes have been ordered thus far.

Naturally the series will have Rilakkuma as the main character. One day the soft toy bear suddenly appears at the apartment of an office lady named Kaoru. Rilakkuma does what he does best, lazing around the apartment eating his favorite foods including pancakes, pudding, and omelette rice.  It’s unknown why he decided to take residence in Kaoru’s apartment.

Hello, Arama! Japan readers and welcome to this week’s installment of #1 Song Review! Last week saw Namie Amuro defeat AKB48. She’s back again this week, facing off against a newcomer. Find out what various staff members thought of the songs that topped the physical and digital charts this week and share your thoughts on them too!

Oricon held a survey asking their readers which actors they thought achieved their breakthrough in 2017. It should be noted that many of the actors who made the list have appeared in very successful projects in previous years, but this survey determines who they feel truly became an A-list top of the crop actor in 2017. Both men and women participated in the survey, with the age ranging from late 10s to 50s.

With the first half of the year done many drama series and films have already been released, which actors do you think made the cut?

Actress and singer Sakurako Ohara has revealed that her forthcoming 7th single “My Favorite Jewel” was written with and composed by popular singer-songwriter Motohiro Hata.

According to Natalie, Ohara became a fan of Hata with the release of his 2014 single “Himawari no Yakusoku,” of which they have since performed together on TV in the past. The song itself was a bonafide hit across Japan, partially in thanks to its tie-in as the theme song of the record-breaking film “Stand by Me Doraemon.”

The two began working on the song at the end of 2016 when Hata gave Ohara a demo of a new song he was working on with her in mind. The two exchanged their notes on the song and worked on it together until they felt it was complete.

It has been announced that popular TV news presenter Mao Kobayashi has passed away after a long and publicized battle with breast cancer. She was 34-years-old.

Last year her husband, kabuki actor Ichikawa Ebizo, shared that Mao had been battling breast cancer for the past 20 months. Doctors warned that the disease was spreading extremely fast and intensive treatment began immediately, but by 2016, it had progressed to stage four.

Despite treatment, the cancer continued to spread to her bones and lungs and took her life on June 23, NHK reports.