Four songs from 2017 were certified Gold this month for selling 100,000 copies: Mai Kuraki’s “Togetsukyou ~Kimi Omofu~”, Sandaime J Soul Brothers’ “HAPPY”, BUMP OF CHICKEN’s “Ribbon”, and Austin Mahone’s “Dirty Work.”

This week’s guests were 175R, Chisato, and cinema staff.

175R – YOUR SONG / Natsu no Maboroshi

Chisato – Can you Rock!?

cinema staff – Bokutachi

This week, Kis-My-Ft2 topped the Hot 100 chart with their new single “PICK IT UP.”

G-Dragon topped the Hot Albums chart with his new mini album “KWON JI YONG.”

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.

Last night it was announced that popular rock band BUMP OF CHICKEN would be providing the latest CM song for Nissin’s “Cup Noodles” brand.  This track, titled “Kinen Satsuei”, is a gentle mid-tempo number which combines a faint electronic beat and some vocal echos with singer Motoo Fujiwara’s idiosyncratic voice.

The commercial itself is based on the popular Studio Ghibli film “Kiki’s Delivery Service”, reimagining the movie’s main characters Kiki and Tombo as a pair of high school students in modern Japan.  After several classic high school moments, Kiki takes Tombo to a point high above the city below, where she finally confesses her love to him.

While no release date has been set for “Kinen Satsuei”, you’ll be able to view the CM, as well as a trailer which features several sketches related to the campaign below.

Girl group E-girls have revealed the video for “Love ☆ Queen“!

The music video unveils the new E-girls over an eight bar intro that show offsets the dazzling video and high energy song. Their most ambitious project yet, the video was filmed in the United States, most notably Las Vegas. The variety of shots place the members against the backdrop of the red-brown sandstone of Valley of Fire State Park, with the classic neon lights along the Las Vegas Strip, showing off their sexy and powerful dancing at the club, at the casino, as well as scenes within the Paris Las Vegas hotel.

This is the group’s first release since the announcement of E.G Family, which revealed some major changes regarding the entire structure of E-girls including the disbandment of Dream and graduation of Dream Ami.

Check it out below!

Fumito Iwai, better known as the frontman for techno-rock band FOLKS, recently announced that he will be starting a musical project under his own name.  The goal of his solo endeavors, per Fumito’s own words, is to express both the ‘cool’ and ‘uncool’ sides of himself through his music.

His first official release will be a Double A-side single titled “Merry Gold”, which will be made available digitally on July 28th and as a Tower Records exclusive physical release in August.  There will be two versions of the title song included with this single – the first a festive and euphoric up-tempo track, and the second a magnificent ballad.

You’ll find the full track list for Fumito’s first single below, and please look forward to additional information as its release date draws closer.

Concert series Summer Sonic is back and this year will be bigger than ever!

It has been announced that metal-idol band BABYMETAL will appear at “SUMMER SONIC 2017” as the second headliners after American rock band Foo Fighters.

BABYMETAL have been on their come up since they first formed in 2010 as a subunit of idol group Sakura Gakuin. In 2012, they were the youngest band to play at Summer Sonic…playing the stage adjacent to the food court. Since then, they have performed at the yearly festival in some capacity and worked their way through the ranks of the music industry both domestically and internationally.

Beginning in 2000, The Summer Sonic Festival is an annual two-day rock festival held at the same time in Osaka and Chiba (the majority of the bands playing in Osaka the first day go to Chiba the following day and vice versa). The line-up contains many Japanese rock musicians from both major and indie record companies as well as international acts. Featuring some of the biggest acts from around the world, previous headliners have included Coldplay, The Strokes, Radiohead and Underworld.

Also performing, Japanese acts announced are UVERworld, Tsuyoshi Domoto, Pikotaro, and Keyakizaka46, to name a few. International acts this year include Phoenix, Charli XCX, Liam Gallagher, Justice and the return of Kesha. That’s just a taste of what’s to come, check out the full confirmed list below!