It’s May, so that means election season is gearing up for AKB48!

The Senbatsu Election is an annual event where fans can vote for their favorite 48 member, essentially making it an “official” popularity contest.  Girls that are a member of numerous groups such as AKB48, SKE48, NMB48, HKT48, NGT48,  Team Kaigai etc. are eligible for participation. The top 80 girls with the most votes are then separated into different categories. Senbatsu (1-16), Undergirls (17-32), Next Girls (33-28), Future Girls (49-65), and Upcoming Girls (65-80)

“Negaigoto no Mochigusare” will serve as the junior high school set piece for the 84th NHK All-Japan School Choir Competition. The 11 minute heart warming music video for the song features the girls singing choir style and tons of footage of choir children who look like to be elementary school students.  The single will come out in 7 editions and feature 3 different b-sides depending on the version you purchase. The b-side “Ima Para” will be included in every version, while “Maebure” will be included on version A, “Tenmetsu Pheromone” on version B, and “Ano Koro no Gohyakuendama” on version C. The theater version will include a song by STU48 called  “Setouchi no Koe”. It will be released on May 31st, 2017

Check out the covers and full 11 minute PV for “Negaigoto no Mochigusare”  below.

This week’s guests were Yuzu, Anly, Sukima Switch, and BTOB.

Yuzu – Irotoridori / Natsuiro

Anly+Sukima Switch= – Kono Yami wo Terasu Hikari no Mukou ni

BTOB – MOVIE –JPN ver.-

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 on Recochoku, Mai Kuraki stayed on top for the second week in a row with “Togetsukyou ~Kimi Omofu~.”

On iTunes, RADWIMPS topped the chart with their new single “Saihate Ai ni.”

“Togetsukyou ~Kimi Omofu~” also topped the Recochoku monthly chart for April.

This week, Choutokkyuu topped the Oricon single chart with their new single “Cho Nebagiba DANCE”, selling 72,544 copies in its first week.

Yuzu topped the Oricon album chart their new best album “Yuzu Iroha 1997-2017”, selling 173,471 copies in its first week.

“Yuzu Iroha 1997-2017” also topped the Oricon digital album chart, selling 7,528 copies in its first week.

Hello, Arama! Japan readers and welcome to this week’s installment of #1 Song Review! Last week saw GENERATIONS defeat NGT48 and Austin Mahone to take the top spot. This week, two newcomers facing off. 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!

Japanese music has always been a niche market on a world scale, but more recently, companies have begun tapping into that niche and distributing Japanese music worldwide. The advent of the return of vinyl collecting has been a major boost for this, and we now are starting to see plenty of western releases (often exclusive compilations) appearing on LP.

Recently, Ash and Alex had the pleasure of being able to interview Phil Boehm of Studio Alegori who specialize in pressing such releases, along with doing visual art and photography (he also works on album artwork). Read on for the full interview and get a unique perspective of what it is like working in this blossoming area of the industry.

Well known J-Rock outfit Gesu no Kiwami Otome. released today a Music Video for the track “Kage Song“, second single from the group’s upcoming album “Daruma Ringo“.

The track is a slow-paced, mellow number with well-placed Electronic influences in the first part, followed by a subtle Jazz-y touch that accompanies the track for its whole duration. The video features a black and white filter that fits the mood of the track, and portrays what is probably a metaphor to the reactions that sparked from the well known scandals that involved main singer Enon Kawatani last year, represented in the video as a beaten puppet.