It has been announced that Hello!Project group Juice=Juice will be going on a world tour starting in the Fall.  With C-ute holding their final oversea performances this week in Mexico (April 13th) and France (April 16th), they hope to pass along their oversea legacy to their kouhai group.

Now, this is actually a legitimate world tour. They will be visiting other locations that aren’t Los Angeles and New York! It’s been confirmed that the girls will visit 7 countries. The confirmed countries are United States, Mexico, England, France, Germany, Malaysia, and Thailand. The tour will begin in September, specific information on the exact dates and venue locations will be revealed at a later date.

Formed in 2013, Juice=Juice’s group name comes from various notions such as: just-harvested, fresh-picked, spontaneity, natural, freshly squeezed, etc. Then, with the individuality of each member, you obtain Juice=Juice. Their 12th single “Jidanda Dance / Feel! Kanjiru yo” will be released on April 26th, 2017.

Ken Hirai will be releasing his 42nd single “Non Fiction”. It will serve as the theme song for the upcoming TBS drama “Chiisana Kyojin” starring Masaki Okada and Hiroki Hasegawa which begins airing on April 16th, 2017.

A special limited edition version of the single will include 10 live tracks from Ken’s 2017 concert “THE STILL LIFE”, only priced at 1250 yen. Ken’s “THE STILL LIFE” lives are a short series of concerts that began on April 11th and will conclude on April 19th.  Noted musician Seiji Kameda produced “Non Fiction” who is perhaps most known for working extensively with Shiina Ringo, producing many songs for her and playing bass in her band Tokyo Jihen.

“Non Fiction” will be released on June 7th, 2017.

On Monday, Mao Asada announced that she was retiring from the world of competitive figure skating. Today, she made her first public appearance since the announcement at a press conference in a Tokyo hotel ballroom. Gathered in front of over 400 reporters, Mao reiterated that she is at peace with her decision to leave the sport she had dedicated her life to since the age of five, saying that she “had done everything” she could possibly do in her career.

Mao smiled as she spoke to the press. She originally thought of wearing a black suit, but instead chose to reflect her refreshed state of mind by wearing a white blouse and black skirt.

“I began figure skating when I was little and it gave me joy when I was able to do techniques I hadn’t done,” Mao said. “It was like, ‘I want to do a triple loop next.’ Those kind of things were fun. I don’t really have any bad memories, because this is the path I chose for myself.”

It has been announced that TOKIO lead singer Tomoya Nagase will be starring in a new TBS Summer drama titled “Gomen, Aishiteru”, a remake of the 2004 South Korean drama “Sorry, I Love You”. Starring  So Ji-Sub and Lim Soo-Jung, “Sorry, I Love You” was a huge critical and commercial success.

The plot of “Gomen, Aishiteru” follows Ritsu Okazaki (Tomoya Nagase) who was abandoned by his mother Reiko (Shinobu Otake).  One day Ritsu gets involved in an incident that causes him to suffer from a life threatening injury, the injury is so severe that his life expectancy comes into question. With Ritsu insure if he will be able to live a much longer life he decides to make amends with his mother and be good to her before his death. Unfortunately he sees how good she is to her son Satoru (Kentaro Sakaguchi), a very successful idol pianist. Satoru has been able to provide his mother with a very happy and lavish lifestyle, meanwhile Ritsu has been struggling to make ends meet.

Thinking that she abandoned him solely due to poverty, Ritsu vows to get revenge on his mother. He eventually runs into a woman called Rinka (Riho Yoshioka ) during a chance meeting,  and he eventually falls for her. Unfortunately, Rinka has her eyes on Ritsu’s half-brother Satoru who is also her childhood friend.

This is the very first time Tomoya has had the lead in a Sunday TBS drama. “Gomen, Aishiteru” will begin filming in May.

On April 12, Ai Otsuka will release her eighth studio album, “LOVE HONEY.” The album includes the single “Watashi”, as well as one of its B-sides, “Sakura Harahara”, which served as the theme song for digital art exhibit “FLOWERS by NAKED 2017 -Risshun-.” The digital single “Hibi, Ikite Ireba” is also found on the album, along with the Kit Kat collaboration song “HEART BREAK.”

“LOVE HONEY” will come in four editions: CD+Goods, CD+DVD, CD+Blu-ray, and CD only. The item that is included with the CD+Goods edition is a fabric spray that is named after the album. The second disc that comes with the CD+DVD and CD+Blu-ray editions of “LOVE HONEY” includes the music videos for “Watashi” and “Sakura Harahara”, as well as footage from Ai’s Valentine’s Day concert, “AIO PIANO Vol.4.”

Check out more information on the album below, including a recently released trailer!

When Miliyah Kato debuted in 2004, many called her the voice for high school students due to both her heavy lyrical content and fun music. Throughout her career thus far she has achieved overwhelming popularity with people around the same age generation as her, especially with women.

In a story exclusive to the tabloid FLASH, Miliyah and her boyfriend (who is referred to as Mr. A) were spotted staying overnight at a luxurious inn located in the Shizuoka Prefecture. Mr. A isn’t in the entertainment business, he’s a chef in his late 30’s who works at a restaurant in Tokyo. What makes this so “scandalous” is that he apparently has a common-law wife. Mr. A and Miliyah originally started to date around two years ago, while he was still married with a child, but he got divorced shortly after. But it seems that Mr. A remarried someone else, all while still dating Miliyah at the same time. He’s currently living with his common-law wife and now two young children.

Hello, Arama! Japan readers and welcome to this week’s installment of #1 Song Review! Last week saw Nogizaka46 defeat Doughnuts Hole. This week, we have two newcomers facing off against each other. 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!

Back in February we covered that folk/pop duo Yuzu would be releasing a new best-of album to celebrate their 20th anniversary on April 26th.  In the weeks since, the group has revealed the details regarding the three special tracks which will close each of the compilation’s discs; they will be collaborative versions of previous Yuzu songs.  “Irotoridori” will be recreated with the help of Ikimonogakari, “Sayonara Bus” with back number, and “Kanashimi no Kasa” with SEKAI NO OWARI.

Today the duo published a studio live recording of their Ikimonogakari collab, which was of course recorded before the latter group went on hiatus late last year.  In addition, Yuzu also recently revealed the music video for their new track “Tatta”, which is both the theme song to the popular Fuji TV program “Mecha-Mecha Iketeru!” and Yuzu’s first hikigatari song in over 14 years.

Read on below to find the PVs for both “Tatta” and the new version of “Irotoridori”.