あらま They Didn't ! Japanese Entertainment News

L'Arc~en~Ciel's latest single, "X X X," will be officially released on October 12th.

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hyde's english was so flawfree this time i'm in shock

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The autotune ruins what could've been a flaw-free song

Since the sudden retirement of talento Shimada Shinsuke last month, a couple of the shows he hosted have been forced to end. On Tuesday, it was revealed that the most popular one, “Quiz! Hexagon II,” will follow suit, with its final episode to be a 2-hour special on September 28.

The show started as a special in 2002 as “Quiz! Hexagon,” and it became a regular program the next year. Due to low ratings, it underwent a renewal in 2005 and became “Quiz! Hexagon II.” It became widely popular for its cast of “dumb” celebrities, reaching ratings as high as 23.5% in 2008 and spawning music careers for numerous sub-groups of members of the “Hexagon Family.”

Fuji TV was considering the possibility of continuing “Quiz! Hexagon II” with a different host chosen from the Hexagon Family, but the show’s September 7 episode achieved meager ratings of 10.9%.

Fuji TV has not yet decided on the show’s replacement.

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sad.

Though South Korea has developed a reputation for high-quality electronics and competitively-branded cars on a par with their Japanese rivals, the meteoric rise of Korean pop has pushed the East Asian country into the limelight in recent years. Boy bands like Super Junior, FT Island, MBLAQ and B2ST have captured the hearts of millions of girls worldwide. SNSD, Kara, 4minute and other South Korean girl groups have experienced similar levels of success with their male fan bases.

It’s little wonder Korean music and culture “has the potential to become a new economic growth engine by fueling exports and improving the country’s overall image abroad,” according to a report by the Hyundai Research Institute (HRI).

Across the Sea of Japan, the Japanese music industry is struggling to keep its head above the water. The 2010 figures from The Recording Industry Association of Japan indicate declines of 6% (volume) and 5% (value) in Japan’s digital music market compared with the same figures from 2009. Internet downloads also experienced a 1% decline, falling to 10.1 billion yen in total revenue. Total market size fell by 8.3% in 2010. Though it remains the second largest market for music in the world, Japanese pop could certainly use some of the vigor and enthusiasm so closely associated with the meteoric rise of its Korean counterpart.

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Source: japantoday

This article is a bit different than the others.  It went into the economic benefits for J-pop to expand internationally.

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(If it's been taken down, you can get the .flv file at this link from the Playstation TGS site)

Theme song:
Fukui Mai - 'Yakusoku no Basho' (PS3 version only)
Charice - 'New World' ('Yakusoku no Basho' English ver.) (XBox360 version only)

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Release dates:
Japan - December 15th 2011
North America and Asia - January 31st 2012
Europe - February 3rd 2012

Lightning Edition Version 2, PS3 (320GB) bundle will be released on December 15th.



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sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

South Korea plans to propose talks with Japan this week over wartime sex slaves, an issue that has long proved an irritant in relations between the two countries, according to Yonhap news agency.

The move comes after South Korea’s constitutional court ruled last month in favor of former sex slaves battling for government help in claiming compensation from Japan, the report said.

The court ruled that the Seoul government had violated the rights of the women by making no effort to take on Japan over its refusal to compensate them.

Japan’s harsh rule over Korea lasted from 1910 until its World War II defeat in 1945.

Historians say more than 200,000 women from Korea and other countries were forced to work as “comfort women” in military brothels used by Japanese troops during the war.

Japan has apologized for the military’s involvement in crimes against the women but insists the offenses were committed privately rather than on behalf of the state.

Tokyo has claimed that all issues regarding the colonial rule have been settled in a compensation deal in 1965 when the two countries agreed to normalize relations.

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Aki is the daughter of Aki Kiyoshi, founder of the Aeon chain of English conversation schools, and an Italian-American mother. Born in Tokushima Prefecture, she started playing piano at the age of 3. She
spent her high school years in Hawaii where she was into surfing and the music of Nirvana and Green Day. While at university in Washington D.C. she attended a campus concert by Sara McLachlan and decided that she wanted to pursue a career in music. She had her breakthrough in 2001 when one of her tunes was used in a TV commercial but it wasn't until September 2005 that she made her major label debut with the single "Home." She had her first Oricon chart topper with the 2007 album "Today."

19. Other
18. Asano Tadanobu
17. Matsuyama Kenichi
16. Odagiri Joe
15. Satou Koichi
14. Toyokawa Etsushi
13. Tamaki Hiroshi
12. Okada Sexy <3
11. Tamyama Tetsuji

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BEIJING -- Popular Japanese music group SMAP will perform in Beijing on Sept. 16, the first overseas performance for the group, an event that Japanese and Chinese officials hope will improve strained relations between the two countries.

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Other efforts by government officials to use SMAP or other pop groups to repair relations can be seen. On Sept. 15 last year, despite the fact that it was only days after the collision incident, Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua showed up at a SMAP performance in Tokyo Dome, where he met with SMAP members and fans, and in May of this year, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met with the members of SMAP in Tokyo, where he told them, "I wait with anticipation from my heart for your performance (in China)."

In response, this year Japanese Ambassador to China Uichiro Niwa has brought up the names of SMAP and Arashi, another popular pop band, again and again in his public appearances. Last month, when he visited Qinghai Province, he gave Arashi DVDs to President Hu Jintao and first secretary of the Communist Youth League of China, Lu Hao.

In August, SMAP's Kimura held a press conference in China, where he expressed his desires for the upcoming performance, saying, "I want to express the energy of Japan (as it works to recover from the March 11 disasters)."

Source: Mainichi Japan

small shout out for the brief mention of my boys, Happy 5x12!!!

Aired 3 days ago on cross FM ...

Hoshi no Tabibito (Radio Rip)

Track 12 ; words：AKIHIDE　music：AKIHIDE



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An interesting story behind the creation of Hoshi no Tabibito was that on cross FM , guitarist AKIHIDE mentioned this song was written/composed by him after the unfortunate March 11th earthquake/tsunami took place .

Johnny's net is running a Special Movie campaign starring their talents in supporting the Tohoku quake relief efforts. The videos can be purchased from their website at a price of 315 yen (200 yen will be donated towards the earthquake relief fund).

Non members and foreigners are able to purchase it too. You can use this helpful tutorial as a guide.

Time to pitch in and do your part for Japan recovery!

Source: tumblr (special thanks to nerdvana!) and Johnny's net

In addition to Perfume, it has recently been announced that AAA will also be representating Japan in the Asia Song Festival 2011 that will take place in Daegu Stadium  in Korea on the 15th of October.

This will be AAA's first live in Korea since their debut in 2005.

Congratulations to AAA in being selected!



Source: http://www.oricon.co.jp/news/music/2001818/full/

Omigosh...cannot...contain...excitement!!!!
I've been wanting them to go on Asia Song Festival for forever!!!!

I'm so happy for them!!! FJAFNJAFNJAFN
GOOO AAA!!! <3

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Source: keiisback

I know this performance is not recent, but its not posted up on Arama so I  decided to post this up lol~