The Japan Record Award (Grand Prix) was conferred on “Flying Get” of AKB48, which has sold more than 1587,000 cds and No.1 hit of  all of the five AKB’s songs that sold more than one million this year, namely, “Everyday Katyusha” ,”Kaze wa Fuiteiru”, “Uekara Mariko”,and “Sakura no Kini Narou”.

AKB48 has received the Japan Record Award for the first time since their debut in 2005.  Minami Takahashi, the captian of the group says in her speech “We are so happy now  we have done our best for whole of one year since  last time here “, Atsuko Maeda, No.1 winner of the AKB48 election this year said, “I want to say thank you very much to everyone”, and Yuko Oshima, the captain of TeamK said, “Flying Get is sung by the selected members of the election, therefore, this award given by all of our fans ”.

AKB is one of thge most popular idol groups at the moment and Exile, the winner of the Grand Prix three years in a row 2008-2010 had given up the nomination of their song this year showing fairness and appreciation to fans , AKB was thought to be the leading candidate.

“AKB Project” including AKB48, SKE48,NMB48,HKT48, JKT48, and SDN48 is going to perform at the NHK “Kouhaku Utagassen” on the new year’s eve (tomorrow !) ,whose total number is  210 on the stage that is the record high of the population of a group of performers of Kouhaku Utagassen in history.

Other award receivers are as follows;

Best New Performer/  Fairies

Excellent Works/ “Esperanza” (Kana Nishino), “Go Go Summer!”(KARA), “CALL” (AAA), “Kono Yoru wo Tometeyo” (JUJU), “Shounai Hiya Kaze no Naka” ( Kaori Mizumori),  “Jounetsu no Mariachi”(Kiyoshi Hikawa ), “Soredemo Shjinjiteru” (FUNKY MONKEY BABYS), “Flying Get”(AKB48), “Why?(Keep Your Head Down)”(Toho Sinki), and “Waratte Tainda”(Ikimonogakari).

And all other awards and the receivers’ names are annnounced  on the above mentioned official website of The Japan Record Awards.

The event was a part of a series of  cross cultural  collaboration events of Japan and China which started in this June with Japanese movies introduced to China and Chinese movies and anime introduced to Japan in this October.

All the visitors needed to register in advance and a lot of anime related businesses of both China and Japan were invited, which made  passionate atmosphere in the venues.  

In the event  avarious programs were performed, such as ani-son (anime songs) live concerts, panel discussions, a cos-play show of anime characters. After the festival  a special “Anime film festival” was hosted as well Dec.2-6, at which  about 10 popular Japanese theater version anime works were shown, such as “NARUTO”, “Haruhi”, “Evangelion” and etc.

The actors extended words of appreciation of the huge supports and popularity of the anime work by the fans and announced the movie version of “K-ON!” was going to be released at 137 movie theaters nationwide on coming Dec.3rd.

The five actors, who play music in the band as their anime characters do as “After School Tea Time” in the work, sang the main theme song of the movie version, “Unmei♪Wa♪Endless!” and the ending theme song,”Singing!”.

Two sorts of  set dishes “After School Tea Time Set A” and “-Set B”(both are ￥800) related to  K-ON! are provided between Nov.23-Dec.31.  Set A consists of one soft-drink and a Mont Blanc, while Set B is of  a blancmange containing edible brown algae covered with  black source(Set B is available only on weekends and public holidays in this December).   

Madame Tussauds took Yoshiki’s body measurements while he was on tour with X Japan in France and England. The band has just returned from Bangkok, the last stop on their Asian tour.

Yoshiki’s figure joins 20 other celebrities, including Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Audrey Hepburn, Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga in a see-through body suit, Johnny Depp and AKB48 member Yuko Oshima. The exhibit is open until Jan 4, 2012.

Yoshiki also unveiled his comic book series, Blood Red Dragon at San Diego Comic-Con International in July. The series is a collaboration with comic book legends Stan Lee and Todd McFarlane, and stars a fictionalized version of Yoshiki.

At the cafe consists of four sections, namely “Theater”,”Cafe”,”Private room”,and “Shop”.  At “Theater”, you can enjoy buffet style meals with movies of AKB’s concerts on a large screen. At “Cafe”, you can enjoy special dishes created by AKB’s members ,which are to change from month to month. And “Private Room” whose capacity is 16 people is equipped with DVDs of AKB.  In addition, at “Shop” you can buy original items related to AKB.

Sometimes AKB’ members make “surprise” visits to the Cafe& Shop, which  makes customers amazingly happy.

And here is another new information concerning AKB48 project. On this Oct. 1st,  AKB’s management announced it is going to launch a project of a new sister group of AKB48. The new group is “TPE48″,  which is to be based in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan.  Further details of the project will be noticed to public at the end of this year, and the new group is expected to start theatrical performances around the summer in 2012.

TPE48 is to be the second sister group of AKB48 out of Japan, following JKT48 which I wrote about here before.http://www.tenkai-japan.com/2011/09/12/jkt48-project-launched/

- East Japan Great Earthquake & Tsunami Disaster-

‘LAWBLOW’ send a song from Ohfunato City 

A song ‘Let’s return to home’ composed and sung by a music group ‘LAWBLOW’, is steadily getting popular as a fight song for tsunami victims who try to recover from the disaster. ‘LAWBLOW’ is consisted of Mr. Kazuya Satomi (25) and Mr. Jun Sugawara (32) both are based in Ohfunato City.

Mr. Sugawara had worked for a swimming school but lost his job after the tsunami. Mr. Satome lost his scallop nursery at the tsunami and was forced to work for removing rubbles at the stricken site.

‘Let’s return to home’ as a title and repetition phrases in this song prayed for earlier return to a normal living condition. A life-sized message touches our heart, ‘Although, we lost our past, we will be able to create our future.’

The song was composed and started on air at local TV and radios in April, such as on the program ‘Songs for Everybody in Iwate Prefecture’ broadcasted by NHK Morioka Station. Response from the audiences was very quick.

LAWBLOW’s new album including ‘Let’s return to home’ has been available since July. A promotion video shooting was taken in Ohfunato City. On the video, residents of the stricken city, including fishermen, construction workers, senior high school students and kindergarteners, sing the song together with the stricken streets in the background.

‘LAWBLOW’ has been on live concerts mainly in Morioka City and Sendai City.

＜Reference＞

http://www.kyodonews.jp/

View Ohfunato City in a larger map

JKT is to be the first AKB48′  project’s group outside of Japan. That is the symbolic movement of the energetic momentum of the project currentlyhaving five groups,namely,AKB48(based in Akihabara Tokyo),SKE48(based in Sakae Aichi),NMB48(based in Namba Osaka),SDN48(Akihabara Tokyo),and HKT48(based in Hakata Fukuoka).  Now the project’s members have become the top female young idols of Japan, and the project has made up its mind to spread the activities to the international market beyond the borders.

  The  dead line of the first stage (documentary exam)of the first audition of JKT48 is this Sep.16th, and the final stage is going to be done on this October 9- 10th to select the first members out of  the candidates who will have passed the first and the second stage.  An applicant must be a female 13-18 years of age and a resident in Indonesia.

The management says,  it expects JKT to be a unique group making much of  Indonesian culture and society to start its career from Jakarta to Indonesia nationwide, and to the world.

Summer SonicC 2011 at Chiba Marine Stadium (QVC Marine Field)

The group performed tribute songs to two former members who have passed away―Hide who committed suicide in 1998, and Taiji Sawada who died in in a Saipan hospital in July after trying to hang himself. He had been arrested for unruly behavior on a flight to the Mariana Islands. The attempt left him brain dead and his family eventually decided to turn off life support.

Yoshiki
Lead singer Yoshiki moved audiences by announcing, “Hide and Taiji are playing with us right here. You see five on stage, but we are seven.”

Chiba is hometown of Yoshiki and Toshi.

According to the Sports Hochi, Isshi, the vocalist of visual kei rock band Kagrra, died at his home on July 18. He was 32 years old.

Due to his family’s wishes, the cause of death has not been revealed. A private funeral has already been held.

Isshi

Kagrra’s concept is “Neo Japanese.” Their lyrics are in the style of Heian era poetry, their costumes frequently incorporate traditional Japanese clothing styles, and traditional Japanese instruments and drum rhythms are used in some of their songs.

Kagrra

Isshi had reportedly appeared in good health during a talk event that took place on July 15. Since Kagrra’s breakup in March of this year, Isshi had been working on his solo project, “shiki∞project,” and he had already finished his first CD that was set for release this September. He was planning to hold two events on July 28-29 at Act Square in Ebisu, Tokyo, but those have now been turned into mourning events.

[From Ofunato city-my stricken home town]

- East Japan Great Earthquake & Tsunami Disaster-

Hip hop unit ‘LAWBLOW’ in Ofunato City

Let’s will be men of reconstruction from tsunami victims.A Hip hop music unit named ‘LAWBLOW’ lived in Ofunato City is about to sell their new CD album ‘Men of Reconstruction’ on July 27. The theme of the music is their experience of suffering of the tsunami.

Hip hop music is an American musical genre that developed as part of hip hop culture, which is defined by four key stylistic elements: MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching, breaking/dancing and graffiti writing. Other elements include sampling (or synthesis), and beat boxing. The term rap music is often used synonymously with the term hip hop music, but rap vocals are not required for music to be considered “hip hop.”

Two men lost their working place at the tsunami and have been involved in volunteer activities such as removing rubbles and helping tsunami victims in the city. The music was created while they worked in the stricken town.　They send out a message in their local language which is only the tsunami victims can create at the stricken town.

‘LOWBLOW’ is consisted of two Ofunato citizens, SLD or Jun Sugawara and STOCK or Kazuya Satomi. The tsunami washed away a working place of SLD and fish-farming facility of STOCK on March 11.　‘It was quite regrettable losing everything at the tsunami. Let’s sing just what we looked on the tsunami.’ They strengthen their determination of restarting music activity.The music was composed on their way to the music production in Sendai City, which ‘LOWBLOW’ belongs to. Mr. Satomi express as such. ‘When we heard my father’s saying in a mutter “We’re not simply weak tsunami victims, but are men of reconstruction of our town.” We also could understand like so.’ The price of music CD will be 1,980 yen including tax. It is available in most music CD shops in Japan and also on the web site shop.

＜Reference＞

http://www.iwate-np.co.jp/

http://en.wikipedia.org/

View Ofunato in a larger map

(C)Team Amuze!“Let’s try again”CD+DVD

Originally planned to be sold only online, Amuse decided to release an album including the song and the music video after the company received a series of fan requests. The song is a nine-minute combination of 14 songs performed by Amuse artists, put together and arranged in a music medley by singer Keisuke Kuwata.

The 54 performers include popular bands and artists such as BEGIN, Southern All Stars, the female disco trio Perfume, Masaharu Fukuyama, as well as actresses Riisa Naka and Yuriko Yoshitaka.

All profits from “Let’s Try Again will go towards reconstruction and relief operations in the three most devastated prefectures after the earthquake, Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima via Japan Red Cross.

Sales start on May 25. Price is 1,300 yen.

Yoshiki is to auction his iconic custom-made Kawai grand piano on April 17 and Yahoo is helping the singer promote the charity event in 7 languages. Bids will be accepted in Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean, French, Italian and Russian.

“As an artist who lives abroad, it was the natural next step for me to invite bids not just from Japan, but from overseas as well,” Yoshiki told reporters. “Yahoo has been working hard to offer what support it can, which includes preparing auction pages in seven languages.”

The auction has also been granted its own banner on the Yahoo Tohoku Earthquake Charity Auction Site and provisions have been made to allow fans to bid from Facebook and Twitter. The Internet giant said that anyone of any nationality who can read the web pages is eligible to bid.

Auction proxy service J-grab, which supports English language buyers in the Japanese market, has offered to help international buyers bid on the piano by waiving handling fees and commission.

Yoshiki, who plays drums and piano and writes most of the music for X Japan, is based in Los Angeles, but was visiting Japan to attend a fashion show and write music at the time of the quake. Originally from Chiba, Yoshiki said he watched events unfold and when he saw the scale of the destruction, he decided to do what he could to help the recovery operations. “I decided the best I could do was to try and contribute something through music,” he said.

The auction will be held from April 17 to 24. Bidding will start at 1 yen. The amount international bidders pay will be calculated according to the exchange rate on the day they place their bids.

Jackie Chan

The three members of AKB48 singing at the charity concert in Victoria Park in Hong Kong

Lionel Richie and Kenny G, musicians of  US sent video clips messages for Japan.

Jackie Chan made a speech saying, “We are here to tell Japanese people that  they are not alone. I believe the Japanese people will surely remain strong and positive though they will have a  long way to go to the reconctruction. Never give up, Japan ! ”  He facilitated the event at his own expenses of  HK$ 4 million(≒￥43 million).

All the performers of the event did their peromances wearing  a T-shirt which  had  a written phrase of  “Hope for Japan” 

More than 10,000 people visited the concert and donated more than HK$ 2,500 (≒￥270 million ) in total which is to sent to the afflicted areas.

L’Arc~en~Ciel has two scheduled concerts at Ajinomoto Stadium in Tokyo on May 28 and 29. In an announcement on their official website on Tuesday, the members and staff revealed that they will direct all of the concert revenue towards rebuilding in the earthquake-stricken areas.

The staff will also be taking extra measures to address safety and power usage concerns during the concerts.

Several popular Asian artists worked together on the remake version of Masaharu Fukuyama’(福山 雅治) s best album “THE BEST BANG!!” Since the project is part of his push into the rest of Asia, the album will be released in six countries overseas: Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Korea.

Fukuyama is a Japanese singer-songwriter, guitarist, record producer, actor and photographer from Nagasaki, Nagasaki Prefecture. He is one of the top male artists in Japan.

The original version of “THE BEST BANG!!,” released in Japan last November, consists of three CDs, but the “With Special Guests -Fukuyama Masaharu Remake-” version will include a fourth CD with 8 tracks. According to the singer’s website, the songs being remade and the artists involved are:

Niji (BEAST)
Hotaru (TEI)
Himawari (Lim Jeonghee)
Saiai (2AM)
milk tea (G.NA)
Gunjou -ultramarine- (Ban Kwang-Ok)
Koibito (Joohee)
Hatsukoi (Young Jee)

The album will be released on March 30, except in Korea where it will be released on April 20.