On September 27th, a press conference to announce the “Kohaku supporters” for NHK’s annual music show on New Year’s Eve “NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen” was held, and it was revealed that AKB48 andTerry Ito have been chosen as the supporters for the second straight year.
At the press conference, Terry Ito and AKB48’s Oshima Yuko, Kashiwagi Yuki, Shinoda Mariko,Watanabe Mayu, Kojima Haruna, Takahashi Minami, Minegishi Minami, Shimazaki Haruka,Yokoyama Yui, SKE48’s Matsui Jurina, Matsui Rena, NMB48’s Watanabe Miyuki, Yamamoto Sayaka, and HKT48’s Sashihara Rino all made an appearance, and expressed their eagerness for the program.
The theme of this year’s Kohaku will be “Uta de Aitai. (= Meeting through music)”, and they will start promoting it on various programs and events.
At the press conference, the general manager of AKB group, Takahashi stated earnestly, “This was the year of change for AKB48, as Maeda Atsuko graduated from the group, and we achieved our long-cherished Tokyo Dome concert. It’s no exaggeration to say that ‘The second chapter of AKB48 has begun’. We will try our hardest together to send energy to everybody with the power of music.”
“The 63rd NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen” will air from 7:15 pm ~ 11:45 pm on New Year’s Eve
Earlier today, AKB48’s Itano Tomomi updated her blog to let her fans know that she started a new social networking site for her fans.
The site is called “Team tomo” and fans from around the world can join and interact with one another. They can also interact with Itano and her managers. Itano states that fans can submit their favorite pictures of Itano and topics for discussion, as well as respond to other people’s submissions. She promises that her managers and herself will also be posting on the new site.
Registration is free and you can even sign-up using your Facebook account if you wish.
Check out ‘Team Tomo’ http://teamtomo.com/
Currently, the ‘King Tut Exhibit: Golden Treasures and the Young King’s Truth’ exhibit is on display at The Ueno Royal Museum in Tokyo. The exhibit has been extended until January 20th of next year, instead of the previous closure date of December 9th.
AKB48’s Shinoda Mariko (26), who was nominated as the exhibit’s special sponsor earlier this year, commented, “I would love to visit the exhibit again sometime soon.”
The exhibit in Tokyo was set to last from August 4th to December 9th. The exhibit was previously in Osaka this past spring and more than 1,200,000 people visited. Thus, with the popularity of the exhibit, its final date has been postponed. Shinoda went to the Osaka exhibit in May and commented, “I was really moved by all of the beautiful items on display, it’s hard to believe that they’re from 3,300 years ago.”
Shinoda explained why so many people love the exhibit by saying, “There are a lot of young girls who are particularly captivated by the decorations, and boys seem to enjoy the research investigating King Tut’s mysterious life. I hoped that even just one more person would be moved by this exhibit, and now more people have a chance to do that with the extension. It makes me really glad.”
AKB48’s Masuda Yuka (21) made a stop at Sankei Sports’ office in Osaka on the 21st to promote her musical “Wiz” (Wiz ~ Oz no Mahoutsukai). She plays the lead role of Dorothy in Miyamoto Amon’s musical.
The opening performance will take place on the 28th at KAAT Kanagawa Art Theater and will move to Osaka on October 6 and 7th at the Umeda Arts Theater Main Hall, which is why Masuda stopped by to promote in Osaka.
Masuda gave her full attention to the musical, removing herself from AKB48’s first Tokyo Domeconcerts and the group’s “29th Single Senbatsu Janken Tournament” on the 18th. “I’ll remove my ’shell’, and I want this to give power to those who are feeling down in Japan now!!”
AKB48’s Matsui Sakiko has been chosen to host the “79th NHK Nationwide School Music Competition”, which will air from October 6 to the 8th on NHK E-Tele. The competition is commonly referred to as NCon and is the biggest choral competition in Japan. More than 2000 schools participate every year from every age range.
Every year, NCon chooses a J-POP artist for the students to make a rendition. Previous arrangements include Angela Aki’s “Tegami ~Haikei Juugo no Kimi e~” and Ikimonogakari’s “YELL”, and for 2012, YUI’s “fight” was chosen for the middle school group.
Matsui will be debuting with her own piano instrumental album “Kokyuu Suru Piano”, and she is currently enrolled in her university’s school of music. When she was in middle school, she was part of her music club and appeared at NCon for all three years. She says that she often hums the set piece of music from then even now.
Matsui said, “I went to the competition every year, and I watched the national contest every year on TV with my mom, so I was really happy when this was brought up. The event will be broadcast live, so I’ll probably be nervous, but I want to do my very best.”
An audio rip for AKB48’s 26th single, “Manatsu no Sounds good!” has now been revealed!
On April 13th, the audio for “Manatsu no Sounds good!” was played over the radio airwaves in Japan. The single will be officially released on May 23rd and it sounds like it’s going to be another million seller.
Check it out below!
On April 12th, the JRA(Japan Racing Association) announced that AKB48 will be their new CM models. As one of the main projects of JRA’s new campaign ‘SMART!JRA‘, 28 members of AKB48, who are over 20 years of age, will compete by betting on a horse race to become the main star of JRA CM this fall.
The project is named ‘AKB no Gachi Uma‘ and includes Maeda Atsuko. They will call five G1(Grade 1) horse races from Empire Awards on April 29th to Japan Derby on May 27th. JRA started to air the preview CM of this project on April 4th with the slogan, “That national idol will call horse races!“, dropping hints of a collaboration with AKB48. Now, all details are revealed with their new CM.
This competition will be based on a point system, and the girls will update their bet on the ‘Gachi Uma’ website for each race a day before they’re held. Every time their bet wins, they will get a point. The member who gains the most will star in JRA’s new CM this fall.
The AKB48 members are used to surprise announcements after they had many of them at concerts in the past, but news of this type of competition caught them off guard. Shinoda Mariko and Miyazawa Sae have experience calling horse races on TV programs, so they seem to be in an advantageous position compared to other members.
Check out the two versions of the CM below!
<SMART!JRA 15-second ver.>
<SMART!JRA 30-second ver.>
On April 14th, the first episode of ‘Shiritsu Bakaleya Koukou‘ was aired. Fans could listen to the preview of Maeda Atsuko’s new solo single “Migikata” as a ending theme song for the show.
This will be Maeda’s 2nd solo single and first single after she announced her graduation from AKB48. The release date or any other details have not been decided yet.
Check out the “Migikata” and also clips from ‘Shiritsu Bakaleya Koukou’.
Earlier in February, AKB48 announced that they would be donating a total of 30 buses called ‘AKBus‘ to Miyagi, Iwate, and Fukushima Prefectures. On April 14th, the group held a handshake event at Kleenex Stadium Miyagi, where they presented the ‘AKBus’ for the very first time.
AKB48 donated 30 buses to the disaster-stricken areas to coincide with the new school year. Before their handshake event, they held a presentation ceremony, where they gifted the vehicles and keys to Miyagi’s Yamamoto City vice major, Hirama Hidehiro.
Takahashi Minami greeted, “I hope that these buses will become a means of transportation for everyone. AKB48 will continue to support in reconstructing disaster-stricken areas.” Vice mayor Hirama thanked the girls saying, “These buses we’ve received, we will use them as town buses.”
When AKB48 held an event for “Flying Get” and “Kaze wa Fuiteiru” last year, 6,000 fans gathered to meet the girls. Oshima Yuko called out, “It’s been 5 months since we last came to visit everyone in Tohoku. We want to liven up this venue with everyone!”
The group then performed a total of 9 songs including, “GIVE ME FIVE!” and “Heavy Rotation“.
Alongside Takahashi and Oshima, the members who were present at this event were, Itano Tomomi,Kasai Tomomi, Kashiwagi Yuki, Kitahara Rie, Kuramochi Asuka, Kojima Haruna, Sashihara Rino, Shinoda Mariko, Takajo Aki, Maeda Atsuko, Minegishi Minami, Miyazawa Sae, andYokohama Yui.
Take a look at pictures from the event below!
On April 18th, AKB48’s Sashihara Rino was appointed as Oita City’s first sightseeing ambassador.
Sashihara, who was born in Oita, was chosen for this position because she has continued to talk about her love for the city through TV programs and her official blog.
During a press conference, mayor Kugimiya Ban welcomed Sashihara to her position saying, ”I want her to send out the existence of Oita City to people nationwide. She’s very suitable to be the first (ambassador).“
Meanwhile, Sashihara commented, “I will do my best to deliver the unknown charms of Oita City to many people.”
To promote tourism, Oita City decided to promote a sightseeing ambassador back in February. They were looking to select a candidate from the entertainment and sports industries.
Sashihara will be the city’s sightseeing ambassador for 3 years. Her activities as the ambassador has not been determined at this time, however, a responsible party of the city stated, “We want her to introduce the food of Oita, as well as the Takasakiyama Natural Zoo.”
してください。 