AKB48’s Tomomi Itano opens Official Website

AKB48 member Tomomi Itano is set to release her first solo single, “Dear J“, on January 26th, and with the release date about two weeks away, the popular idol has finally opened an official website.

The website contains past releases and information on all her appearances on TV, in magazines, in CMs, and whatever else she has been in.

You may all know she has an official Twitter, but she also has an official Facebook that less may be familiar with.


Official Facebook
Official Twitter
Official Blog

Also check out the CM for her debut single below!




source: tokyohive

Naka Riisa turns into a cute rock ‘n’ roller for meiji’s Valentine’s Day commercial

Just like Lotte, Japanese confectionery company Meiji Seika, or “meiji” for short, will be releasing a Valentine’s Day commercial, and this year it’s going to feature quirky actress Naka Riisa (21).

In the commercial, Naka is going to disguise herself as a “cool and cute” rock ‘n’ roller and take over the pink corridor of a school. With her song, she is aiming to cheer up all the girls who are struggling with making their own chocolate for Valentine’s Day. A total of 17 girl students are following her call in the spot and dance along with her, including the young “CanCam” model Tsuchiya Hazuki and young “SEVENTEEN” model Hashimoto Ai.

Naka herself is wearing flashy pink clothes in the commercial and sports a cute guitar that looks just as if it was made out of meiji milk chocolate. The song goes “chocolate chocolate chocolate wa meiji~” and is catchy enough to stay in your head until Valentine’s Day.

Last year, Hirosue Ryoko and Kinoshita Yukina starred in meiji’s Valentine’s Day commercial and urged all girls to put their feelings into their handmade chocolate, but this year the story actually promotes the idea of just giving your chocolate to a very good friend, which is also known as “tomochoco” (friend chocolate).

After the filming, Naka caused a lot of laughter with a remark that didn’t befit a 21-year-old girl like her. She said, “I haven’t been surrounded by that many young people for a while. They’ve really pepped up the filming.”

The commercial will start airing on January 15th, and of course, we will update you as soon as it is available.








source: tokyohive

Mano Erina writes an emotional post about her meeting with Lin Lin

Hello! Project soloist Mano Erina updated her blog with a very long, but touching story about her friendship with ex-Morning Musume member, Lin Lin.

Attaching a photo to the post, Mano wrote:

“Today was something I’ve always wanted to do… I’ve been promising to do it since about 2
years ago. I went to go eat with Lin Lin (*^ー^*) It was late, but I’m so glad we made it happen
(・∪・*) I finally got to tell Lin Lin ‘Congratulations on your graduation!’ in person! Before, when we were next to each other (at graduation), seeing Lin Lin’s face made me cry and I couldn’t say it right (／_＼;)


Ever since Lin Lin and I were Eggs, and stood together on stage for the first time, we’ve been close friends. Because Lin Lin got into Morning Musume, I only got to see her at the summer and winter Hello! Project concerts; but when we had rehearsals, we’d eat together! It had been such a long time since we talked at ease with each other like today – I had so many things to talk about and the conversation just didn’t end (´∀`人) We talked about the first time we met, the first time we did a performance as brand new Eggs, about the Hello! Project concerts… We both kept saying, “Things like that feel so strange.”

Bright Lin Lin, who always has a smile on her face… I really do love you!!! When you first came
to Japan, we both asked, ‘How are we supposed to communicate?’ We didn’t know, but… since then, we’ve been together and didn’t worry about it.

…Even though there were sad feelings, we promised each other: ‘We’ll both do our best, and stand on the same stage again!’ Lin Lin said (at graduation), ‘Even though we’ll be far apart, we’ll be connected by the sky,’ so I won’t cry in front of Lin Lin!

Really, thank you. I love you Lin Lin (●´∀｀●)“

Fans’ hearts melted, as they commented, “I’m so glad you got to see Lin Lin,” “When I read that you and Lin Lin had been friends since you were Eggs, it broke my heart,” and “You two are so close.”



source: tokyohive

2NE1’s “Can’t Nobody” ringtones to be released in Japan

AVEX Entertainment, which officially took 2NE1 under its wing last October, recently posted an announcement on its website revealing that three ringtones of 2NE1’s hit track “Can’t Nobody” (English version) is scheduled to be sold in Japan starting next week.

“2NE1’s “CAN’T NOBODY (English Ver.)” will start distributing on Recochoku [a music distribution site] on January 19th,” AVEX announced, explaining that the three ringtones will be the chaku-uta (audio ringtone, which plays like an MP3), chaku-movie (audio-visual ringtone, which plays the song with a MV) and RBT (ringback tone, which plays after a number has been dialed).

Although no official information has been revealed regarding 2NE1’s official debut overseas, this release is one of 2NE1’s first steps into Japan under AVEX. It hasn’t been announced whether the chaku-movie MV will be the Korean version or a new video entirely, but unconfirmed rumors have it that a music video for the English version of “Can’t Nobody” will be released in the future.

source: tokyohive

“New adult” Tanimura Mitsuki wants to enrich her private life

Today, NHK organized a preview screening of the first episode of the upcoming drama, “Koisuru Nihongo“, starring Yo Kimiko (54).

Supporting actress Tanimura Mitsuki (20) also appeared at the event, wearing a beautiful furisode. A furisode is a long-sleeved kimono “new adults” wear in celebration of the Coming of Age Day. Tanimura turned 20 in June last year, and thus she was also able to celebrate her Coming of Age a few days ago.

Her ambitions as a new adult: “Until now my life has always been about work, but in this year I’d like to enrich my private life more, hoping that it would have a positive effect on my work at the same time.”

Despite her desire to focus on private matters, it all comes back to work after all.

“Koisuru Nihongo” will start on January 20th.

source: tokyohive

Nami Tamaki releases remix of “Missing You -Time to Love-”!

Nami Tamaki recently collaborated with select members of popular Korean boy band ‘Choshinsei’ for her latest single, “Missing You -Time to Love-“. The track was originally a cover of a 2009 K-pop song called “TTL (Time to Love)“, a sassy track between two hot K-pop groups, T-ara and Choshinsei.


Now, Nami’s given an original twist to the song, as she renamed it and sang it entirely in Japanese. In addition to her version of the song, the single comes with a laidback R&B remix of the song. Check it out if you haven’t already!



source: tokyohive

AKB48 members to appear in short drama series, “Sakura Kara no Tegami”

New late-night short drama series “Sakura Kara no Tegami~AKB48 Sorezore no Sotsugyou Monogatari~“, which stars all AKB48 members, will be broadcasted on nine consecutive nights from February 26th to March 6th.

The story will revolve around a male high school teacher (Kamikawa Takaya), who only has three months left to live due to cancer, and his students’ daily lives and conflicts. The drama will be based on the lyrics of AKB48’s upcoming single, “Sakura no Ki ni Narou“, which will be released on February 16th, and it will also be used as its main theme song. Other AKB48 songs will be used in the drama as well.


The main casts will be played by the “media senbatsu” members (#1-#12), the senbatsu members (#13-#21), who will play the sub-cast, and other roles will be played by the “under girls” (#22 on). All the members will be playing roles using their real names, which likely serves the purpose of helping casual fans learn all their names.

Each episode will be 10 minutes long, except for the first and last episodes, which will be 30 and 60 minutes, respectively, and each storyline will be concluded at the end of each episode, but all the plots will be linked together.

It’s been decided the drama will be released on a DVD-BOX, including the making-of, as well as the interview to the members.











source : tokyohive

Oricon weekly chart results for January 17th!

Oricon has announced their results for the weekly chart for January 17th.

Check out them out below!



Single Weekly Ranking


1. “Toilet no Kamisama” – Uemura Kana : 11/24 (22,954)

2. “Heavy Rotation” – AKB48 : 8/18 (12,901)

3. “Chance no Junban” – AKB48 : 12/8 (10,684)

4. “Beginner” – AKB48 : 10/27 (10,502)

5. “Ryusei” – Kobukuro : 11/17 (8,786)



Album Weekly Ranking


1. “Ikimonobakari ~members’ BEST selection~” – Ikimonogakari : 11/3 (39,612)

2. “Love songs” – Hamasaki Ayumi : 12/22 (22,300)

3. “Golden Hour~Shimohanki Best 2010~” – Golden Bomber : 1/6 (21,145)

4. “No Sleeves” – No Sleeves : 1/1 (20,723)

5. “Girl’s Talk” – KARA : 11/24 (15,587)



DVD Weekly Ranking (Synthesis)


1. “BIOHAZARD IV After Life” – movie : 12/22

2. “EXILE LIVE TOUR 2010 FANTASY” – EXILE : 12/1

3. “KAT-TUN -NO MORE PAIN- WORLD TOUR 2010″ – KAT-TUN : 12/29

4. “Sengoku BASARA 2 Sono Yon” – animation : 1/7

5. “Takahashi Daisuke Plus” – Takahashi Daisuke : 1/7


source: tokyohive

hitomi announces new single, “Umarete Kurete Arigatou/Smile World”

Pop singer hitomi has announced that she will be releasing her new single, “Umarete Kurete Arigatou/Smile World“, on February 16th.

This will be her first release in a year and eight months since her “LOVE LIFE 2” album that made waves with its cover of her naked during her pregnancy. The single will be a double A-side that features her song for the Yochien “Kodomomanaka PROJECT“, titled “Umarete Kurete Arigatou“, and also her 50th anniversary theme song for Sanrio’s “GREEEN TOKYO HELLO KITTY & FRIENDS“, called “Smile World.”


Besides the two A-side tracks, there will also be a coupling song called “Song for you☆” on the single. It will be a heartwarming song about hitomi’s hard struggle with being a mother and raising her child.


source : tokyohive

Seven AKB48 members celebrate “Coming of Age Day” in kimonos

January 10th is “Coming of Age Day” in Japan, and seven members of AKB48 (Miyazawa Sae, Sato Natsuki, Katayama Haruka, Nakata Chisato, Matsubara Natsumi, Matsui Sakiko and Sato Amina) celebrated the occasion by appearing at the Kanda Shrine in kimonos.

Receiving the purification ritual at the shrine, the girls declared their ambitions for the new year, as the first step of becoming an adult. Now that they’re of legal age to drink alcohol, the girls revealed that they want to have a party and drink together.










source: tokyohived

KARA holds press conference for upcoming drama, “URAKARA”

KARA held their first press conference for their upcoming drama, “URAKARA,” at the Tokyo TV studio on January 10th. All of the members were said to have expressed their thoughts in fluent Japanese.

Leader Gyuri revealed, “The drama is about dating, and a variety of different genres are mixed in. Things such as robots appear as well, so fans can look forward to many different things.” Seung Yeon added, “Please watch over us grow not only as singers, but through this drama as well.”


Nicole expressed, “It’s our first drama, so there is a sense of pressure, but we slowly got used to the filming and are now able to have a lot of fun with it.” Goo Hara continued, “Please look forward to the different dating missions all five of us will be accomplishing.”

Ji Young concluded, “Like the title ‘URAKARA’, the members will be showing new and different sides of themselves. Viewers will even be able to see the KARA members in love.”

The drama will consist of a total of 12 episodes and will begin airing on January 14th. The girls will also be singing the opening song, “Ima, Okuridai Arigatou.”




source: tokyohive

Matsushita Yuya releases PV for upcoming single “Paradise”

Matsushita Yuya will release his 7th single “Paradise” on February 2nd, and recently, he has revealed the full PV for the upcoming single. As we reported earlier, “Paradise” will be used as the theme song for a new late night drama titled, “Quartet,” in which Matsushita himself and Fukuda Saki star in (The drama will start on January 18th.)






source: tokyohive

YUI’s “It’s My Life” PV to feature ORESKABAND

YUI updated her blog with some exciting news for both her own fans and ska fanatics!

Her latest single, “It’s My Life / Your Heaven” is scheduled for release on January 26th, but it looks like a PV is already in the works. In her message, YUI revealed:

“Yesterday I did the filming for the “It’s My Life” music video! This time, the horn group ORESKABAND came and participated~ I had so much fun with everybody!”

For those of you who may not know ORESKABAND, they’re an all-female ska band whose signature happy-pop-ska sound have made them quite popular in the J-ska realm. The group previously collaborated with Acid Black Cherry for his hit song, “Black Cherry.”

Judging by this collaboration, fans can expect to hear the ska band in YUI’s newest single.

For a sample of the song, check out the U-Can CM featuring “It’s My Life” below!





source: tokyohive

Yamashita Tomohisa visits Thailand to promote his solo Asia tour

As many of you already know, NEWS member Yamashita Tomohisa, is preparing for his first solo Asia tour “TOMOHISA YAMASHITA ASIA TOUR 2011 Super good Super bad.”

Last month, Yamashita visited Hong Kong to promote his concert, and on January 10th, he visited Thailand to announce that he will hold concerts there for April 23rd and 24th at the Bangkok Thunderdome.

According to the local media, he was warmly welcomed by the fans at the air port.


source : tokyohive

NHK broadcasts “DOCUMENTARY of AKB48 ~1Mili Saki no Mirai~”

As we reported previously, NHK has broadcasted AKB48’s documentary program titled, “DOCUMENTARY of AKB48 ~1 Mili Saki no Mirai~“, on January 8th.

It featured back stage access to AKB48’s activities during 2010, including concerts, AKB48 General Election, Janken Senbatsu, and much more.

Check out video of the program below!




source : tokyohive

Morning Musume’s leader Takahashi Ai to graduate in the Fall!

Takahashi Ai, the current leader of Morning Musume, has announced her graduation from the Hello! Project group just a little while ago. The news was posted on the official Hello! Project site, and it says that she will graduate from Morning Musume and Hello! Project after the 2011 Fall Tour.


Takahashi said that when Kamei Eri, Lin Lin, and Jun Jun graduated, Tsunku told her that she should think about when she wants to graduate as well. She figured that since it’s been 10 years in Morning Musume (including being a leader for a while), and since she watched over the other members, it would be a nice time to graduate at the end of the tour.

It’s a bit of odd timing since Morning Musume just added four new members, which seemed to gain fan momentum, and they now are losing one of the most popular members in 8-9 months or so. Nevertheless, Takahashi urged fans not to worry and be at ease because they are nine strong for now

source: tokyohive

Fukuda Saki talks about her hard-boiled image in the drama “Quartet”

Today, TBS held a press conference for their upcoming night drama “Quartet“, starring Fukuda Saki and Matsushita Yuya.

Fukada had to undergo quite a transformation for her very first role as hard-boiled young woman, as she graces the screen in a full-body tattoo, piercings, and blond hair. “It feels like a whole different me. You can see a Fukada Saki you have never seen before,” she spoke enthusiastically about her role.

“Quartet” is a crime-action drama based on the universe of a novel of the same name by Osawa Arimasa, but with an entirely new story. It focuses on 3 young people with a truly scattered past and a person from the police that hired them to infiltrate a huge crime organization.



It is Fukada’s first drama in which she has to make use of weapons. She said, “I’ve never even hit a person and was really nervous, but I’ve trained it a lot.” About the appearance of her role she added, “At first it felt really uncomfortable, but it was interesting to become a completely different person. People around me even have told me that I look good with the blond hair.” Further she revealed that it takes 3 and a half hour to create her full-body tattoo, but she knows that it is all for the sake of the authenticity of her play. She said, “It is a very important element for transforming into my role. The tattoo is like a switch.”

For her co-star, R&B singer Matsushita, it is the very first time he has appeared in a drama. “It is my absolute first time, but I’m having a lot of fun.” About Fukuda he said, “During the filming it is no problem, but during the breaks it is still difficult for me to have eye contact with a girl. I never know where to look whenever the camera isn’t rolling.”



Fukuda has noticed the same thing. “During the filming we really are on the same wavelength, but unfortunately it is still getting awkward as soon as the camera is gone.” She added, “We actually have a lot in common, we are of the same age, we act and we both sing.”

For the rest of the month the team is going to Taiwan to film a couple of scenes there and both of the actors hope that they will be able to get more comfortable with each other while being abroad.

As mentioned a month ago, Kamikawa Takaya and Natsuna are going to complete the quartet.

“Quartet” is going to premier on January 18th and air every night from Tuesday to Wednesday at 1 am.





source: tokyohive

Yamada Ryosuke & Chinen Yuri on “Waratte Iitomo!”

Previously, we reported that Hey! Say! JUMP members Yamada Ryosuke and Chinen Yuri would be appearing on “Waratte Iitomo!“, and we recently found the video of their appearance! They made their appearance on the corner of “Telephone Shocking“, and had a talk with the main host, Tamori.

The boys talked about how they ended up entering Johnny’s Entertainment, the way they spend their days off, etc. They introduced Kanjani8’s Yokoyama Yu as the next guest (for next Monday) on “Telephone Shocking”, as the guest of the day has to name the next guest on the “Telephone Shocking”.

Check out the video and little bit of translation below!




Tamori (T) : “Why did you guys entered Johnny’s?”
Yamada (Y) : “My parent applied for it, and now I’m here without notice.”
Chinen (C) : “I decided to enter JE by myself, because I admire Arashi’s Ohno-kun, and it was my dream to be Johnny’s since I was little.”

(T) : “What do you do when you have free time?”
(C) : “I don’t leave house. I try to go out, but I alway end up staying home, because I can’t be bothered to go out.
(Y) : “I, on the other hand, love to go out.”
(C) : (Chinen explained how he feels this way about everything except something he likes, such as HSJ’s activities.) Someday, I might be saying, ‘it’s troublesome to walk’, and ask Yamada to carry me on his back.”

(T) : “Don’t you have any hobbies?” (to Chinen)
(C) : “Not really…maybe nap?”
(T) : “If you were not in Hey!Say! JUMP, then you would be doing nothing?”
(C) : “I really think if I wasn’t in HSJ, I would have been unemployed, staying home all day long.”

(T) : “How about you?” (to Yamada)
(Y) : “I’m currently studying Korean.”
(Y) : “You should find something too.” (to Chinen)
(C) : “Yes. I should.”

Yamada & Chinen mimic a comedian “Tanoshingo” for a viewer’s request.

source: tokyohive

What does Tegoshi Yuya & Sawamura Ikki smell like to Tabe Misako?

Nihon TV’s upcoming drama, ”Deka Wanko” held a press conference recently to introduce the cast and characters before its official airing on January 15th.

To give a brief run down, actress Tabe Mikako plays the leading role of ‘Ichiko Hanamori’, a detective who wears frilly lolita outfits and solves cases with her phenomenal sense of smell. ‘Ichiko’ works alongside two detectives, ‘Ryuta Kirishima’ (NEWS‘ Tegoshi Yuya) and ‘Kanichi Shigemura’ (Sawamura Ikki).


At the press conference, Tabe was asked who smelt the best amongst her castmates. She revealed, “Tegoshi-san. I think it’s a smell of softener or body cream, and whenever he passes by, he smells nice. On the other hand, Sawamura-san…smells like alcohol.”





source: tokyohive

Nishino Kana tells of her time in Paris on her blog

It looks like BENI’s not the only one who went to Europe for New Year’s!

Nishino Kana recently updated her blog with pictures of her New Year’s vacation and a retelling of some of her adventures.

“It’s been a while since I’ve hung out with my mom just mother and daughter, so we made a trip to a destination we love– Paris!! It’s the first time we’ve taken a trip with just the two of us in seven or eight years. We made plans to visit our favorite places, but a nice tour guide put together a schedule for us. Even though it was a ‘bullet tour,’ we went to a lot of places and made memories.”

Kana says she visited the Palace of Versailles, Mont Saint Michel, the Arc de Triumph, and the Eiffel Tower, but most of all she was able to spend some much-needed quality time with her mom.

Fans were touched, responding, “You look so happy in those pictures,” “What a nice family trip,” and “I wish I could go to Paris, I hope you had fun.”

Source: Nishino Kana’s Blog

source: tokyohive