Shinoda Mariko and Matsui Rena are Chukyou Racecourse Ambassadors

It was announced today that Matsui Rena will be cutting the ribbon at the Grand Opening ceremony of the Chukyo Racecourse on March 3rd, 2012. Official Website: http://chukyo-keiba.com/ Official YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/ChukyoKeibaCom The Chukyo Racecourse was closed in 2010 for an extensive  two year renovation that cost over 17.3 billion yen. With the renovations comes a new grass turf, the longest in Western Japan at 1,705 meters, and new grandstand named Pegasus. The mascot character of the newly reborn Chukyo Racecourse is also called "Pegastar". The new...

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AKB48 Will Co-Host New TBS Music Program

AKB48 will co-host a new music program alongside SMAP's Nakai Masahiro and actress Esumi Makiko starting April 2012. Currently the title of the music program has not been revealed. What is known is that it's a 1hour show and it will air on TBS every Tuesday, at 21:00. Each episode will have around 3-4 artists. Nakai Masahiro and Esumi Makiko will both be present on all episodes, however the AKB48 member(s) will be swapped every episode. This is TBS's Golden Time first music program in two years since "The Music Hour" ended in 2010. TBS also hosts the music shows CDTV (24:58) and Coming...

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NMB48 [Osaka Juuban Shoubu] Live Tour Locations Announced

NMB48 has announced the 10 locations for their [Osaka Juuban Shoubu] Live Tour in Osaka on April and May 2012. The 10 locations are spread out around the various cities in Osaka. Announcement: http://nmb48-staff.laff.jp/blog/2012/02/nmb48-10-5cdd.html Osaka Juuban Shoubu 大阪十番勝負 NMB48 Locations April 19: Kashiwara Riviere Hall (1175 seats) April 24: Suita May Theater (1397 seats) April 25: Sakai City Hall (1395 seats) May 2: Osaka ORIX Theater (2400 seats) May 3: Osaka ORIX Theater (2400 seats) May 16: Takatsuki Modern Theater (1564 seats) May 27: Kaizuka Cosmos Theater (1224 seats) May...

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Sato Sumire, Nito Moeno Double Casted for [Peter Pan] Musical

Sato Sumire and Nito Moeno are double casted in a broadway musical of "Peter Pan", playing the role of the heroine Wendy. The musical will start on July 20th, 2012 at the Tokyo International Forum. Also on July 31st, it will be the 1,500th time shown since it first premiered 32 years ago on 1981. "It's an honor to perform on an anniversary. It's a musical that both adults and children will enjoy. I will do my best to perform." Nito commented In the original casting, Wendy was played by actress Kosaka Miyuki, then followed Hiki Rie, Onyanko Club member Nitta Eri, Onishi Yuka, and Kanda Sayaka...

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Nogizaka46 Appointed as "Sukapa-! J-League 2012 Official Supporter"

On February 28th, 2012, Nogizaka46 has been appointed as the Sukapa-! J-League 2012 Official Supporter!. There will be a CM, titled [Ketsui], starting March 3rd. At the Sukapa-! x J-League press conference, Nogizaka46 members dressed up with original soccer-uniform-styled costumes and appeared as surprise guests. Sukapa, officially known as SkyPerfecTV, is a satellite TV service in Japan. Hidari mune no Yuuki, one of the songs in Nogizaka46's debut single, was used as the Sukapa-! J-League 2012 official cheer song, and it will be used in TV programmes and CM. Regarding being appointed...

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Sato Amina, Katayama Haruka to Perform with Kinomi Nana

Kinomi Nana, a famous Japanese singer, is holding a concert to celebrate her 50th year in the industry. The concert will take place at the Le theatre Ginza by PARCO from May 29th to June 2nd. http://www.duncan.co.jp/web/stage/nana-50th/index.html The two Atelier Duncan agency girls Sato Amina and Katayama Haruka will also be part of the cast for the concert. Furthermore, it was announced that Nakagawa Haruka and Urano Kazumi will appear as special guests on the May 29th opening day show. Kinomi Nana 50 years anniversary concert 木の実ナナ50周年記念コンサート CAST (Only...

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Akimoto Sayaka Completes Tokyo Marathon 2012

  Akimoto Sayaka has successfully completed the Tokyo Marathon for the 2nd time in a row, finishing at 5h34m13s this year. Her timing at last year's Tokyo Marathon 2011 was 6h53h53s, reducing 1 hour from her run time this year. She has also achieved her goal of completing the marathon under 6 hours. Awaiting at the finish line was Sayaka's mother. When asked what kind of daughter Sayaka is, she replied "an excellent daughter, and someone I can be proud of". Sayaka also commented  "I'm glad that I managed to finish the marathon, I hate losing just like mom" with...

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AKB0048 Anime Will Include Famous Seiyuus

Announced on February 25th, the upcoming [AKB0048] anime will not only have OOO48 members as seiyuus, but will also include famous seiyuus to voice the future versions of original AKB48 members in the show. http://akb0048.jp/character/index2.html Currently, only 3 positions have been filled, the other seiyuus have not been announced yet. Those 3 are: Kanda Akemi: 9th Generation Oshima Yuko Horie Yui: 6th Generation Kashiwagi Yuki Tamura Yukari: Watanabe Mayu Type 3 Ummmm. Why can't the original members act out their own characters? Their voices will be more accurate that way. The only...

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AKB48 Becomes Spokesperson for Suicide Prevention Month

On February 22nd, the Japanese Government has asked AKB48 to step in and become the Spokesperson for Suicide Prevention, citing their "widespread influence over many demographic groups". They will start appearing in news and commercials soon. Earlier this month, the Japanese Government created "GKB47", an anti-suicide program. It was highly critzied by both the public and fellow members of the government, and over 70 civilian groups because of it's similarity to AKB48. A member of the DPJ called it "deeply inappropriate". "GKB47" stands for GateKeeper Basic 47. "Gatekeepers" in Japan are...

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Akimoto Yasushi on SDN Graduation and Mitsumune Kaoru

On February 22nd, Akimoto Yasushi spoke on his Google+ page regarding SDN48's graduation on March 31st. He mentioned that he has received a petition from the fans to retract the graduation of all SDN48 members. However, he cited the lack of an age limit in SDN as a problem. Without one, members can stay in SDN forever and there wouldn't be any graduations. https://plus.google.com/113474433041552257864/posts/V9pYhuA1jbp Translated by emptystring I received a petition to retract the decision to graduate all SDN members.  I received a huge collection of signatures and...

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SDN48 [Yuuwaku no Garter] CD and DVD to release on 28 March

After 2 years since SDN48 started performing their [Yuuwaku no Garter] stage, it has finally been decided that they will release a Studio Recording CD and DVD for the stage on March 28th, 2012. For both the Studio Recording CD and DVD, SDN48 will be separated into 1st generation members, and 2nd + 3rd generation members. The tracklist is the same for both CD and DVD. Yuuwaku no Garter is SDN48's first, only, and last stage, which they have been performing since they first debuted on August 2009. All of SDN48 will graduate on March 31st at NHK Hall. SDN48 1st Stage Yuuwaku...

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Watarirouka Hashiritai 7 to Appear in Crayon Shin-Chan Anime

From left: Kikuchi Ayaka, Komori Mika, Nakagawa Haruka, Ota Aika (small fairy), Iwasa Misaki, Watanabe Mayu Announced on 24 February 2012, Watarirouka Hashirita 7 will be voice acting in popular anime, Crayon Shin-Chan. Though it is already announced that AKB0048 will be released in spring 2012, Crayon Shin-Chan will be the first anime series in which AKB48 characters appear as themselves. The arc is called [Uchu Kazoku Nohara da zo] and will be shown on 09 and 16 March 2012. Warota7 members will be appearing in the show on "Planet Warota" as "Warota-tians" After recording...

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Matsui Sakiko's Solo Album Has Been Confirmed

According to Akimoto Yasushi's post on Google+, Matsui Sakiko's solo album has been confirmed. This album is set to be released sometime this summer. What we can expected from the album would be instrumentals of various famous AKB songs, as well as theme songs, such as Google Citizens' Theme Song, Utsui Ken's Pressure Training Theme Song, ggrks Theme Song, Passion Theme Song, just to name a few. Also, the Google Citizens' Theme Song will be an African tribal music styled song. These songs will be composed and arranged by Hattori Takayuki. Hattori-san happily agreed to compose right...

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HKT48 announces formation of Team H + 1st stage

Today, HKT48 announced in their official blog that on March 4th, Team H will be formed and also will be performing their first stage on the same day. At the moment, no details have been given beside the official announcement and date. The 16 members who will be chosen for Team H will be announced on the same day as the stage performance. Currently the 1st generation members are doing Team S' 2nd Stage [Te wo Tsunaginagara] in their theater since November of last year. Its great that they have decided to form Team H because it is good to know that it won't be far behind the other groups now....

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Nogizaka46 Debut Single [Guruguru Curtain] 1st Day Sales

Nogizaka46 released their debut single [Guruguru Curtain] earlier today, it's first day selling 84,905 copies. Nor bad for a rival group, although they probably wouldn't have garnered this much sales if they weren't connected to AKB as rivals. All they hype in the media because they are "official rivals" was quite a clever promotional tactic to promote the group and single. Oh the irony, AKB is helping their rivals grow. There's not really much point comparing sales records at this point of time, so I'll leave that until the weekly sales are out. I predict around 130 to 140k...

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New AKB48 Google+ TV Show [AKB48 no Gugutasu min]

AKB48 will start a new TV show called [AKB48 no Gugutasu min] (AKBのググタス民) starting March 1st, 2012 on TV Tokyo. For those fans who haven't been using Google+, Gugutasu is the short form for Google+ (google = guguru, plus = tasu) The timeslot for the TV show is from 24:53 to 25:00, just 7 minutes long. If you take away the title call and credits it's probably down to 6 minutes. With such limited time I wonder what they are going to do in the TV show? Maybe something related to the AKB48 Art Club? Behind the scenes from the Art Club meetings perhaps AKB48 no Gugutasu min (AKBのググタス民) Hosts:...

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[JAKARTA] Details of AKB48's First Jakarta Concert

Announced during Request Hour 2012, AKB48 will travel to Jakarta for a live performance together with JKT48 on February 25th, 2012. This is AKB48's first live performance in Indonesia. The "J-Pop Concert" is held at the Balai Kartini Convention Hall, and is just one part of the of the "Japan Pop Culture Festival 2012". In addition to the concert, AKB48 will also do a "Kawaii Fashion Show" on the 26th at the Plaza Senayan Shopping Mall. Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/JpopFest?sk=info The Concert on the 25th will start at 6:30PM, and the Fashion Show on...

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AKB48 new HP Campaign [Love PC, Love HP]

AKB48 teams up with HP again this season for a new campaign [Love PC, Love HP]. This isn't their first collaboration with HP, last year it was AKB48 members as [HP's Support Angels]. This year's campaign has Maeda Atsuko, Shinoda Mariko, Itano Tomomi, Kojima Haruna and the new 13th gen kenkyuusei Mitsumune Kaoru as [Love PC Evangelists]. Each of the members have their own 30 second CM. Their CM talks about "Since PC is an importance presence in our daily lives, we should be particular about choosing the one that's right for us <our needs>, and grow to like...

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AKB48 [GIVE ME FIVE] first week sales + Review

The first week sales are out and naturally AKB48's [GIVE ME FIVE!] grabs the #1 spot with a huge sale of 1,287,217 copies in first week. This is AKB's 6th consecutive million sales and 12th consecutive #1! Congratulations AKB! Also they have beaten [Ue kara Mariko]'s first week sales of 1,198,864. The group keeps breaking their own records again and again. The single started out with 900K not their usual million sales in one day but then compared to [Kaze wa Fuiteiru] this single sold more on the next few days beside the first day. Now onto the review: GIVE ME FIVE! A...

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Maeda Atsuko To Release New Photobook [Bukiyou]

Maeda Atsuko will release a new photobook on March 16th, 2012. Titled [Bukiyou] (不器用 / Clumsy), it will go on sale for 1,800yen. Bukiyou is Acchan's 5th photobook, and is taken in Paris, France. It's also her 3rd PB that is shot overseas; she previously went to Hawaii and New York to shoot her 2nd and 4th photobooks respectively The photobook will include full-length photographs of Acchan taking a walk along the Seine, riding the metro, living in an apartment for the first time, walking around Champs-Elysées at night, and enjoying Paris in general. Some previews of the PB are available below. She...

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Sashihara Rino's [Soredemo Suki da yo] to be Released on Aki-P's Birthday

The release date for Sashihara Rino's debut single [Soredemo Suki Da yo] has been decided, it will be released on May 2nd, 2012. And coincidentally, this day so happens to be the birthday of Akimoto Yasushi. http://www.d4.dion.ne.jp/~warapon/data00/birth-0502.htm Sashihara Rino Debut Single Sore Demo Suki da yo それでも好きだよ 02 May 2012 Sasshi's Avex page is here: http://avexnet.or.jp/sashihararino/index.html So let's hope that Sasshi's debut single's first day sales record will be a wonderful birthday present for Yasu...

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All 90 AKB48 Members In New WONDA CM

AKB48 will be pairing up with Asahi Drinks once again to promote their WONDA Morning Shot canned coffees. The new commercials will include all 90 members of AKB48 and will start airing on February 28, 2012. The new WONDA CMs is titled "Message" chapter. The new CMs take place in the office, where the Morning Shot canned coffee makes all the salary-men feel refreshed to start the day. Members have also picked their favorite messages from supporters, and will share these heart-warming messages with everyone in the CMs. This is the first time for any commercial that all the members...

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[HONG KONG] SDN48 to Visit Hong Kong for Handshake Event

SDN48 will visit Hong Kong for a handshake event on March 2nd, 2012 and take part in a concert on March 3rd, 2012. Yan Oi Tong, a non-profit organization focusing on education and medicare for the poor, is holding a concert to promote Green/Environmental Friendly living.  SDN48 will perform alongside famous local musicians, both old and new. Here is the list of participating members: Kondo Sayaka Chen Qu Takahashi Yui Kaida Jyuri Nishikunihara Reiko Hatakeyama Chisaki The handshake event on March 2nd is free to attend. There are 1,000 spots on a first-come-first-serve basis. ...

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[Dareka no tame ni] Project Exceeds 1.25 Billion Yen in Donations

Announced during AKB48's [Kaze wa Fuiteiru] handshake event at Seibu Dome on February 18th 2012, a total of 1.25 billion yen has been accumulated for [Dareka no Tame ni] project. As a result, on 11th March 2012, AKB48, along with sister groups, SKE48, NMB48, HKT48, will perform charity lives at their respective theaters. In case you are wondering, the exact amount accumulated at the time of the announcement was 1,254,175,973yen. And in addition to this amount of money, 30 school buses were also donated to the disaster areas. More details regarding this charity live will be released...

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Oshima Yuko to Appear in Film [Yamikin Ushijima-kun]

Oshima Yuko will be appearing in the movie [Yamikin Ushijima-kun] which also stars Yamada Takayuki. Yuko will be acting the role of a part-time jobber who is ousted by illegal loans. After reading the script, Yuko, who is supposed to act out the fears of being chased by illegal loans, was fascinated by that view of the world. "I think it's admirable that they are willing to tackle such a controversial topic without trying to avoid it." Yuko's role, Suzuki Miko, has to pay off the loans her mother borrowed and is chased for it by Ushijima, the protagonist. Miko chose to work in Deai Cafe,...

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Kashiwagi Yuki to Visit Taiwan & Hong Kong

Kashiwagi Yuki will be visiting Taiwan and Hong Kong at the end of February. She is traveling to both locations to take photos for an upcoming Photobook, and will host handshake events at the AKB48 Official Shops in both locations. This is her first time visiting Hong Kong. The event in Taipei, Taiwan will take place on February 25th, on the 6th floor of Eslite Bookstore's Xin-Yi branch, while the event in Hong Kong will take place the day after on February 26th, in the event hall of Dragon Center, located in West Kowloon. Each event will host 1,500 fans. Both AKB48 Official Shops will roll...

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NMB48 3rd Generation Profile Pictures

NMB48's 3rd Generation finally debuted on Saturday and now their profiles are already up on the official website. Overall there are 23 girls, which is quite a lot. Maybe management wants to give us Team BII soon. It looks like a very cute generation. Judging from the profile pics alone, I am interested in Muro Kanako, Kono Saki and Yabushita Shu. So, who has caught your eye? #nmb-members { text-align: center; font-size: 10pt; } NMB48 3rd Generation Akazawa Hono 赤澤萌乃 Honori Ishikawa Kokoro 石川こころ Kokoron Ishizuka Akari 石塚朱莉 Anchu Ijiri Anna 井尻晏菜 Antan Ueda Mirei 植田碧麗 Mi-re Umehara...

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