J!-ENT
Asian Entertainment News and Pop Culture

More details coming out from Japan in regards to the NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen New Year’s Eve Special in which one of the most anticipated performances of the night featuring DJ OZMA featured background dancers in a nude bodysuit.

For viewers, there was no way of telling the women were wearing a bodysuit, the women appeared topless.

Here are a few details coming from the media today:

DJ OZMA’s performance took place around 10:22 p.m., after the performance, NHK was receiving 252 complaints which prompted an NHK announcer Miyake Tamio at 11:45 p.m. (after Tokunaga Hideaki’s performance) to come out and apologize to the viewers.

Some callers called to find out if the women were indeed naked, some called to say that the show was inappropriate for children watching the special.

During rehearsal, the women were wearing swimwear and not a nude bodysuit. Because Kohaku is a family-based show, they approved the swimwear but not the bodysuit. Staff who approved the performances said they were not aware of the nude bodysuits during rehearsal.

On a side note, NHK is a public channel owned by the Japanese government and paid by Japanese residents. Kohaku Uta Gassen is a New Year’s Eve special seen by milions of people in Japan.  As for the kind of programming, for those in the US, it would be comparable to PBS (Public Broadcast System).
Also, the white team (men) won the award show. The White Team record is 29-28.

Photo courtesy of Sankei Sports

DJ OZMA’s performance was one of the most anticipated performances at the New Year’s Eve Special Kohaku Uta Gassen but NHK has been receiving hundreds of complaints in regards to the performance due to the female dancers looking nude.

The dancers were wearing nude body suits but on television, viewers would not be able to tell the difference.

According to the Mainichi Shimbun, Announcer Tamio Miyake apologized during the program, sayin,: “We ended up causing misunderstanding to viewers. We’re sorry.”

Click here for original Japanese article

Photo courtesy of Sankei Sports

In the New Year’s Eve Crimson vs. White Battle on NHK, the white team (the men) have won this year’s Kohaku Uta Gassen!

In order to bring in big ratings, NHK brought in SMAP’s Nakai Masahiro (34) and 2006 talent of the year, Nakama Yukie (27) to host the show.

Also, with hype of first appearances of talent such as Imai Miki to newer talents like AYAKA, NHK hopes this year’s Kouhaku to be a ratings winner after last year’s slump.

Check back on J!-ENT to see how the ratings for this year’s Kouhaku went.

According to an article on Daily Mainichi, a treat in the Okoyama Prefecture is an ice cream with fried oysters.

“Called “kaki (oyster) soft,” this unlikely taste sensation can be yours for a mere 250 yen at Gomi no Ichi, a shop operated by a fishermen’s cooperative in Bizen, Okayama Prefecture.”

Click here for full article

Photo courtesy of Daily Mainichi

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe watched the Clint Eastwood film “Letters from Iwo Jima” which is about the bloodiest battles of World War II.  According to an article on Japan Today, “Abe told reporters that the last scene, in which letters left by Japanese soldiers for their families are dug out many years after the battle, was the most memorable.”

Click here for full article

The highly anticipated Kouhaku Utagassen Crimson vs. White Battle starts in two hours and for will feature a lot of firsts.  Enka king Saburo Kitajima (70) will captain the White Team (men) and Kawanaka Miyuki (51) will captain the red team (Women).

The popular NHK New Year’s Eve show had one of its worse years in ratings last year and they hope that this year will bring people back.

Part of the ratings decline has been other networks now countering the special with their own New Year’s special (typically concerts of a well-known artist) but this year, NHK has managed to get Imai Miki and her husband Tomoyasu Hotei to perform as husband and wife and also Imai’s first time performing at Kohaku since debuting back in the mid-80’s and other artists who make their first debut on the special.

Rival FUJI TV will be airing figure skating and has been a thorn on NHK’s side, especially with Gorie’s performance last year when she performed with the FUJI TV symbol on his/her clothing.

For a list of the performers for Red vs. White and also their order of performance, click here for the following article from Suponichi.

The Nihon Record Taishou Award Winners were held and announced on the 30th.   The winner of the Grand Prix (the top honor) went to Hikawa Kiyoshi.  Best Excellent Artist Award went to Koda Kumi and Best New Artist went to AYAKA.

It has been 13 years since an enka singer has won the Grand Prix award. The last was Kozai Kaori in 1993 (a shocking year when many people anticipated CHAGE & ASKA who dominated the charts with “YAH YAH YA” that year).

Last year’s Nihon Record Taishou was seen as somewhat of a controversial year as many people thought Hikawa Kiyoshi would win the award but lost to Koda Kumi (Best new artist went to AAA).
In a repeat of last year, but this time Koda Kumi dominating the charts and winning many awards in 2006, Hikawa Kiyoshi was the winner.

Photo courtesy of Sankei Sports

It has been a remarkable year for teenager AYAKA who has dominated the Oricon Charts at #1 with her song “I believe” and and best new artist winner at the 48th Annual Nihon Record Taishou Awards.  AYAKA will be appearing at Kouhaku Utagassen to perform her new CD single “Crescent Moon”

Photo courtesy of Sankei Sports

At the 57th annual Kouhaku Uta Gassen Crimson vs. White Battle, Morning Musume and GAM rehearsed in their cosplay segment of “2006 Super Reviews” where the girls dressed in a maid cosplay. Yoshizawa Hitomi (21), Matsuura Aya (20), Fujimoto Miki (21), Takahashi Ai (20), Niigaki Risa (18), Kamei Eri (18). Not all the costumes were ready for a few members at the time during rehearsal. Gam is a side group of Hello! Project featuring Matsuura and Fujimoto.
Kouhaku Uta Gassen is aired on NHK on New Year’s Eve starting at 7:20 p.m. It is aired (although edited) on local International channels in the United States.

Photo courtesy of Sankei Sports

The PS3 is not really have a good year in the press.  Analysts and business writers have been very critical against the pricing and the Blu-ray strategy of Sony and this time RealMoney Michael Comeau joins the fray.

According to Comeau (on thestreet.com), “After more than a decade at the top of the video game heap, during which it sold more than 200 million consoles, Sony (SNE - commentary - Cramer’s Take - Rating) is set to be knocked off its firm position as King of the Hill because of its flawed PlayStation 3 strategy.”

Click here for full article