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68.6% of Japanese people spend no money on music downloads
It seems unless you are an ardent AKB48 fanatic purchasing thousands of copies of the same CD to boost your favorite girl’s chances of appearing in the next single, if you are young in Japan, you...
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Virtual idol Hatsune Miku makes opera, album with Louis Vuitton, cultural...
Well, here’s a partnership we should have seen coming… In what cynics might decry as mere geek pop culture tailored for the Brutus-reading, CINRA.net-browsing Tokyo hipster, Hiroki Azuma — the academic...
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Mika Ninagawa directs Alicia Keys Girl on Fire music video
A special music video for the release in Japan of Alicia Keys’ new single, Girl on Fire, has been made by the photographer and film director Mika Ninagawa. The special collaboration is officially only...
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Say No to Lip-Syncing!
An actor is someone who acts. A dancer is someone who dances. A singer is someone who sings. They all get paid to do what their job title claims, but when it comes to singing, we tend to become more...
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The music band Golden Bomber hand-syncs their way to the top of the charts
Whether you like them or not, Golden Bomber seems to have found their own gold in the entertainment scene. Their latest album titled The Past Masters Vol. 1 which was released on April 24th, topped the...
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hide Museum: Legendary visual kei guitarist’s tribute museum returns
In 1998 the famous guitarist from pioneering visual kei rock band X JAPAN, Hideto Matsumoto (commonly known as just “hide”), suddenly passed away at the age of thirty-three. To remember this, every May...
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Clubbing in the City Where Dancing is a Crime
Tokyo Reporter has posted about another incident in the ongoing “No dancing” saga that is affecting Japan’s nightlife. GP Bar in Roppongi was raided and the manager and DJ arrested for the heinous...
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New theremin world record set in Japan
A new world record has been set for the number of theremins ever being played together. Masami Takeuchi organized the music concert of 272 theremin instruments in Hamamatsu in Shizuoka on July 20th. In...
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When the staff become the stars: AKB’s new marketing strategy
With the recent release of their 32nd single, “Koisuru Fortune Cookie,” AKB48 has once again proven their monopoly in Japan’s music industry. After hitting the physical and digital shelves on August...
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Maywa Denki celebrates 20 years with music video
One of our favorite Japanese enterprises, Maywa Denki, has made a typically originally and hilarious group music video to celebrate twenty years since it was founded. Maywa Denki is part music band,...
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“Song for Japan”, the TV Singing Contest for Foreigners: How genuine is it,...
Nippon TV’s Song for Japan might seem like a typical singing contest except for the fact that none of the contestants are Japanese. It’s a contest that is exclusive to foreigners, presumably for the...
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Lady Gaga turned into Gagadoll sex doll by Tokyo’s Orient Industry
As a promo for her new album ARTPOP in Japan, Lady Gaga and Universal Music Japan asked Japan’s most prestigious sex doll maker, Orient Industry, to create the Gagadoll. Can you tell which is the...
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Mieru Record with Otowa: a manga music box mechanical organ
This is an awesome innovation on what many people would say is a dying medium. And the best thing about it is that it doesn’t resort to digital or technological gimmicks. It just takes two very...
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Mamoru Samuragochi, Japan’s “modern-day Beethoven”, not sole composer of his...
Work by the composer of the most famous pieces of Japanese contemporary classical music from this century is now alleged not to have been composed wholly by its official creator. The score for Mamoru...
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AKB48 now recruiting new member over 30 years old
Fancy joining AKB48? It was announced yesterday that the idol mega group is now recruiting a new member to join the ranks for a limited time only. The newbie will be over 30 years old, a stark contrast...
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Naturalist CW Nicol advertises K-Pop band Tohoshinki/TVXQ’s new album “Tree”
This might be the most bizarre advertising collaboration we’ve ever heard of… but one guaranteed to become a meme. Welsh-born, naturalized Japanese naturalist (get it?) CW Nicol has loaned his...
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Japanese music market blamed for global sales decline
While the Japanese media always seems to be dominated by upbeat reports of the “millions” of sales that AKB48 ostensibly achieves, the real story of the Japanese music industry is one of serious...
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Hatsune Miku + Gakken create Otona no Kagaku Pocket Miku Singing Keyboard
Another day, another intriguing Hatsune Miku collaboration. From expensive opera productions to every piece of merchandise an otaku can get his hands on, Hatsune Miku is not just a virtual idol, she’s...
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Avril Lavigne “Hello Kitty” music video jumps on pop Japan bandwagon
The second Canadian pop star to run afoul of Japan this week! Following Justin Bieber’s innocent visit to a certain shrine in central Tokyo, now comes Avril Lavigne’s music video where she pines for...
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Pharrell Williams “Happy” gets Harajuku treatment
Everywhere you go at the moment you seem to hear the Pharrell Williams song “Happy”. “Zero air-play, nothing. And the next thing you know, we put out the video on November 21 and all of a sudden—boom....
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