Miu Nakamura 仲村みう is a 19 year old gravure idol and Jpop singer. She started as a teenage gravure idol and won the 2006  “Miss Young Magazine” award.   In 2007 she took a short break and upon returning she  focused more on music, acting and voice-acting.

Miu Nakamura Videos

FINAL 2/3 DVD

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Earlier this year twenty year old  Rumi Koizumi 小泉瑠美 of Jpop idol group Idoling!!! アイドリング!!! announced her retirement from the group. Koizumi was one of Idoling!!!’s original nine members who made their TV debut in October 2006.   Rumi Koizumi  remains under the Watanabe Entertainment talent agency and will continue working in other areas of the entertainment business. Idoling!!! will continue on as a 16-member group.

Read more about Rumi at her blog here.

Rumi Koizumi Videos

Rumi at the beach

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slideshow

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In Japan’s top 30 singles this week, Japanese group’s B’z has lost the number 1 spot to AKB48.  Ken Hirai’s “Boku wa Kimi ni Koi wo Suru” is at number 3 and looks on course to be number 1 on the Jpop charts.

30- B’z – “Ichibu to Zenzu / DIVE”
29- Gospellers – “Love Notes”
28- Takako Matsu – “Kimi to Nara”
27- Kazuya Iwade – “Ame yo Fure”
26- TOKYO No.1 SOUL SET + HALCALI – “Konya wa Boogie Back”
25- Mari Iijima, FIRE BOMBER, May’n – “Macross Gannen Kinen Chojiku Anthem : Iki wo Shiteiru Kanjiteiru”
24- The Birthday – “Ai de Nuri Tsubuse”
23- ALI PROJECT – “Datenkoku Sensen”
22- Etsuko Yakushimaru – “Oyasumi Paradox / Jenny wa Go Kigen Naname”
21- Hiroyuki Nishikata – “Kanzakura”
20- Spontania feat.AZU – “Onaji Sora Mitsumeteru Anata ni”
19- Sukima Switch – “Golden Time Lover”
18- Kiyoshi Hikawa – “Tokimeki no Rumba”
17- Joji Yamamoto – “Senri no Michimo”
16- Kagrra, – “Skiki”
15- Rina Aiuchi – “MAGIC”
14- Shinsengumi Rian – “Otokomichi”
13- Ikimonogakari – “YELL / Joyful”
12- YUI – “It’s all too much/Never say die”
11- Naotaro Moriyama – “Namida”
10- Nodoka Manabe(Chika Fujito) – “‘K-ON!’ Image Song (Coolly Hotty Tension Hi!!)”
9- Mimi Kitagami with MM Gakuen Gasshoubu – “Daisuki ni Nare! / Kokoro Kimi ni Todoke”
8- Hilcrhyme – “Shunkashuto”
7- Ui Hirasawa(Madoka Yonezawa) – “‘K-ON!’ Image Song Ui Hirasawa”
6- Kana Nishino – “Motto…”
5- Sheryl Nome starring May’n – “Pink Monsoon”
4- B’z – “MY LONELY TOWN”
3- Ken Hirai – “Boku wa Kimi ni Koi wo Suru”
2- AAA – “Hide-away”
1- AKB48 – “RIVER”

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akb48 river commercial

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No, we’re not talking about the JET program for living and working in Japan, we’re talking about Australian rock band JET.   The hard playing band from Melbourne played Japan twice – once at the Fuji Rock Festival in 2004 and again at the Tokyo Budokan in 2007.  They received huge applause for playing their 2003 global hit “Are you gonna be my girl”

For the Tokyo performance,  the 10,000 strong crowd were treated to the appearance of two local Japanese heroes, the newly crowned Japanese national air guitar champions joining JET on stage during”Are you gonna be my girl”.

Jet Music Videos in Japan

Fuji Rock Festival 2004

Live at the Budokan 2007

Just what do you make of the Digicco Dunlop Girls? Are they race queens who are attempting to be a Jpop group or a Jpop group wearing sexy race queen outfits?

The Digicco girls are actually a Jpop group who became the official Dunlop Sports campaign girls. There are 4 girls Shizuaka, Nori, Umi and Aimi and you can read an interview (in Japanese) with them here. They also have their own blog (in Japanese) here.
Here are some videos from the TokyoDV blog.

Live in Shibuya

The music video of “Be Rock U (1998 Burst Style)” by Naoki and Digicco from Beatmania IIDX 9th Style.

Depapepe デﾊﾟﾍﾟﾍﾟ are an acoustic guitar duo from Kobe, Japan consisting of Takuya Miura and Yoshinari Takuoka. The duo formed in 2002 and performed as street musicians.  They released three indies before their major debut Lets Go (2005) which was ranked within the top 10 of Oricon’s Instrumental Artist Debut Chart.

The band’s name combines the Japanese words for ‘overbite’, ‘deppa’, because of Miura’s overbite, and the name of Tokuoka’s previous band ‘DERUPEPE’. This Jpop band has a relaxing and refreshing sound which has made the popular among young Japanese women.  The band has released 6 singles and 9 albums to date.

Depapepe Videos

Start

Snow Dance 2008

Sky! Sky! Sky! 2004

Summer Parade  2005

Like Depapepe’s music? We do! See more or purchase here.

Don’t be lonely on Valentines Day.. Find a nice Japanese girl here!

Light rock/Jpop group Anatakikou アナタキコウ was founded in October 2001 by Masaki Houjo (vocal/guitar),  Masaki Matsuura (vocal/guitar) and Toshimitsu Fuji Toshimitsu.  In May 2002, the band produced their first demotape “Lily” that led to a recording contract with Sonata Records.

The band’s refreshing sounds have been captured in their 4 albums “Sweet montage A”, “Gradation’12″, “Message Pie” and ” Yellow Matador”. Earlier this year the band announceanad that main vocalist Masaki Houjou would be leaving the band in order to pursue a solo-career. Despite this loss, the two remaining members are continuing the band together along with support member Mina Sugimura.

Read more about Anatakikou from there interview here.

Anatakikou Music Videos

Lily

雨がやんだら　”ame ga yandara (After the rain stops)”

レモンの涙 “Lemon no Namida(tears of lemon)” yellow matador

Like Anatakikou’s music? We do! See more or purchase here.

Art-School are a talented 4 piece J-rock/Jpop band formed in 2002 and comprising of  Riki Kinoshita  (Vocal/Guitar) Hiroyuki Suzuki (Drums),  Todaka  Masafumi  (Guitar) and Takeshi Uno (Bass).

The band’s first mini-album was SONIC DEAD KIDS and they played at the 2002 Fuji Rock Festival. The same year they also got a contract with Toshiba-Emi and released the single Diva.  Follow up albums full of jangly guitars, indie pop and punk anthems include Flora, Missing, Paradise Lost, Requiem for Innocence and Love/Hate.

The band’s most recent album is 14 souls and the single Lost Control was featured in cult movie Robo Geisha ロボゲイシャ (from the folks who brought you Tokyo gore police) which features sexy Aya Kiguchi and Hitomi Hasebe.

More about the band at their myspace site here.

Art-school music videos

14 Souls

Lost Control (robo-geisha trailer)

Roller coaster ローラーコースター

左ききのキキ

あと10秒で

Japanese TV interview
]]> http://www.japansugoi.com/wordpress/art-school-lost-control-is-featured-in-robo-geisha-film/feed/ 0 http://www.japansugoi.com/wordpress/scandal-japanese-band-music-video-beauteen/ http://www.japansugoi.com/wordpress/scandal-japanese-band-music-video-beauteen/#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:48:37 +0000 admin http://www.japansugoi.com/wordpress/?p=141

One of favorite all girl Jrock Jpop bands is back with a new single called BEAUteen.  Scandal are dressed in their trademark schoolgirl outfits and this song is one of the songs on their new single release Yume Miru Tsubasa which is due out on October 14th.

The Osaka based gals  have also been featured in Japanese TV commercials promoting Cecil McBee cosmetics, Nike,  and the song BEAUteen was part of energy drink Pocari Sweat’s summer 2009 campaign.

Scandal BEAUteen Music video

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In 2001, Jpop diva, Utada Hikaura released “Final Distance” her 7th Japanese-language single and the 1st single from her Deep River album. “Final Distance” was the first song that Utada Hikaru’s ex-husband Kazuaki Kiriya filmed the music video to and it was the first time that Utada Hikaru collaborated with Japanese rapper M-Flo. The song debuted at #2 on the Oricon charts in its first week and had a tie-in as the NTT docomo M-stage CM song.

“Final Distance” originally appeared in the Distance album, and was planned to be released as a single. However, Utada heard of a school stabbing rampage in which 6 year old schoolgirl Rena Yamashita (山下玲奈) had died. Rena had previously won an essay competition; writing about how she wanted to become a singer just like Utada. Utada decided to rearrange the song into ballad form, creating the song “Final Distance”.

Which version of Final Distance do you like most?

Utada Hikaru Videos

final distance

m-flo remix

PLANITb Remix

Like Utada Hikaru’s music? We do! See more or purchase here.