Arashi’s video message to be shown in over 133 countries!

On July 11th, a press conference took place for “Message from Japan“, a video message produced by the Ministry of Foreign Affair’s Japan Tourism Agency, starring the popular Johnny’s group Arashi.

In order to help with the slump in tourism after March’s Tohoku Earthquake, Arashi introduced places from all over Japan to show the world the charm of these various areas. The film will started broadcasting on the big screen in New York City’s Times Square, and will be shown in over 133 countries and regions around the world.

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The objective of this film will be to convey gratitude to foreign countries for their support after the Tohoku Earthquake, and to invite foreigners to visit Japan. A Maneki Neko was used as a symbol of good luck, delivering a welcome message to the world.

In the film, Matsumoto Jun enjoys an asparagus genghis khan in Hokkaido, Ninomiya Kazunariexperiences a festival in Aomori with the locals, Ohno Satoshi participates in Zen meditation and a tea ceremony in Kyoto, Sakurai Sho savors local dishes in Kagoshima, and Aiba Masaki makes a giant Maneki Neko with children at Mibaru Beach in South Okinawa.

“Message from Japan” will gradually begin airing on monitors in airports and diplomatic establishments in countries all over the world on July 11th at 10:30 AM JST.

Take a look at the film below!

Source: Oricon

Arashi’s latest album, “Beautiful World” sells over 631,000 copies in its first week!

Arashi’s newest album, “Beautiful World”, which went on sale on July 6th, has now sold over 631,000 copies for its first week and topped Oricon’s weekly album ranking for the 18th.

This is their third consecutive album which sold over 500,000 copies in its first week with the first album being their best album, “All the BEST! 1999-2009” (released on August 2009, 753,000 copies) and their previous album, “Boku no Miteiru Fukei” (released on August 2010, 731,000).

Since the release of Mr.Children’s album, “HOME” (released March 2007, 693,000), this accomplishment has not been broken by any other artist than Arashi in a period of four years and four months.

Arashi has been topping Oricon’s album chart for nine consecutive albums, and “Beautiful World” has the best first week sales among all the albums that were released this year.

This latest album is their first album since “Boku no Miteiru Fukei” (sold total of 1,116,000 copies as of now) and includes a total of 18 songs such as “Lotus”, “Hatenai Sora”, and “Dear Snow”. It also includes one solo track for each member like Ohno Satoshi’s “Hung up on” and Aiba Masaki’s “Janakute”.

Congratulations, Arashi for this accomplishment!

Source: Oricon News