Arashi & Inoue Mao become the hosts for NHK’s ‘Kohaku Uta Gassen’! 2011 (update)

(FROM ARAMATHEYDIDNT@LJ)


Inoue Mao, who starred in the NHK fictional series "Ohisama" this year, has been chosen as the MC for  NHK's Kouhaku Uta Gassen 2011, representing the Red Team. As her partner, Arashi has been chosen to represent the White Team.
"Ohisama" received quite a high rating, especially in the area stricken by disaster, such as Fukushima prefecture.


Longer details (thanks to aprillis): 

NHK announced actress Mao Inoue (Ohisama, Youkame no Semi) hosting for the Red team and the five member idol group Arashi once again for the White team

This year’s 62nd Kouhaku Song Festival carries the theme “Ashita wo Utaou. (Let’s sing for tomorrow).” It is to make 2011/12/31 as “the day to take the first step like 123″, and make it a positive show in order to step forward to a bright tomorrow.Centering around the rebuilding after the Tohoku Earthquake

Therefore, American singer Lady Gaga, who had expressed support for the victims of the disaster, has been “unoffically confirmed” as attending Kouhaku and they also reported that there will be a “special programme surprise”. Although there has been no official announcement from NHK regarding the participants for Kouhaku, the netizens were greatly excited by this report.

This year’s “62nd Kohaku Uta Gassen” will air 15 minutes earlier than the usual, at 7:15 pm. With this earlier airing, this year’s Kohaku will be the longest broadcast in history,The station will consider increases in the number of participants and songs at a later date. The end time of the broadcast remains the same at 11:45 pm.

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(FROM TOKYOHIVE)

It’s been announced that Inoue Mao and Arashi have been chosen to become the hosts for NHK’s annual New Year’s Eve music show, “The 62nd NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen“!

This is the second consecutive year for Arashi to participate in Kohaku as the host for ‘Shirogumi‘ (the team with male artists or group with male vocals). Last year, Shirogumi won the Kohaku, and its leader,Ohno Satoshi, proudly collected the championship flag. Ohno mused, “I would like to grab the flag again.”

On the other hand, this is the first time for Inoue Mao to be chosen as a Kohaku host. She will be doing so on behalf of ‘Akagumi‘ (the team with female artists or group with female vocals).  Inoue expressed her eagerness to grab the flag by saying, “Akagumi has had six consecutive  defeats, so I want to win this year.”

The theme of Kohaku for this year is “Ashita wo Utaou” (“Let’s sing for tomorrow”), which aims to conclude the year of 2011 brightly through the power of song. Many anxieties rocked Japan this year due to the Tohoku earthquake and devastating typhoon, and so the event hopes to start 2012 with good cheer.

Sakurai Sho said, “When we first participated in Kohaku as a performer, which was in 2009, the theme of the year was ‘Uta no Chikara∞Mugendai (“The power of songs ∞ infinity”).’  This year, I would like to help the artists’ ‘power of songs’ as the host.”

As reported previously, AKB48 and Terry Ito will be the “Kohaku supporters” for this year.

Source & Image: natalie