紅白歌合戦

With just over a month remaining in 2010, Japanese eyes are beginning to turn towards the annual "Kohaku Uta Gassen" New Year's Eve television extravaganza.

Unlike the West, New Year's Eve in Japan is a fairly quiet night. Many families stay in and watch Kohaku, which literally means "Red White."

In short, the program is a singing "battle." The great and not so great, talented and not so talented from Japan's music world are divided into Red (female) and White (male) teams. A panel of almost as famous judges evaluates each act, and then just prior to the tolling of the temple bells to ring in the new year one team is declared the winner.

In recent years, the men have been very strong.

The list of guests on the NHK program was recently announced.

Here is the 2010 lineup:

Red Team

aiko
Angela Aki
Ikimono Gakari
Sayuri Ishikawa
Kane Uemura
AKB48
Miyuki Kawanaka
Kumi Koda
Natsuko Godai
Sachiko Kobayashi
Fuyumi Sakamoto
Yoshimi Tendo
DREAMS COME TRUE
Mitsuko Nakamura
Kana Nishino
Ayumi Hamasaki
Perfume
Ayaka Hirahara
Nana Mizuki
Kaori Mizumori
Akiko Wada

White Team

Arashi
Hiroshi Itsuki
HY
EXILE
NYC
Yuzo Kayama
Saburo Kitajima
Hiromi Go
Kobukuro
SMAP
TOKIO
Hideaki Tokunaga
AAA
Kiyoshi Hikawa
FUNKY MONKEY BABYS
Masaharu Fukuyama
flumpool
Takashi Hosokawa
Porno Graffiti
Shinichi Mori
Yusuke Yuzu
L'Arc en Ciel

The big surprise was the exclusion of Kenichi Mikawa, who is a man, pictured above.

On the women's side two stalwarts, Kyoto's Kumi Koda and veteran Akiko Wada, will attempt to defeat the men.

© JapanVisitor.com

Yahoo Japan Auction Service

Book a Japanese Hotel with Bookings

Japanese Friends

Japan Job Search

Tags

Japan Tokyo Kyoto Kohaku Japanese