Latest from Japan

TV Tokyo’s “Why Did You Come to Japan?” announced an upcoming episode following a foreign fan who traveled to Japan in search of a “new favorite” (oshi) to replace the now-disbanded popular idol group Berryz Kōbō, setting off a buzz on 5ch’s Hello! Project board. The preview also showed the fan heading to a massive idol festival with roughly 1,200 groups performing, and the thread filled with guesses about his true identity — “Isn’t his current favorite Juice=Juice?” and “He seems like a fan of Reina or Ocha (Kanami Ishiguri)” among them. Since a Hello! Project concert was held the same night at Toyota Arena, some posters also wondered whether the schedules overlapped.

10AnonymousOct 19, 2026 16:57

21AnonymousOct 19, 2026 17:40

Re: #10
Retracting what I said earlier about him coming to us

*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “Looks like a Berryz Kōbō otaku is appearing on today’s ‘Why Did You Come to Japan?’.”

The venue for a birthday event featuring ANGERME’s Rina Ise has been changed from Meguro Persimmon Hall’s Main Hall (1,200 seats) to Hulic Hall Tokyo (900 seats) — a 300-seat cut that became a hot topic on 5ch’s Hello! Project board. Posters noted that “last time there were so many empty seats you could buy up to two same-day tickets,” fueling the view that the downsizing was simply a response to unsold seats rather than a sign of declining popularity. Others pointed to an industry practice where booking multiple venue dates together brings a discount, leaving the thread awash in speculation.

*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “Rina Ise’s Birthday Event Venue Loses 300 Seats: Meguro Persimmon Hall Main Hall [1,200 seats] → Hulic Hall Tokyo [900 seats].”

It became a hot topic on 5ch’s Hello!Project board that former Hello!Project member Shimakura Rika’s Showa-era kayo (retro Japanese pop) cover videos are getting ten times the views of similar covers posted by Ogata Yuu, a “yame-halo” (fan slang for an idol who left Hello!Project). The thread included screenshots showing the like counts had flipped in Shimakura’s favor, and while the low comment counts fueled speculation that older viewers and non-fans searching for Showa kayo songs were driving the traffic, opinions were split on whether the view gap came down to Shimakura’s own popularity or simply the fame of the songs she chose to cover.

15AnonymousOct 19, 2026 16:59

She should just hold a Shimakura Kayo Show tour in Japan and cash in.

17AnonymousOct 19, 2026 17:01

Just listen and judge for yourselves.
Shimakura Rika – "Odoriko" (The Dancer)
https://youtu.be/9cKdSQq-gPI ;

20AnonymousOct 19, 2026 17:05

But the like counts have flipped.

23AnonymousOct 19, 2026 17:08

Having a clear target audience is nice.
And she gets to do what she actually wants too.

※This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hello!Project board) thread “Did You Know Shimakura Rika Gets 10x the YouTube Views of Yame-halo (Ogata Yuu)?“.

Angerme leader Suzuran Ise has revealed that fellow Hello! Project member Moe Kamikoryo (of Juice=Juice) made a surprise visit to one of her concerts. To keep it secret until the show ended, she only told the other members that “a certain big-name celebrity is here” — and the first name member Mocchi guessed was Masaharu Fukuyama. On 5ch’s Hello! Project board, the thread lit up both over the comedy of that wildly off-base guess and over just how far up the “big name” scale Kamikoryo really ranks compared to other idols.

※This article excerpts and summarizes the 5ch (Hello! Project) thread “Suzuran Ise: ‘I kept it secret that Kamikoryo-san was coming to the concert and told the members a big-name celebrity was here — Mocchi said “Masaharu Fukuyama?!”‘“.

Released on the Nintendo DS, Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies put adventure-sharing via StreetPass and multiplayer front and center, and at launch it logged some of the best domestic sales in the series’ history. At the same time, opinions on it within the series are sharply divided, and a thread on 5ch’s Nanademo Jikkyou G (a general “let’s-react-live” board) debated the question of why 9 gets called the weakest entry in the series. Many posters pointed to a thin story, characterless party members, and graphics that fell short, while others pushed back by citing the StreetPass experience of the era and praising the supporting cast — making clear that reactions depend heavily on when and how someone played it.

*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nanademo Jikkyou G) thread “Why Dragon Quest 9 Is Called the Worst Entry in the Series.”

Claims that the streaming service “Downtown Plus” is struggling less than a year after launch have spread across 5ch. With annual subscriptions set to renew next month, threads buzzed with reports that even members who signed up for a full year right from the start are now talking about canceling. Posters also raised the fact that the service has begun partial distribution on Netflix, and that Hamada Masatoshi’s appearances have been kept to a bare minimum. Meanwhile, some argued “we don’t actually know if membership has really dropped,” and opinions were split over the reliability of the widely reported figure of 500,000 subscribers.

21AnonymousOct 19, 2026 13:16

They packed the audience seats with young women, but this is supposedly the real fanbase…
There are even rumors they're hiring paid shills (sakura), lol

27AnonymousOct 19, 2026 13:19

Zero energy in this, probably because the end of service is near

29AnonymousOct 19, 2026 13:20

The comedy bits show up as shorts
and they're absolute garbage
Can't believe people pay money for that

55AnonymousOct 19, 2026 13:29

Re: #29
So this is apparently the funniest comedy bit Matsumoto's done all year…

70AnonymousOct 19, 2026 13:39

Re: #55
The old Matsumoto would've probably snapped, 'You're losing points with how you wrote that flip board' (フリップ, the cue cards used in variety shows)

*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “[Sad News] Downtown Plus Is Already Done In Under a Year.”