And the news draught seems to have ended.

It seems like after having so little news to talk about for a while a flood of announcements has just popped up for the New Year.

First off Tackey will be having a special event in Tokyo on January 7th to promote his solo single, Ai Kakumei. I found this information on Johnny's net so I don't know much more about it other than they seem to be requesting for people to send in a ballot to attend the event.

Next the NEWS concert on December 30th was covered in the news. The big things mentioned was that the debuted a new original song that they all wrote together titled, Share. The other thing mentioned was that Hey! Say! JUMP, Matsumoto Jun and Ikuta Toma were all there as guests. I checked some blogs and it seems that HSJ performed two of their songs and MatsuJun and Toma joined NEWS in singing their songs for a bit. I'm really hoping that this concert will get a DVD release and that the fact that Share was treated as something being news worthy that it means there will be a new NEWS single coming up in the first quarter of 2009.

Sanspo article. (Japanese only.)
Nikkan Sports article. (Japanese only.)


Shounentai will be releasing a DVD on the 4th of March for their PLAYZONE musical. 2008 was the final year they performed a PLAYZONE musical and this release looks like it will commemorate the 22 years (1986-2008) of PLAYZONE. The Johnny's net information page about the release has a list of other Johnny's that are listed as guests and commenter. It's a rather lengthy list too, but I'm sure all of them were in a PLAYZONE musical during it's run.

The list of commenter & guests: Mori Mitsuko (the only non-Johnny's and woman listed), Kondo Masahiko (Matchy), Okamoto Kenichi (Otokogumi), Nakai Masahiro (SMAP), Joshima Shigeru, Kokubun Taichi, Matsuoka Masahiro and Nagase Tomoya (Tokio), Sakamoto Masayuki, Nagano Hiroshi and Inohara Yoshihiko (V6), Matsumoto Jun (Arashi), Takizawa Hideaki and Imai Tsubasa (Tackey & Tsubasa), Masuda Takahisa (NEWS), Taguchi Junnosuke and Tanaka Koki (KAT-TUN), Ikuta Toma (Johnny's Jr.), Tsukada Ryoichi and Kawai Fumito (A.B.C-Z), Senga Kenta, Fujigaya Taisuke and Yokoo Wataru (Kis-My-Ft2).

Shonentai Playzone Final 1986 - 2008 Show Time Hit Series Change [Regular Edition] / Shonentai

Shonentai Playzone Final 1986 - 2008 Show Time Hit Series Change [Limited Edition] / Shonentai

Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY Nozawa Yuki!