Category: News

Arashi becomes Japan’s face in tourism

by Fiona

I knew it, this was bound to happen someday. Arashi is THE best, so happy of their achievements! Doesn’t this make you proud to be a fan?! :up:

Arashi (嵐) have been appointed as the Japanese Tourism Promotion Representative volunteer (観光立国ナビゲーター) of Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. On the press conference on April 8, Sho Sakurai (櫻井翔), Masaki Aiba (相葉雅紀) and Jun Matsumoto (松本潤) made their appearance and announced: “We are waiting for your coming in Japan.” with Sakurai I n English, Aiba in Chinese and Matsumoto in Korean. Both Sakurai and Aiba made impressive announcement, but Matsumoto was the only one tongue-tied. “I screwed up at the most important situation. I have to practice more!” said Matsumoto.

Sakurai showed his confidence: “I am honored to be chosen as ‘Face of Japan’. When I was told about this, I was totally surprised. I will work hard for this important duty!” and Aiba said: “I want to impress all the tourists who come to Japan with Japanese wonderful culture and tradition.”

In 2009, there were 6,790,000 visitors come to Japan. And Japan Tourism Agency has targeted 15,000,000 visitors by 2013 and 30,000,000 in the future. Arashi, as the Japanese Tourism Promotion Representative Navigator, are having various promotion activities in China and other East Asia countries with the new catch-phrase “Japan. Endless Discovery.”

When they were asked which feature of Japan you want to express, Sakurai answered: “Drift ices can be found in Hokkaido at the north, and coral and beautiful ocean can be seen in Okinawa at the south. With spring, summer, autumn and winter, I want to let everybody knows the rich nature of Japan.” Aiba said: “Fashion and Anime are properties of Japan as well, and they are what I would like to show.” Matsumoto: “I have traveled in Japan twice by now in this year, and found that the food cultures differ from place to place. I will try to impress people with different culture of different places of Japan.”

The new TV commercial of Arashi is prepared, for their future activities in Asia. As the “Face of Japan”, will Arashi add more splendors to Japan’s charm?

From Music Japan Plus

MatsuJun, Aiba and Sho-chan had attended the press conference, here is NewsZero’s coverage:

I wasn’t uncertain of Jun-kun’s Korean, however, I did flair at Sho-kun’s English and Aiba’s Mandarin; both were understood very clearly. It probably would have been more hilarious if our Birdman-san used his Engrish (doubt the tourism bureau will let him though ), but Newscaster-chan was certainly cute. Might I say that the boys quite smexy in their suits?!

I wonder why the PR was only to East Asia, Japan appeals to the Americas and Europe too ne!

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Arashi to Takes Over NTV for 2 Weeks

by Fiona

Arashi (嵐) member Sho Sakurai (櫻井翔) attended the TV variety show “Oshareism(おしゃれイズム)” the other day and talked about episodes with other group members.

According to Sakurai, he received a mail from Satoshi Ohno (大野智) when he did the coverage of the Vancouver Olympics. However besides the message “do your best”, Ohno also attached a picture of Maruyama (KANJANI∞) in swimming trunks. In addition, after the news program ZERO, Ohno also sent an Email to say “It was a good face!” On the other hand, on Sakurai’s birthday, he received a decorated mail saying “Happy birthday!” from Jun Matsumoto (松本潤). However, he also received the complaint from KANJANI∞’s Yokoyama about that Sakurai gave the wrong size sneakers to him as the present. There were a lot of interesting anecdotes revealed on the program.

Regarding to Arashi themselves, the drama “Kaibutsu Kun/怪物くん (lit. Little monster)” cast Satoshi Ohno will be on air from April 17, as well as the new variety show “Arashi ni Shagare(嵐にしやがれ)” with all five member will start from April 24. Moreover, their “Doyou no Arashi, Haru no Nitere×Arashi Daisakusen (土曜の嵐 春の日テレ×アラシ大作戦, lit. Arashi of Saturday, Nippon TV in Spring×Arashi special action)” will hold the largest scale special program ever. Therefore, Arashi is going to take over Nippon Television for two weeks, with 65-hour-long performance on all 43 different TV programs.

The most noteworthy program will be “Doyou no Arashi, Night 1, Kaibutsu Kun Opening SP” on April 17. In the special project “Arashi den~Konya shika Mirarenai Arashi ga Wakarisugiru VTR Ikkyo Houshutsu SP (嵐伝~今夜しか見られない嵐がわかりすぎるVTR一挙放出SP~ lit. The legend of Arashi~VTR to know more about Arashi only for tonight, release at a stroke SP)”, an introduction of members’ real faces will look back on the trace of Arashi since their debut. With the drama of their Johnny’s Jr. time, each member will reveal their old videos such as “The turning point of the life” with nostalgia. “Through the program, you will further your understanding to all five of us.” said Matsumoto. The new single “Monster”, the theme song of “Kaibutsu Kun” to be released on May 19, will premiere on TV. After that, “Doyou no Arashi, Night 2, Arashi ni Shagare Opening SP” will feature a extended episode of the new improvisation program.

Last September, Arashi had a special campaign project “Arashi CHALLENGE WEEK” which had 50-hours length in the same TV station. As to this unprecedented large-scale planning, Kazunari Ninomiya (二宮和也) said: “I thought it was the only chance we had last time, it was so great that we had one more shot!” Check out the “now” of Arashi in these two weeks!

From Music Japan Plus

Here is the schedule from the official website, Saturday Night x Arashi:

日時 番組 出演者
4月10日(土) 日テレ系番組対抗 大野智・相葉雅紀
＆嵐5人のスペシャルVTR
4月11日(日) THEサンデーNEXT 大野智
4月12日(月) １分間の深イイ話　名曲SP 相葉雅紀
4月15日(木) NEWS ZERO 大野智
4月17日(土) メレンゲの気持ち 櫻井翔
  天才！志村どうぶつ園 相葉雅紀・大野智
  世界一受けたい授業 大野智
4月18日(日) 行列のできる法律相談所 大野智
4月19日(月) 世界まる見え！テレビ特捜部 相葉雅紀
4月22日(木) ぐるぐるナイティナイン 大野智
4月23日(金) 金曜ロードショー
「ヤッターマン」テレビ初登場！		 櫻井翔
4月24日(土) 天才！志村どうぶつ園 相葉雅紀・大野智・松本潤
  世界一受けたい授業 松本潤

Woot, another challenge week and it will be over 65+ hours this time! Looks like Jun-kun and Oh-chan will be appearing on Tensai Shimura Doubutsuen that makes me CHO excited!!! JE is sure working our boys to the bone, I really hope that they get enough rest. Arashi has been appearing on sooo variety shows along with their individual work, this is going to be extremely tiring for them. Nevertheless, I look forward to it!

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Arashi – Who’s the Most Likeable Member?

by Fiona

Music magazine “Oricon Style (オリ★スタ)” has conducted a survey on “Which male artist has the higher likeability”. Popular group Arashi (嵐) won the 1st, bearing down all other artists such as Mr. Children or Masaharu Fukuyama (福山雅治). In the news program “Zoom-in!! Saturday（ズームイン!!サタデー）” on March 27th, Satoshi Ohno (大野智) and Masaki Aiba (相葉雅紀) talked about their likeability.

Ohno was asked about the reason of their likability at the shooting scene of the drama “Kaibutsu Kun/怪物くん (lit. Little monster)”, and he answered “Isn’t it normal?” with Ohno-style. As to the question, “Which member of Arashi has won the best likability?”, Ohno said: “It is Aiba-chan, isn’t it?” because Aiba has become more and more popular after playing the main role in the drama “My Girl (マイガール)”.

On the other hand, Aiba was interviewed at another place with the question who was the most favorable member, “Honestly speaking, it is me (laugh). No, it’s a joke. I’m joking.” Aiba answered humorously. Then interviewer told Aiba that “Ohno-kun answered ‘Aiba-chan’ to the same question.” Aiba was like “What?! Me? It’s so embarrassing…Leader didn’t say ‘Me’??” It seems Aiba was quite confused with Ohno’s response.

Arashi’s new single “Troublemaker” was released on March 3rd and now has hit big nationwide. Their DVD “ARASHI Anniversary Tour 5×10” is scheduled to release on April 7th and is expected to take over the chart again.

From Music Japan Plus

Aww, those two are always so humble. I love how each member praises one another on their achievements.

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