The 66th edition of NHK’s year end music show Kohaku Uta Gassen will take place on December 31 at 7:15 PM JST and will run until 11:45 PM JST. The moderator for the Red Team, the women’s team, will be Ayase Haruka. The moderator for the White Team, the men’s team, will be V6’s Inohara Yoshihiko. Haruka previously held her position for the 2013 edition of the show. This is Yoshihiko’s first time as moderator. Kuroyanagi Tetsuko and Udo Yumiko wil serve as mediators.

A total of 51 acts will perform on this year’s show, 25 female and 26 male. There are 10 acts making their Kohaku debut this year, 5 from each team. The female acts debuting on this year’s show are Ohara Sakurako, Superfly, Nogizaka46, μ’s, and REBECCA. The male acts debuting this year are BUMP OF CHICKEN, Gesu no Kiwami Otome., Hoshino Gen, Yamauchi Keisuke, and Miyama Hiroshi.

X JAPAN will be returning to Kohaku Uta Gassen this year, their first appearance since 1997. Sachiko Kobayashi will also be returning to the show, but in regards to planning.

The theme of this year’s show is “That’s, Japan! That’s, Kohaku!” This year’s debuting acts stood under a banner created by artist Tanabe Seiichi with that theme on it today at the Kohaku press conference.



Red Team

E-girls (3)

Ikimonogakari (8)

Sayuri Ishikawa (38)

Miki Imai (2)

AKB48 (8)

NMB48 (3)

Ohara Sakurako (Debut)

Godai Natsuko (22)

Sakamoto Fuyumi (27)

Shiina Ringo (3)

Shimazu Aya (2)

Superfly (Debut)

Takahashi Mariko (3)

Tendo Yoshimi (20)

AAA (6)

Nishino Kana (6)

Nogizaka46 (Debut)

Perfume（8）

Fuji Ayako (21)

Seiko Matsuda (19)

Mizumori Kaori (13)

μ’s (Debut)

miwa (3)

REBECCA (Debut)

Akiko Wada (39)

White Team

Arashi (7)

Itsuki Hiroshi (45)

EXILE (11)

X JAPAN (6)

Kanjani8 (4)

Gesu no Kiwami Otome. (Debut)

Hiromi Go (28)

Golden Bomber (4)

Masahiko Kondo (10)

Sandaime J Soul Brothers (4)

SMAP (23)

SEKAI NO OWARI (2)

Sexy Zone (3)

TOKIO (22)

Hideaki Tokunaga (10)

BUMP OF CHICKEN (Debut)

Hikawa Kiyoshi (16)

V6 (2)

Masaharu Fukuyama (8)

Hoshino Gen (Debut)

Hosokawa Takashi (39)

Miyama Hiroshi (Debut)

Miwa Akihiro (4)

Mori Shinchi (48)

Yamauchi Keisuke (Debut)

Yuzu (6)

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