Internet-Okinawa.com

Here’s the lineup for this year’s 56th Annual Kouhaku Uta Gassen (Red & White Song Festival). As is my tradition, I also have a link up to each artist’s official website. Cool, yeah? And if I’m up to it, I may also add the genre of each artist in an update to this post. I may even upload a checklist so you’ll be able to track each artist as they appear on the show. We’ll see.

Ladies first…

Aka-gumi (Red [Female] Team)

AI (0)
aiko (4)
ISHIKAWA Sayuri (28)
ITO Yuna (0) — Local girl does good.
OTSUKA Ai (2)
KAWANAKA Miyuki (18)
KURAKI Mai (3)
KOZAI Kaori (13)
KODA Kumi (0)
KOBAYASHI Sachiko (27)
Gorie (0) — Yes, it’s that Gorie from the “Churasan” series and part of the comedic duo Garage Sale. Why is he on the female side? Find out on the 31st.
SAKAMOTO Fuyumi (17)
SHIMATANI Hitomi (4)
SUZUKI Ami “Amigo” (3)
TENDO Yoshimi (10)
DREAMS COME TRUE “Doricamu” (10)
NAKASHIMA Mika (4)
NAGAYAMA Yoko (12)
NATSUKAWA Rimi (4)
HAMASAKI Ayumi “Ayu” (7)
HITOTO Yo (3)
HIRAHARA Ayaka (2)
FUJI Ayako (14)
BoA (4)
MATSUURA Aya (5) & DEF.DIVA [ABE Natsumi, GOTO Maki, ISHIKAWA Rika and MATSUURA Aya] (0)
MATSUTOYA Yumi “Yuming” with Friends Of Love The Earth (0)
MIZUMORI Kaori (3)
Morning Musume. (8)
MORIYAMA Ryoko (10)
WATANABE Misato (0)

Shiro-gumi (White [Male] Team)

Arisu [Alice] (2)
ITSUKI Hiroshi (35)
w-inds. (4)
m-flo (0) featuring Akiko WADA “Ako” (29) — It’s weird to have Ako on the male side and that’s exactly what NHK wants us to think. Will it equate to a higher number of viewers? Let’s hope so.
Kishidan (2)
KITAJIMA Saburo (42)
KITAYAMA Takeshi (0)
Guruupu [Group] Tamashii “g-tamashii” (0)
CHEMISTRY (5)
Gosuperaazu [The Gospellers] (5)
Kobukuro (0)
SADA Masashi (17)
Sukimasuitchi [sukimaswitch] (0)
SMAP (13)
T.M. Revolution (3)
D-51 (0)
Def Tech (0)
TOKIO (12)
TOBA Ichiro (18)
HIKAWA Kiyoshi (6)
FUSE Akira (21)
HOSOKAWA Takashi (31)
Porunogurafiti [Pornograffitti] (4)
MAEKAWA Kiyoshi (15)
MIKAWA Kenichi (22)
MORI Shinichi (38)
MORIYAMA Naotaro (2)
YAMAKAWA Yutaka (11)
YAMAZAKI Masayoshi (0)
WaT (0)

AMURO Namie. MAX. DA PUMP. They’re all gone. After disbanding, none of the ex-members of SPEED have been able to make it this far as solo artists. Perhaps most surprising is not seeing ORANGE RANGE and HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR — both groups had a successful 2005 but probably have higher priority commitments on that day.