Kohaku’s artist lineup for this year has been released.

Newcomers on the red team (female) are Aoyama Thelma, Akimoto Junko (enka singer who I think made it big this year with her single “Ai no Mama De”), Ikimonogakari, GIRL NEXT DOOR, Perfume, and Fujioka Fujimaki and Ohashi Nozomi (the two men and the little girl who sang the theme to Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea).

Newcomers to the white team (male) are Kimaguren, Kiyama Yusaku, Jero, Shuchishin with Pabo, Tohoshinki(DBSK), Mr. Children, and Mizutani Yutaka (enka singer who made a comeback).

Overall, expected additions for the year. I’m not familiar with enka singers, but the female singers who made it big this year all made it onto the show (Perfume! Yes!). I’m surprised and pleased that Ikimonogakari are finally on. For the male artists though, I’m surprised it took this long for Mr. Children to make it on.

Full lineup is

RED TEAM: aiko, Aoyama Thelma, Akiyama Junko, Ayaka, Angela Aki, Ikimonogakari, Ishikawa Sayuri, Otsuka Ai, Kawanaka Mizuki, GIRL NEXT DOOR, Koda Kumi, Godai Natsuko, Kobayashi Sachiko, Sakamoto Fuyumi, SPEED, Tendo Yoshimi, Nakashima Mika, Nakamura Mitsuko, Hamasaki Ayumi, Perfume, Hitoto Yo, Hirahara Ayaka, Fuji Ayako, Fujioka Fujimaki and Ohashi Nozomi, Mizumori Kaori, and Wada Akiko.

WHITE TEAM: Akikawa Masafumi, Aqua Timez, Itsuki Hiroshi, EXILE, Kitajima Saburo, Kitayama Takeshi, Kimagurin, Kiyama Yusaku, Kobukuro, Shuuchishin with Pabo, SMAP, Tohoshinki (DBSK), TOKIO, Tokunaga Hideaki, Hikawa Kiyoshi, Hirai Ken, Fuse Akira, Porno Graffiti, Maekawa Kiyoshi, Mikawa Kenichi, Mr. Children, Mizutani Yutaka, Mori Shinichi, Moriyama Naotaro, and WaT.

Overall, same as you’d expect – the popular pop artists plus all those established enka singers (I had to google every one of them… pain). I’m glad that Perfume made it onto Kouhaku – hopefully, they’ll be here the year after too. Also, Tohoshinki has officially made it big in Japan. Absent from the list are any girl idols besides Perfume – not a year for AKB48 or H!P, I guess. Also absent despite their pretty big hype this year: Amuro Namie, Fukuhara Miho, and Shimizu Shota.

So will Kouhaku be your Japanese new year’s programming of choice?

(…unfortunately, no matter how nicely Perfume and Otsuka Ai will be strutting their stuff on stage, all the enka will render my early death. Yeah, not really a fan. I’ll be sticking to my good old standby: Johnny’s Countdown. )

Jero’s debut single “Umiyuki” has made huge waves on Japanese music. Real name Jerome White Jr., quarter Japanese and from Pittsburgh, he’s the first African-American enka singer and has the highest ranking enka debut single for a solo artist who hadn’t previously been in a group (catching #4 on the Oricon charts).

I’m personally not an enka fan so I can’t comment much on the music, but I’d say Jero has a nice enka voice. The beginning of the video makes it seem like a hip-hop song, then immediately flips a 180 into old-school sounding enka. Throughout the video though, there are scenes of Jero singing and two other guys doing hip-hop dancing in front of a graffiti covered wall, in straight-up gangsta dress – extremely disconcerted from the music itself, which I’d say is more calming and melancholy. (I really can’t legitimately judge enka music.)

It’ll be interesting to see Jero’s career path in the future – he sings pure enka but dresses in hip hop fashion; is he planning on ever bringing the two genres together? Or is it just a promotional scheme, and he has no intention of actually having hip-hop connections?

More interesting to see will be how Japan treats Jero; his Japanese heritage and language help assimilate him, but he is still a complete novelty to Japan, even more so than imports like Leah Dizon. Currently, a lot of the attention is focused on his appearance. Whether Jero will actually become a consistently popular Japanese music artist or if he is just a one-time hit for the foreigner and novelty obsessed Japanese remains to be seen.