Mainichi is currently hosting a Beatles photo special, documenting the time the band visited Japan in 1966. The set includes shots from their gig at the Budokan, along with photos of the Ultra-nationalist groups that opposed the band playing the sacred venue. Have a look for yourself!

A speaker system that looks like it’s been modelled on a jellyfish has been produced by Harman International’s JBL brand. The Spyro is a set of 12W speakers with a 24W subwoofer, and has OCT (Optimized Compression Topology) to prevent distortion. Spyro is available for 20,000 yen ($174/£88).

Via Digital World Tokyo

Sega Toys is launching the Grand Pianist, a miniature version of a grand piano, standing 18cm/7 inches in height and 25cm/10 inches in width. It is similarly equipped with 88 keys, but with each key measuring only 4mm/0.15 inches in width. Apparently, it can still be operated properly by hand, but 100 classical, jazz and pop tunes are stored in its memory to entertain you on its own. Sega say, “This will bring the real feel of live concerts to a household”. The Grand Pianist will be available in April for 47,000 yen ($400/£207).

Via Spluch

Michael Jackson has announced that he’ll be performing a Christmas party in Tokyo on 19th December. The party is for 1,600 people, and is to celebrate the anniversary of “Thriller”, which was released in December, 24 years ago. Jackson said, “I look forward to visiting Japan again, and greeting my fans and friends.” 200 platinum tickets will be priced 400,000 yen ($3,400/£1,790), which allow fans to meet the ‘King of Pop’ before the show. The rest of the tickets are 200,000 yen ($1700/£890), and the promoter expects them to be sold in a matter of days.

Source: INQ7

This week, MySpace and Softbank teamed up to launch MySpace Japan. The first Secret Show, exclusive to local MySpace users and to celebrate the launch, was at the Liquid Rooms in Ebisu with Noel Gallagher and Gem from Oasis performing semi-acoustically. Classic Oasis tunes like ‘Talk Tonight’ and ‘Wonderwall’ were played during the one-hour set, alongside a cover of The Beatles’ Strawberry Fields Forever. Softbank CEO Masayoshi said, “We are confident the Japanese community will take to MySpace just as passionately as millions of others around the world.” The Liquid Rooms’ crowd consisted of 600 enthusiastic people, and the set closed with ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ and ‘Married With Children’.

Source: Japan Times

HMV Japan has begun its online music distribution service, offering a selection of one million songs. They have teamed up with Label Gate, a music distribution service provider connected to Sony, to help expand the amount of tunes on offer. Songs are priced 150 yen ($1.26/67p), and the company aim to have 1.5 million for sale by the end of this year.

No prizes for guessing who’s number 1 again this week.

Chart provided by Oricon.

Here’s some extremely boring trivia about this week’s number 1, Kumi Koda…

Bloodtype: A
Favourite music: Hip-Hop
Favourite sport: Squash
Favourite clothes: Dolce & Gabbana, H?A?K

Wow! That’s some boring trivia.

Chart provided by Oricon.

Bit Generations is the banner in which certain Nintendo Game Boy Advance games fall under. The games are simple, stylish and have great soundtracks. They’re currently only available in Japan at the moment, but luckily, you can grab the soundtracks here. Worth noting that the soundtrack to Coloris was actually written by Cornelius.

Suenori Fakui, has spent 10 years on an invention that is now ready to be tested by Ishimaru Denki in Akihabara, and Tower Records in Shibuya. The 60-year old has developed the world’s first CD made of glass; a material to ensure outstanding quality, and guaranteed not to warp or distort. As usual, a laser reads the information on the hand-made CD, but the glass material cannot be affected by heat or humidity like existing plastic CDs. Fakjui says, “I wanted to make a CD that could be passed on to grandchildren.” I hope they appreciate the gift, as the glass CDs cost 98,700 yen ($831/£441) each.

Source: Mainichi

Oh, come on Kobukuro, give someone else a go!

Chart provided by Oricon.

No, thank you, SMAP.

Chart provided by Oricon.

Anyone else sick of Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas still being in the album chart? Either way, she’s no Kobukuro, who keep the number 1 position this week.

I have no idea whatsoever if the video for this week’s number one is meant to be serious or not.

Two best friends win the album chart this week. You lucky fellas, Kobukuro.