Eight out of ten groups have no surprises at all… Why information on first-time entrants to the Kohaku is “leaked” to the public.

Eight of the ten groups had already been “informally reported”.

On November 19, 20 red groups and 21 white groups were announced as contestants for the 75th NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen to be held on New Year’s Eve. Among them, the red group will be the first-time entrants: tuki., a singer/songwriter who is a mystery except that she is 15 years old and in her first year of high school; ILLIT, a K-pop group; and ME:I, a Japanese girls’ group.

Also in the white group are the three-piece band “Omoinotake,” the hip-hop unit “Creepy Nuts,” multi-creator Kento Kocchi, 28, younger brother of actor Masaki Suda, 31, and the grand prize winner of the “Japan Record Award” in ’21, also a singer, Dance and vocal group “Da-iCE,” which had to endure tears in ’22 and ’23, also made its first appearance.

In addition, K-pop group “Tomorrow X Together”, “Number_i”, a unit of former “King & Prince” members Shiyou Hirano (27), Yuta Jinguji (27), and Yuta Kishi (29), and “Number_i”, a group produced by Noritake Kinashi (62) of Tunnels, and produced in March this year by talented actor Tokoro Enka singer Leon Shinhama (28), who became a topic of conversation this March with his song “Zenkoku arareo yo” (I will give it all to you), which was produced by Noritake Kinashi (62) and written and composed by TV personality George (69), was also selected, bringing the total number of first-time entrants to 10: three red groups and seven white groups. However, there were no “surprises” or topics of conversation among the first-time entrants announced on the day.

Eight of the 10 groups, except for tuki. and Creepy Nuts, had been reported in various sports papers before the day of the announcement that they had been selected to participate in the festival for the first time. Of the two groups that were not reported, “Creepy Nuts,” whose “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” was a big hit, was so well received on social networking sites that it was said, “It was a surprise that they had not participated in the competition before.

Tuki alone became the youngest solo artist in history to have a total of over 100 million views of his debut song “Supper Song”. Although tuki. ranked an impressive No. 2 on the Billboard Japan’s first-half overall song chart, it seems that all newspapers were unaware of the fact that tuki. was the youngest solo artist in history to have a song streamed more than 100 million times. It is no wonder that NHK’s information management system has been pointed out as a problem.

However, there is also testimony that NHK has a strict management system. Akiko Iwata, 55, a journalist and former reporter in NHK’s Political Affairs Department, appeared live on Kantele’s information program “Shunkan Live Totto Tekko! a Kantele information program, on January 18.

How information leaks out

Iwata said, “Really, it’s amazing. Information management is really amazing,” Iwata said when asked about the Kohaku event.

When I was at NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), I used to wander around at night. When I was at NHK, there was a “Kohaku Room,” and it said, “No Trespassing. I just wanted to open it!　I just wanted to open it! (Laughs)” When the studio voiced their surprise, he replied, “Even the bureau staff! （They don’t tell you (information),” he emphasized.

It is true that information management is strict within NHK, and only the staff of the departments involved in the Kohaku program would know the information. However, each of the record companies to which the participating singers belong have a strong connection with sports newspapers, and it seems that information leaks out from there. A decade ago, it was said that the executives of some major entertainment companies knew all the contestants based on information from the record companies.

In the past, there was a case in which NHK angrily canceled a contestant’s unofficial decision when a sports newspaper wrote about the contestant earlier than the announcement. However, in recent years, NHK has become much more lenient, and even if a sports paper or other media outlet had tipped off a contestant, NHK would not be penalized in any way. The current situation is that the sports papers usually find out through the record companies, so unless the record companies and the sports papers are given a strict gag order, this trend is unlikely to change.

(A former reporter in charge of entertainment at a sports paper) “From a biased point of view, this may be a strategy to make the Kohaku more popular by having more information about the first-time entrants reported in advance,” says a former reporter in charge of entertainment at a sports paper. However, it would not be surprising if information on the featured singers who will participate in the “special quota” is leaked in the future. The Kohaku is not expected to be very exciting this year, as no STARTO talent will be participating, and the “laxity” of information management is a cause for concern.