Kōhaku Uta Gassen


NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen, more commonly known simply as Kōhaku, is an annual New Year's Eve television special produced by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. It is broadcast live simultaneously on television and radio, nationally and internationally by the NHK network and by some overseas broadcasters who buy the program. The show ends shortly before midnight. Before the show began broadcasting on television in late 1953, the show was held on 3 January and only consisted of a radio broadcast.
The program divides the most popular music artists of the year into competing teams of red and white. The "red" team or akagumi is composed of all female artists, while the "white" team or shirogumi is all male. At the end of the show, judges and the audience vote to decide which group performed better. The honor of performing on Kōhaku is strictly by invitation, so only the most successful singing acts in the Japanese entertainment industry can perform. In addition to the actual music performances, the costumes, hair-styles, makeup, dancing, and lighting are important. Even today, a performance on Kōhaku is said to be a big highlight in a singer's career because of the show's wide reach.

Song selection process

The songs and performers are examined by a selection committee put together by NHK. The basis for selection are record sales and adaptability to the edition's theme.
At the same time, a demographic survey is conducted regarding the most popular singers for each and what kind of music people want to hear. This and the song selection explain the of the musical genres and its artists.
There are, however, exceptions to the process. Momoe Yamaguchi chose to sing her favorite song "Hito Natsu no Keiken" with its suggestive lyrics during the 25th edition, despite NHK's pick of a different song.

Show

When the show was first broadcast on radio in 1951, each team had a few performers, all of whom would perform within an hour. Since 1989, the program goes on for at least four hours as both teams, each having at least 25 performers, perform their songs.
At the end of the show, the audience and a panel of judges—notable celebrities who may or may not have a connection to the music industry—vote to select the winning team. In the past, the audience vote has been composed of a head count of the venue audience members, who can vote for either team. This counted as one vote.
As of the 54th and 55th editions, viewers who watch the program through ISDB-S on NHK BS Hi-vision could vote by having their own head count in their respective households. Although it is still sketchy to determine in the 55th, the audience vote is counted as two votes: one for the venue audience and one for ISDB-S viewers.
The audience vote are added to those of the judges who each have to vote for one team. The team with the most votes wins.
The above process was done differently for the 56th edition. Instead, the NHK Hall head count, the vote count from cellphone users and the vote count from ISDB-S viewers each counted as one vote. As stated above, the team that got at least two votes won.
In the 57th edition, aside from cellphone and ISDB-S viewers and the NHK Hall audience, 1seg users voted. Its format had been reverted to the ball voting system—from the audience head count and the judges' votes.
From the 58th edition to the 63rd edition and again in the 65th, 66th, and 68th editions, the winner was determined through an overall head count, all from cellphone, ISDB-S viewers, 1seg users, and the NHK Hall Audience. Voting reverted temporarily to judges plus audience-unit votes in the 64th edition and 67th except that viewing audience votes during halftime and end of show would each count as one vote and the NHK Hall head count as another single vote.
Aside from the performances, there are special performances where certain performers do their act together, and the so-called "Ring Show" where performers from both teams take part in a "singing exercise." At the end of the show, all the performers sing "Hotaru no Hikari" together. The song is based on the Scottish "Auld Lang Syne" that is commonly sung at New Year parties in the west. In addition, the 50th edition of the show includes a "Countdown Special" to welcome the year 2000.

Results

* In the 56th edition, the roles of mediator and team host were blurred as all four hosts intermingled with both teams.
** Masahiro Nakai is the first male team host of the Red team since Teru Miyata in the 6th and 7th editions. Red team hosts are usually female.
*** All five members of Arashi act as one host-unit, although at least one member would appear on stage to take the role.

Popularity

Kōhaku was once the most-watched show on Japanese television of the year. One major factor was that New Year's Eve in Japan is a holiday traditionally spent at home. Over the years, the annual event's popularity has declined from an all-time high of an 81.4 rating to an all-time low of a 30.8/39.3 rating in the Kantō region. Despite the drop, Kōhaku is consistently the top-rated musical event each year.

Notable participants

Japanese entertainers

The following is a list of acts with notable contributions to the Japanese entertainment industry, and have a minimum of five appearances on Kōhaku to their credit :

Pop and rock

1. Matsuura has also appeared with DEF.DIVA and GAM. However, NHK does not count those appearances towards her count.

Enka and other contemporary

1. Saori Yuki and Sachiko Yasuda are counted as a duet. Solo appearances by either of the two would not count towards the duet count.

Foreigners

Although Kōhaku is made up of mostly Japanese entertainers, foreign artists popular in Japan have competed in the program. Special appearances, supporting musicians or other methods of participation where the artist or group's performance was not accounted for in the overall scoring should not be added to this list. Below is a list of artists or groups who have done so, categorized based on the country of origin the person or majority of the members in a group are from, along with the editions:

Asian