''J-Melo'' is a weekly Japanese music television program broadcast by

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

. It is recorded entirely in the English language. It began broadcasting on October 7, 2005. The program is available on NHK's World Service television station,

Radio Japan NHK World-Japan (formerly and also known simply as NHK World) is the international arm of the Japanese State media, state-controlled public broadcaster NHK. Its services are aimed at the overseas market, similar to those offered by other nationa ...

, Digital Educational TV and on its Domestic General Channel.

History and Programming

The program started broadcasting on October 7, 2005, and was hosted by Mai Takematsu, a Japanese

harpist The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual string (music), strings running at an angle to its sound board (music), soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various way ...

J-Melo ''J-Melo'' is a weekly Japanese music television program broadcast by NHK. It is recorded entirely in the English language. It began broadcasting on October 7, 2005. The program is available on NHK's World Service television station, Radio Japan, ...

, Japanese Language Wikipedia. Retrieved on July 22, 2007. The name "J-Melo" comes from the words, "Japan", "Melody", and "Mellow". The show is the first Japanese music program produced by NHK to be recorded entirely in English, and presents various Japanese music and musicians to the rest of the world through its global television station,

NHK World NHK World-Japan (formerly and also known simply as NHK World) is the international arm of the Japanese state-controlled public broadcaster NHK. Its services are aimed at the overseas market, similar to those offered by other national public-ser ...

.J-Melo Official Website
NHK World Service Website. Retrieved on July 22, 2007. The show is also aired in Japan in English with Japanese

subtitles Subtitles and captions are lines of dialogue or other text displayed at the bottom of the screen in films, television programs, video games or other visual media. They can be transcriptions of the screenplay, translations of it, or informati ...

. In March 2007, Mai Takematsu left the show in order to pursue her medical career, and in April 2007, she was replaced by Japanese singer,

melody. Melody Ishikawa (born February 24, 1982), known mononymously as Melody, stylized as melody., is a Japanese American former J-pop singer. She debuted in February 2003 with the song " Dreamin' Away", under Toy's Factory. In October 2008, Melody ...

She hosted the show until September 2008, when it was announced that

May J. , better known by her stage name May J., is a Japanese pop and R&B singer who made her major label debut under Sony Music Japan on July 12, 2006, with her first mini-album '' All My Girls''. She was born to an Iranian mother and Japanese father ...

will host the succeeding episodes. The new J-Melo debuted in October 2008, with May J. along with Shanti presenting the program, with an updated set and website and a new opening billboard. It was the first time that the program had two permanent presenters. Shanti, however, left the show in 2010. Aside from

music videos A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

, the program features interviews and recorded performances. In 2009, J-Melo started a music project, a fictitious band called Rough-T with manga characters fronted by Takekawa Ai, produced by

Marty Friedman Marty Friedman (born December 8, 1962) is an American guitarist, best known for his tenure as the lead guitarist for thrash metal band Megadeth from 1990 to 2000. He is also known for playing alongside Jason Becker in Cacophony from 1986 unti ...

, and with additional production by international independent artists kevn,

Kirby Kirby may refer to: Buildings * Kirby Building, a skyscraper in Dallas, Texas, United States * Kirby Hall, an Elizabethan country house near Corby, Northamptonshire, England * Kirby House (disambiguation), various houses in England and the Unit ...

and Crazy Dragon. J-Melo features comments from

Dave Spector is an American ''gaijin tarento'', television producer, author, and actor based in Japan. Originally from Chicago, he moved to Japan in 1983 after visiting as a producer with the American television program '' Ripley's Believe It or Not!''. H ...

, who hosts most episodes together with May J.

Segments

J-Melo has a weekly theme, where most of the video content of the show revolve around. These include topics such as "''Summer Favorites''", "''Musicians from

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

''" or "''Summer Rock Festivals''". Every other month, the show also has a request special, where viewers send requests through the J-Melo website. (In a June 2007 request special, it was revealed that the most requested Japanese musical act is

L'Arc-en-Ciel L'Arc-en-Ciel ( French: 'The Rainbow', stylized as L'Arc~en~Ciel), also known as Laruku, is a Japanese rock band, formed in Osaka in 1991 by bassist tetsuya and vocalist hyde. Following the departure of original members hiro and pero, guitarist ...

.) In 2007, the show introduced the segment, "''Japan Dance Music Adventure''," a monthly dance special, where the host tours Japan in search of traditional and modern dance music.

Specials

Every year since 2005, the show has an annual special, counting down the top singles of the year. Since 2007, however, J-Melo aired among others, aired a summer special, several "live to the world" specials (filmed in front of a live audience, not aired live), an

special and a

Tokushima is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Tokushima Prefecture has a population of 728,633 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,146 km2 (1,601 sq mi). Tokushima Prefecture borders Kagawa Prefecture to the nort ...

special. Occasionally, the show will also broadcast guest highlights every quarter.

E-mail Special

In December 2007, the program started to air an

E-mail Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...

special. It counted down the countries where the show received the most e-mail from, as well as the year's top requested artists.

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

Guests

Aside from a weekly theme, J-Melo also has a guest at least once a month. Most of the time, guest greetings are recorded on video to thank their supporters from outside Japan. There are also some episodes where the guests will sit down on set for an interview and sometimes, a performance. The theme for these shows will usually be the works of the guest musician. These appearances are rather significant, as the show is primarily recorded for foreign viewers. Interviews and messages are also subtitled in English whenever needed.

Notable Guests

The following are notable guests who appeared in the show. Those with dates in light blue are guests who appeared on set, while those in light yellow are guests who appeared on video.

Notes and External links

{{Reflist Japanese music television series English-language television shows 2005 Japanese television series debuts NHK original programming