The was the 67th edition of NHK's

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 ne ...

, held on December 31, 2016, live from

NHK Hall The NHK Hall is a concert hall located at the NHK Broadcasting Center, the main headquarters of Japan's public broadcaster NHK. The hall is the main venue for the NHK Symphony Orchestra, but it has also played host to other events, such as the ...

from 19:15 (JST) to 23:45 (JST), with a 5-minute break for the latest news. This is the 28th Heisei Era edition. The broadcast schedule was announced on September 8. The won this event. This year's theme is: 夢を歌おう ("Yume o Utaō", "Let's Sing a Dream"). For the last time, Masaaki Hirao conducted "Hotaru no Hikari", seven months before his passing on July 21, 2017.

Broadcast

NHK revealed on September 8 that the 67th Kouhaku will air on December 31 (Saturday), starting from 19:15 JST and ending at 23:45 JST, with a 5-minute break for the latest news. In Japan, the broadcast takes place through NHK-G and Radio 1, and worldwide by

NHK World Premium NHK World Premium is a TV news and entertainment broadcasting service offered by NHK World-Japan, the international arm of Japan's public broadcaster NHK. The service is aimed towards overseas Japanese and the overseas market, similar to worldw ...

. In United States, the show is broadcast through TV Japan, starting around 15:10 (Eastern Time). Viewers outside Japan can watch Kouhaku on

, starting at 10:15 UTC, the same time as the NHK-G broadcast. This year's theme is "Let's Sing a Dream" (夢を歌おう). It was revealed that the theme will remain unchanged through the 70th edition in 2019, in support of the upcoming 2020 Summer Olympics and

2020 Summer Paralympics The , branded as the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, was an international multi-sport parasports event held from 24 August to 5 September 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. They were the 16th Summer Paralympic Games as organized by the International Paralym ...

. On November 12, Kasumi Arimura and Aiba Masaki were announced as the captains of the Red and White teams, respectively. On November 24, the list of program artists were announced, as well as this year's mediator, Shinichi Takeda. A special showcase from this year's Taiga Drama '' Sanada Maru'' is also being planned. On November 25, 2016, SPORTS NIPPON made a prediction of who will be the "Ootori" this year. Seiko Matsuda and Fuyumi Sakamoto are strong candidates for Akagumi, while Arashi is most likely to hold Ootori for Shirogumi. Ultimately, Arashi was chosen as Ootori. On December 7,

Tamori , known by his stage name (an anagram of his surname), is a Japanese television celebrity. Known for his trademark dark sunglasses, Tamori is one of the "big three" television comedians in Japan along with Takeshi Kitano (a.k.a. Beat Takesh ...

and Matsuko Deluxe were announced to appear as special guests. The song list was revealed on December 19. On December 21, the judges were revealed. On December 22, it was announced that "Fly into the Sun" composed by Shiro Sagisu would be used as the opening theme song. The song was written specially for the program. On December 23,

SMAP SMAP was a Japanese boy band, composed of Masahiro Nakai, Takuya Kimura, Goro Inagaki, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, and Shingo Katori. The group was created in 1988 by music producer Johnny Kitagawa, founder of Johnny & Associates, originally as a ...

officially declined their invitation to appear on Kouhaku. The performance order was announced on

Christmas Day Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

. Rehearsals started on December 28. On December 31, the festival was broadcast live. The ball system was used for the first time in three years, and the winning team was Red team (9 balls against 6 White team). After Yoshimi Tendo's performance, viewer votes showed that Red team was in the lead with 444,495 vs 374,460 votes White. However, by half-time, White team had gained a significant lead with 1,435,175 vs 922,066 votes for Red. Final results showed that White team had won the viewer vote (4,203,679 White vs 2,527,724 Red) and venue vote (1,274 White vs 870 Red), garnering 4 balls. However, Red team won 9 guest judge votes vs 2 for White, bringing the final balls to 9 Red vs 6 White, culminating in Red team's victory. Red team captain Kasumi Arimura received the championship flag from the hands of guest judge Masao Kusakari. With the 2016 victory, Red Team has accumulated 31 wins, while White Team continues with 36 victories.

Personnel

Main host and team leaders

* Red Team Captain: Kasumi Arimura * White Team Captain:

Masaki Aiba (born December 24, 1982) is a Japanese singer, actor, television personality, radio host and dancer. He is a member of the boy band Arashi. Aiba began his career in the entertainment industry when he joined the Japanese talent agency Johnny & A ...

(

Arashi is a Japanese boy band consisting of five members formed under the Johnny & Associates talent agency. The members are Satoshi Ohno, Sho Sakurai, Masaki Aiba, Kazunari Ninomiya, and Jun Matsumoto. Arashi officially formed on September 15 ...

) * Mediator: Shinichi Takeda

Live Comments

*Announcer NHK Radio 1: Naoki Ninomiya, Aiko Terakado *PR, Commentary: Bananaman, Naoko Hashimoto

Judges

Osamu Akimoto is a Japanese manga artist from Katsushika, Tokyo. He is best known for his long-running comedy series '' KochiKame: Tokyo Beat Cops'', which was continuously published in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' for 40 years from 1976 to 2016. With 1,960 chapt ...

(manga artist), creator of ''

Kochikame , often shortened to , and known in English as ''KochiKame: Tokyo Beat Cops'', is a Japanese comedy manga series written and illustrated by Osamu Akimoto. It takes place in the present day, in and around a neighborhood police station ( k� ...

'' *

Yui Aragaki is a Ryukyuan Japanese actress, model, singer and occasional radio show host. She has been selected several times as the most desired girlfriend and the most desired female celebrity face in Oricon's yearly survey. Early life She was born on J ...

(actress), starred in '' Nigehaji'' *

Kaori Icho is a Japanese freestyle wrestler. She is a ten-time World Champion and four-time Olympic Champion, winning gold in 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016. Icho was undefeated between 2003 and 2016. On 29 January 2016 at the Golden Grand Prix Ivan Yarygin 20 ...

(freestyle wrestler), gold medal in 2016 Olympics *

Shohei Ohtani , nicknamed "Shotime", is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher, designated hitter and outfielder for the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of Nippon Professional B ...

(baseball player) *

Masao Kusakari is a Japanese actor and model. Biography Masao Kusakari was born in Fukuoka Prefecture to a Japanese mother and an American father, the latter who died in the Korean War. Considered stunningly good looking, his debut into the public eye began w ...

(actor), played Sanada Masayuki in

Taiga Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces ...

'' Sanada Maru'' * Shota Shunputei (comedian) *

Mitsuki Takahata is a Japanese actress and singer who is represented by the talent agency Horipro. She attended Hosei University as an undergraduate student Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate educ ...

(actress), starred in

Asadora , colloquially known as , is a serialized, 15 minutes per episode, Japanese television drama program series broadcast in the mornings by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. The first such series aired in 1961 with the black-and-white , starring T ...

'' Toto Neechan'' *

Sae Tsuji is a Paralympic athlete of Japan with a unilateral upper limb impairment who was a medalist in Athletics at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Athletics events at the 2016 Summer Paralympics were held in the Estádio Olímpico João Havelange i ...

(athlete), bronze medal in 2016 Paralympics *

Kosuke Hagino is a Japanese former competitive swimmer who specialized in the individual medley and 200 m freestyle. He is a four-time Olympic medalist, most notably winning gold in the 400 m individual medley at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Hagino holds the ...

(swimmer), gold medal in 2016 Olympics *

Sayaka Murata Sayaka Murata (村田沙耶香 ''Murata Sayaka''; born August 14, 1979) is a Japanese writer. She has won the Gunzo Prize for New Writers, the Mishima Yukio Prize, the Noma Literary New Face Prize, and the Akutagawa Prize. Biography Murata ...

(writer), won the 155th

Akutagawa Prize The is a Japanese literary award presented biannually. Because of its prestige and the considerable attention the winner receives from the media, it is, along with the Naoki Prize, one of Japan's most sought after literary prizes. History ...

Special Guests

* Matsuko Deluxe *

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. On ...

Godzilla is a fictional monster, or '' kaiju'', originating from a series of Japanese films. The character first appeared in the 1954 film '' Godzilla'' and became a worldwide pop culture icon, appearing in various media, including 32 films produ ...

Live Music Performance

* Oomisoka Ongakutai (Conducted by: Nobuo Kurita)

Contestants

Debuting or returning artists are in bold.

Artists not attending this year

;RED TEAM: Miki Imai,

NMB48 NMB48 (read "N.M.B. Forty-eight") is a Japanese idol group that debuted in 2011 as the second sister group to AKB48, produced by Yasushi Akimoto. NMB48 is named after the Namba district in Osaka city of Osaka Prefecture, where the group is base ...

, Sakurako Ohara,

Natsuko Godai , (born 18 December 1961), of Tokyo, Japan, is a Japanese enka singer. Career In 1982, under the alias "Hiromi Hoshi", she debuted with "Koi no Ienakiko" ('恋の家なき子'), released by New Century Records. In April 1985, she used the ...

, Superfly, Ayako Fuji,

Misia Misaki Itō, commonly known as and stylized as MISIA, is a Japanese singer and songwriter. Born in Nagasaki, Misia moved to Fukuoka at the age of 14 to pursue a recording career. There, she continued her secondary education and briefly attended ...

μ's is a Japanese multimedia project co-developed by ASCII Media Works' ''Dengeki G's Magazine'', music label Lantis, and animation studio Sunrise. It is the first multimedia project in the ''Love Live!'' franchise. The project revolves aro ...

Rebecca Rebecca, ; Syriac: , ) from the Hebrew (lit., 'connection'), from Semitic root , 'to tie, couple or join', 'to secure', or 'to snare') () appears in the Hebrew Bible as the wife of Isaac and the mother of Jacob and Esau. According to biblical ...

Akiko Wada is an ethnically Korean Japanese singer, tarento and businesswoman from Tennōji-ku, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture. She has various nicknames, one being "Akko". Due to her above-average height (174 cm or 5'8.5"), she is also nicknamed "jotei" ...

;WHITE TEAM: Exile, Gesu no Kiwami Otome,

Golden Bomber is a Japanese visual kei "air" rock band formed in 2004 and signed to the independent label Euclid Agency (sublabel ''Zany Zap''). Despite not actually performing the instruments themselves during concerts, they have gained popularity through t ...

, Masahiko Kondō,

Hideaki Tokunaga is a Japanese pop singer-songwriter and actor. Although Tokunaga failed to pass the test of '' Star Tanjō!'' in 1982, he debuted as a recording singer in 1986. After he released hit songs such as "Yume o Shinjite" (the first ending theme of t ...

Bump of Chicken is a Japanese alternative rock group from Sakura, Chiba, Japan. The band members are Motoo Fujiwara (vocals, rhythm), Hiroaki Masukawa (guitar), Yoshifumi Naoi (bass) and Hideo Masu (drums). Since their conception in 1994, they have released 27 ...

Takashi Hosokawa , born 細川貴志 (Hosokawa Takashi) on 15 June 1950, Makkari, Abuta District, Hokkaidō, Japan) is a Japanese ''enka'' singer. In 1975, he debuted with the song "Kokoro Nokori". Hosokawa immediately became one of the most popular ''enka'' ...

Akihiro Miwa (born May 15, 1935), better known by his stage name , is a Japanese singer, actor, director, composer, author and drag queen. Career Miwa began his career aged 17 as a professional cabaret singer in the Ginza district in Chūō, Tokyo, after ...

Shinichi Mori known professionally as is a Japanese male enka singer and composer, who also sings folk and pop music. He has sold more than 90 million records, making him one of the best selling Japanese musicians. Mori has been married and divorced twice ...

Performance Order

Kanjani8 and Puffy were the first artists to perform. The final performers were Sayuri Ishikawa and Arashi, thus making this Arashi's first "Ootori". Five artist performed live from a remote location: Ringo Shiina & Tokio (from

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building The , also referred to as the for short, is the seat of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which governs the special wards, cities, towns, and villages that constitute the Tokyo Metropolis. Located in Shinjuku ward, the building was designed ...

), Masaharu Fukuyama (from

Pacific Convention Plaza Yokohama The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

), Hikaru Utada (from

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

), and Kiyoshi Hikawa (from

Kumamoto Castle is a hilltop Japanese castle located in Chūō-ku, Kumamoto, in Kumamoto Prefecture. It was a large and well fortified castle. The is a concrete reconstruction built in 1960, but several ancillary wooden buildings remain of the original castle ...

Songs performed on medleys

* Puffy: "Asia no Junshin", "Nagisa ni Matsuwaru Et Cetera" * Sekai no Owari: "RPG", "Hey Ho" * V6: "Wa ni Natte Odorou", "Honey Beat" * Fukuyama Masaharu: "Shounen", "1461 days" * AKB48: "River", "Flying Get", "Kimi wa Melody" * Arashi: "Arashi", "Happiness", "One Love"

Final Results & Ratings

Trivia

* This year's theme was announced in support of the

2020 Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

and

Paralympic Games The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaire ...

, which will be held in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, with the same theme being retained through the 70th Kouhaku. *

will not be making their final appearance before their disbandment in Kōhaku Uta Gassen, as many had hoped. *

of Arashi will be captain of the White Team for the sixth time (counting the other five times, along with the other members of Arashi, between 2010 and 2014). This time, for the first time, Arashi is chosen for Ootori. * On November 21,

refused his invitation and announced his retirement from Kouhaku.

will not attend this year. * This Kōhaku marked

Ikimono-gakari The romanization of the group's name does not have the hyphen according to Sony's websites for their albums. is a Japanese pop rock duo from Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan consisting of Yoshiki Mizuno and Kiyoe Yoshioka. The group started in Februa ...

's last TV performance. The group announced their hiatus on January 5, 2017. * In 2017, it will be 10 years since the last episode of " Pop Jam" was aired. On this occasion, The Yellow Monkey performed "JAM". * "Furusato" was performed again, since their last appearance in the 65th edition. All artists performed. This song is featured on

's 2015 album ''

Japonism ''Japonisme'' is a French term that refers to the popularity and influence of Japanese art and design among a number of Western European artists in the nineteenth century following the forced reopening of foreign trade with Japan in 1858. Japo ...

''. * For the first time, all the Sakamichi Series groups performed in the same edition. In counterpart, only

AKB48 AKB48 (pronounced ''A.K.B. Forty-Eight'') is a Japanese idol girl group named after the Akihabara (''Akiba'' for short) area in Tokyo, where the group's theater is located. AKB48's producer, Yasushi Akimoto, wanted to form a girl group with it ...

(from AKB48 GROUP) was performed on NHK Hall.

Haruka Shimazaki is a Japanese actress, singer, and former member of the Japanese idol group AKB48. Her supposed apathetic attitude toward idol fans led to the popularity of the buzzword in Japanese media. Since graduating from AKB48 in 2016, Shimazaki has work ...

, Haruna Kojima and Nanami Hashimoto performed for the last time as members from

and

Nogizaka46 is a Japanese female idol group produced by Yasushi Akimoto, created as the of the group AKB48. They are the first group from the Sakamichi Series, which also includes sister groups Sakurazaka46 (formerly Keyakizaka46), Yoshimotozaka46, ...

respectively. *

Kiyoshi Hikawa is a Japanese enka singer who was born on September 6, 1977 in Minami-ku, Fukuoka, Japan.Hikawa Kiyoshi: Pro ...

released his first single with a theme song from an anime series. "Limit Breaking x Survivor" is the second opening theme from ''

Dragon Ball Super is a Japanese manga series written by Akira Toriyama and illustrated by Toyotarou. A sequel to Toriyama's original ''Dragon Ball'' manga, it follows the adventures of Goku and friends during the ten-year timeskip after the defeat of Maj ...

'' starting from episode 77. It was released on August 26, 2017. * Ringo Shiina performed alongside the former members of

Tokyo Jihen , also known as Tokyo Incidents, is a Japanese rock band formed by Ringo Sheena, after leaving her solo career. The band's debut single " Gunjō Biyori" was released in September 2004, and they ended activities in February 2012. The band sold 2 ...

in this Kōhaku. The band, however, was not officially reuniting. * "Ai no Sanka" is a Japanese version of the song "

L'hymne a l'amour "L'hymne" ( en, "Hymn") is a French-language song recorded by Canadian singer Celine Dion and Fred Pellerin, released on 19 August 2015 as the lead single from the Quebec animated film, '' La guerre des tuques 3D'' (2015). The English-language so ...

", originally recorded by

Edith Piaf Edith is a feminine given name derived from the Old English words ēad, meaning 'riches or blessed', and is in common usage in this form in English, German, many Scandinavian languages and Dutch. Its French form is Édith. Contractions and ...

. * Masaaki Hirao conducted "Hotaru no Hikari" for the last time, seven months before his death on July 21, 2017. Starting from 68th edition, it will be replaced by

Shunichi Tokura , is a Japanese composer and was the chair of the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC) from 12 August 2010 to 31 March 2016. Early life Tokura began playing the violin at age 4. He spent his elementary and h ...

References

{{Kōhaku Uta Gassen events NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen events 2016 in Japanese music 2016 in Japanese television