Japan Entertainment

X Japan Wins Award for Best International Band

Yesterday the results were announced and X Japan, the first asian band nominated at the Golden Gods Awards,won the award for Best International Band! Other bands nominated were Rammstein, Lacuna Coil, Sepultura, Behemoth and Meshuggah.

Yoshiki thanked everyone for being able to win such a price. He talked about X Japan’s upcoming English album that will be released worldwide and about their world tour last year and the next one that is in planning stage.
In the end Yoshiki addressed his fans: “We’re going to keep on rocking! We love you!”

JPOPASIA

YOSHIKI to compose 69th Golden Globes Awards theme song

On January 5th, the Golden Globes Awards announced through their official website that YOSHIKIwould be composing their event theme this year.

Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) president Dr. Aida Takla-O’Reilly and Dick Clark Productions executive Barry Adelman both praised YOSHIKI for his fine musicianship and exceptional talent.

“YOSHIKI is a world-renowned musician and composer of enormous talent and versatility, who in addition to being a rock superstar has composed for film and television,” said Dr. Takla-O’Reilly. “As an international organization dedicated to creative achievements, the HFPA is delighted to have a global musical artist of YOSHIKI’s stature create the theme for the show.”

Adelman added, “We look forward to incorporating YOSHIKI’s music into the production of the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards.”

Commenting on his new project, YOSHIKI said, ““The Golden Globe Awards are extremely prestigious, but the show is also edgy. I’m a classical pianist and a rock drummer, so it was natural to create something beautiful that also has an edge. ”

 In 1999, Yoshiki composed a piano concerto and performed it with a 77-piece orchestra to celebrate the tenth year of the Emperor of Japan’s reign.  In 2005, Yoshiki composed the theme song and conducted the Super World Orchestra at the opening ceremony of the World Expo.  Previously, Yoshiki also recorded a classical album co-produced and arranged by acclaimed Beatles producer Sir George Martin and performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

YOSHIKI had also attended the Golden Globe Awards last year.

For those of you who are able to tune in, the 69th Golden Globe Awards will air on January 15th via NBC at 7:00 p.m. EST. It will be hosted by Ricky Gervais.

TOKYOHIVE

YOSHIKI meets his life-sized wax twin at Madame Tussauds Tokyo

On November 10th, X JAPAN’s leader YOSHIKI visited ‘Madame Tussauds Tokyo‘ to attend the unveiling ceremony for his life-sized, wax doppelganger.

The wax figure reportedly cost around 19 million yen (approximately 244,845 USD) to make. After seeing it face-to-face, YOSHIKI commented with a wry smile, “It looks scary, like a ghost.”

He continued, “Though it’s an honor, I have mixed feelings about this.  If there were two of me, we would fight each other, so it would be terrible for the people around me.”  YOSHIKI didn’t forget to encourage fans to check out the wax figure however, as he said, “Please do whatever you want, like tickling it.”

X JAPAN recently completed their Asia tour in Bangkok, Thailand on the 8th.  Though there was some doubt over whether the concert could be held at all due to the severe floods affecting the country, X JAPAN felt that it was crucial that they appear. YOSHIKI relayed, “I thought we should do it because it was a [difficult] time. I told the crowd,  ‘Japan was hit by the earthquake too, let’s hang on together’.”

As for X JAPAN’s plans next year, YOSHIKI said that he wanted to push out more to the world

SOURCE

Yoshiki and Stan Lee’s comic book collaboration to debut at Comic Con

During Yoshiki’s panel at FanimeCon on Saturday, May 28, he announced that his comic book collaboration with Stan Lee will have its debut “issue #0″ released at this year’s Comic-Con International in San Diego (July 21-24, 2011).

The project was first announced last October at the New York Anime Festival/New York Comic Con, where both Yoshiki and Stan Lee together revealed the news. The two are working on a “music superhero comic book series” based on Yoshiki, and they also said that it would be translated into multiple languages and adapted as a motion comic.

Yoshiki already revealed earlier this month that he and Stan Lee will hold a press conference at Comic-Con International.

source: TOKYOGRAPH

X Japan Band Founder Yoshiki Launches XM Radio Show

Yoshiki, the leader of the rock band X Japan, announced on Thursday that he will launch Yoshiki Radio, an hour-long monthly radio show which will be broadcast on Sirius XM Radio. The show’s first episode will air on May 27 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, and subsequent episodes will air on the first Sunday of each month at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

The show’s content will include Yoshiki’s favorite artists from Japan and elsewhere, as well as “elements of Japanese pop culture that already have made their mark on American life, from sushi to Sony to…the bourgeoning western popularity of Anime.” In a statement, Yoshiki expressed excitement at showing that there are “no real boundaries” to music and art.

Yoshiki, who has been running charity auctions via his Yoshiki Foundation non-profit organization to benefit victims of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake disaster (Higashi Nihon Daishinsai), also announced a new batch of auctions in the series on Wednesday:

• MTV Europe Award statue belonging to the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Anthony Kiedis
• Custom Ibenez mandolin belonging to Cuban-American industrial metal band Ministry’s Al Jourgensen
• Guitars autographed by Anthrax’s Scott Ian and Limp Bizkit’s Wes Borland
• T-shirts signed by Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon, and James Franco
• Front-row tickets to a live filming of the television talk show Chelsea Handler Live
• A limited-edition print of Marilyn Manson’s album Lest We Forget, signed by Manson
• Two tickets and a backstage meeting with 30 Seconds to Mars, valid at any show on their 2011 tour
• Hello Kitty iPod Touch case signed by original Hello Kitty designer Yuko Yamaguchi

Chicago’s Anime Central to Host X Japan’s Yoshiki

The Chicago-area anime convention Anime Central announced on its website on Sunday that Yoshiki, the drummer/pianist/songwriter for the Japanese rock band X Japan, will appear at the May 20 to 22 event in Rosemont, Illinois.

Yoshiki has appeared at numerous anime events in the United States, including Anime Central 2010, in addition to performing concerts on tour throughout the country. Anime Central alsoscreened a documentary on X Japan at last year’s event.

In recent weeks, Yoshiki has been involved in fundraising for relief efforts aimed at helping victims of March 11’s Great Eastern Japan Earthquake (Higashi Nihon Daishinsai) disaster, including the auction of his custom “crystal” piano.

X Japan’s most notable anime contributions were the songs in the X² music video collection and later X movie. The animation studio MADHOUSE adapted both productions from CLAMP’s X manga. The surviving band members — Toshimitsu “Toshi” Deyama, Yoshiki Hayashi, Tomoaki “Pata” Ishizuka, and Hiroshi “Heath” Morie — reunited in 2007, ten years after they first disbanded and nine years after the death of guitarist Hideto “Hide” Matsumoto.

Anime Central 2011 will also feature Japanese fashion designers h.Naoto and Sixh, voice actors Colleen Clinkenbeard,Darrel Guilbeau, and Cristina Vee, and the J-Pop band Flow.

Update: Yoshiki will be attending the event to host a panel and will not be performing.

ANN