Despite earlier speculation from the Japanese media hyping the participation of SNSD, KARA, and Big Bang in Japan’s annual music ceremony, “Kohaku Uta Gassen” at the end of the year, official word from NHK states that the three groups will not be attending.
On November 24th, “Kohaku’s” official homepage was updated with the names of the 44 groups who would be attending the ceremony. Fans eagerly scanned past SMAP, L’arc-en-Ciel, AKB48, Koda Kumi, Ayumi Hamasaki and many others, only to find that Korea’s popular idol groups SNSD, Big Bang, KARA did not make the list in the end.
Much attention has to focused on their potential participation, so fans were unfortunately left disappointed with their idols’ absence from the “Kohaku” line-up.
Source + Photos: Star News via Nate
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Update
The official list of the artists partipating in this year's Kohaku festival has just been released (link) and sadly BIGBANG is not part of it. The article below from Sponichi was probably just based on some rumors. This actually happens every year. Newspapers usually leak false information before NHK releases the official list. Til next year, I guess? (Thanks Tisya and Noriko for the info!)
According to the Sports Nippon newspaper, Korean groups BIG BANG and KARA will be making their first appearances in the NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen. The last Korean artists to perform on opposite teams at Kohaku were Lee Jung Hyun and RYU in 2004, but BIG BANG and KARA will be the first groups ever to do so.
BIG BANG, who made their debut in Japan last year, will be participating as an ordinary member of the White Team, rather than as part of a special project. They are planning to arrive in Japan on December 26 and stay until the new year. This means that they will be absent for NHK's annual press conference introducing the first-time Kohaku participants, but they have already recorded a video message for the event.
KARA debuted in Japan just this year. They will be part of the Red Team, but details about their participation are not yet known.
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