Yahoo! Japan has announced the results of its 2007 Yahoo! Music Awards. The main awards, which were decided by users’ votes, went to the following artists:

* Best Male Artist: Hideaki Tokunaga
* Best Female Artist: YUI
* Best Group: L’Arc~en~Ciel
* Most Photogenic Artist: Maki Goto
* Best Western Artist: Backstreet Boys
* Best Newcomer: ERIKA
* Best Artwork: “Tanz Walzer,” Quruli
* Best Collaboration: “yanokami,” yanokami

Yahoo! also revealed its own rankings for the year, based on factors such as downloads and page views. Mr.Children was #1 in the Artist category, while GReeeeN’s “Aiuta” won in the Works category.

The full lists of nominee and winners, including Yahoo! category rankings, can be seen at the official website.

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Singer/actor Ryu Si-won has topped a Japanese music album chart in the Asian category. Ryu’s fourth album “With You,” which was released in Japan in May, was found to have topped the music chart according to the largest music record chain HMV’s annual album sales rankings.

The singer’s agency, Rs Company, said the feat attests to Ryu’s success in Japan as a singer.

“With You” topped HMV’s album booking chart when it was just released, and took the second spot on the Oricon daily chart. In June, the singer successfully gave a concert at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan.

Ryu is also popular as an actor in Japan. Since October this year he has been appearing on the TBS weekend drama “Woman Detective” opposite young Japanese star Yukie Nakama.

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The nominees for the 31st Japan Academy Awards were announced on Tuesday. “Tokyo Tower” led the pack with nominations in 14 categories, followed closely by “Always: Zoku Sanchome no Yuhi” (13 nominations) and “Soredemo Boku wa Yattenai” (11 nominations). Those three films are competing with “Kisaragi” and “Bizan” for Best Picture.

The winners will be decided at the awards ceremony on February 15.
Full List:

Best Picture
Always: Zoku Sanchome no Yuhi
Kisaragi
Soredemo Boku wa Yattenai
Tokyo Tower ~Okan to Boku to, Tokidoki, Oton~
Bizan

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Oricon has announced its sales rankings for 2007 and once again, Kumi Koda was #1 in total sales for the year. She sold more than 7.3 billion yen worth of CDs and DVDs. Ayumi Hamasaki was #2 at 7.0 billion yen.

The rest of the top ten were Mr.Children, EXILE, KAT-TUN, Ai Otsuka, Kobukuro, KinKi Kids, Arashi, and L’Arc~en~Ciel.

The best selling single of the year was Masafumi Akikawa’s “Sen no Kaze ni Natte,” which sold about 1.11 million copies. Hikaru Utada’s “Flavor of Life” was #2, followed by Kobukuro’s “Tsubomi.”

The best selling album was “HOME” by Mr.Children (1.18 million copies). Kumi Koda also sold a million with “Black Cherry,” while Kobukuro trailed behind them at #3 with their “ALL SINGLES BEST.”

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EXILE’s new album, “EXILE LOVE,” ended its first week with approximately 670,000 copies sold, making it the top seller. DREAMS COME TRUE also did well with their “AND I LOVE YOU,” selling 374,000 copies to make the #2 spot.

FUNKY MONKEY BABYS achieved #5 with their second album. TUBE (#7), Ulfuls (#9), and INFINITY 16 (#10) also made appearances in the top ten.

In singles, V6 topped the chart with “way of life,” selling 91,000 copies. ZARD’s posthumous release “Glorious Mind” was the #2 seller at 50,000 copies.

Several other artists had new releases in the top ten: Remioromen (#3), YUKI (#4), BoA (#6), and Shunsuke Kiyokiba (#9).

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