Monday is Children's Day (Kodomo no Hi) in Japan, the final holiday of Golden Week. To celebrate the occasion, NHK is airing a special program titled "Hirake! Mahou no Tobira ~Isshoni Utaou Yume no Uta~," which will feature several pop artists singing covers of songs found in Disney's and Studio Ghibli's films.

Participants include Thelma Aoyama, Masafumi Akikawa, AAA, Aya Matsuura, Morning Musume, and Becky. The show will air at 7:30pm on May 5. Yui Aragaki will serve as a host.

The final prize in the Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix has been announced. Fan favorite "Yukan Club" picked up the votes needed to win the title of the Best Drama of last year, topping off the wins by Jin Akanishi as Best Actor and Yu Kashii as Best Supporting Actress.

Decided by popular vote, this Drama Grand Prix had 3 of its 5 awards claimed by "Yukan Club," while the other two were taken by "Hanazakari no Kimitachi e."

Rock band SID announced on Thursday that they will finally have their first major label release.

The group has managed to gain a fairly large following despite their attachment to an independent label. They will start their final tour as an indies band on June 2, then they will make their major label debut in the fall. As part of the move, they will hold a concert at the Nippon Budokan on November 2.

Arashi has been chosen as the main personalities for NTV's annual charity program "24 Hour Television," scheduled for August 30-31 this year. This will be the group's second time hosting the show - they last did it in 2004, also an Olympic year.

The program's overall hosts will be announcers Kazuo Tokumitsu and Yukari Nishio.

Two songs for the upcoming "Hana Yori Dango Final" movie (out June 28) have been announced.

aiko will be providing an insert song, currently referred to as "Tsukushi's Theme Song." The song, which will apparently be chosen from her unpublished material, has not been given an official title yet.

Arashi is doing the movie's theme song, titled "One Love."

Celebrated screenwriter Eriko Kitagawa is making the leap to filmmaking. She is best known for hit romance dramas such as "Aishiteru to Itte Kure," "Long Vacation," and "Beautiful Life." Now, she has directed one of her own scripts, with the help of director Shunji Iwai ("Hana and Alice") and music producer Takeshi Kobayashi.

Iwai reportedly initiated the project, strongly persuading Kitagawa to take the helm. Iwai is serving as producer along with Kobayashi. This is the first film produced by Kobayashi, who is better recognized as a former member of MY LITTLE LOVER and a producer for popular artists such as Mr.Children.

The youth romance story revolves around two high schoolers, Hiro and Shuu. They are played by Kie Kitano and Masaki Okada, respectively. The supporting cast includes Hiroki Narimiya, Miho Shiraishi, and Takao Osawa.

The film's title in Japanese is "Harufuwei" (ハルフウェイ). When asked about the meaning of the name, Kitagawa simply said, "Just wait until you watch it." The movie was shot over the span of half a month starting in late October of last year. It is expected to be released in spring 2009.

Popular young actor Shun Oguri will be taking some time off soon, though it will be shorter than expected. For the past year or two, he has been one of the busiest actors in the industry. Just last year, he appeared in four movies (including "Kisaragi" and "Crows ZERO"), two stage plays (including Yukio Ninagawa's "Caligula"), and two drama series ("Hana Yori Dango 2" and "Hanazakari no Kimitachi e"), in addition to his work in commercials, radios, and other media.

Last December, Oguri stated that he was considering taking a long break due to his tiring schedule. Many of his fans have been calling for him to get some much needed rest, and some remained worried when Oguri's agency Tristone announced that he will only be taking off for about 2-3 weeks. Even that won't be a complete break, as Oguri will still be doing bits of work, such as his radio show.

Oguri will reportedly return to his current rate of work in June.

Rock band ELLEGARDEN has announced that they are suspending activities indefinitely. They began working on a new album last year, but the members have come to disagree about the motivation behind it. Finding it difficult to proceed, the band has decided to shelve the album and put their other activities on hold.

The group will still go ahead with their announced concerts (and some unannounced events) up through early September.