Voice actress unit N's will release their first album, titled "N's," next month. The album reportedly includes eight songs, including their single "Hitosashiyubi Quiet!" and a cover of SPEED's "White Love."

N's consists of Mamiko Noto, Mai Goto, Kaori Shimizu, Kana Ueda, and Rina Sato, who all voiced main characters in last year's animated series "Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu." They sang "Hitosashiyubi Quiet!" as the ending theme, and it was released as their first single in July. Their song attracted many fans, so the group stuck together to put out an album.

"N's" goes on sale February 27.

The Yomiuri TV-produced variety show "Narutomo!" will be ending after March, it was announced on Tuesday. YTV explained that the decision is a result of its planned lineup change this spring. It is not yet known what will replace the show.

"Narutomo!" has been on the air since May 2004, hosted by talento Narumi and comedian Tomonori Jinnai. Last September, Jinnai left the show, leaving Narumi as the sole host.

The show, which airs weekday mornings at 9:55am, has averaged 6.3% ratings overall from its start until the end of last year. Ratings peaked at 14.9% for an episode in January 2008.

Currently working on her second English album, Hikaru Utada has opened an official MySpace page. Utada is expected to announce some details about the album soon, but she has already made one full song, a ballad titled "Come Back to Me," available for listening on MySpace.

SXSW Asia has updated its Japan Nite 2009 website, revealing its roster for the SXSW Music Festival. This year, the event is expanding to two nights, each scheduled to run for five hours.

The first night, on March 20, will feature FLiP, Dirty Old Men, HONEY SAC, Sparta Locals, GRAPEVINE, and detroit7.

The second night, on March 21, will feature Stereo Pony, Special Thanks, The Emeralds, SA, Asakusa Jinta, and quaff.

The Japan Nite tour, which will visit eight cities across the U.S., starts on March 22 in New York and ends on March 29 in Los Angeles. Although the lineup is still incomplete, the participating bands include detroit7, SA, Sparta Locals, and FLiP.

EXILE may have sold another 190,000 copies of their "EXILE BALLAD BEST" collection over these past two weeks, but the big winner on the charts was rock trio Ikimono Gakari, who picked up their first #1 with their album "My song Your song." Appearing at Kohaku Uta Gassen may have contributed to their 243,000 in sales, but they were already gaining steam throughout 2008.

GIRL NEXT DOOR also made the charts at #3 with their self-titled release, selling more than 171,000 copies.

Meanwhile, Kumi Koda claimed victory on the singles chart, moving 58,000 copies of "stay with me." The only other new releases in the top ten were two "Macross Frontier" songs at #7 and #8, and the latest from Kalafina at #9.

The so-called "Kohaku effect" was not very strong this year, but it did boost Junko Akimoto's "Ai no Mama de" to #3, making her the oldest artist (at 61) to reach the top three, as well as the first female enka artist to do so since 1988. Ayaka Hirahara's "Nocturne" also experienced a rise to #6.

On the overall DVD rankings, KAT-TUN's latest tour DVD took #1 with 171,000 in sales. This is their 6th consecutive release to top the music DVD charts.

Singer Hikaru Utada may have ended last year with a blog entry revealing that she had hurt her cheek after a fall at home, but she at least has some good news to start off 2009. According to Oricon's sales data, her 5th album, "HEART STATION," has now reached 1 million in actual sales.

"HEART STATION," released in March 2008, was #5 overall on the 2008 sales charts, just a couple thousand copies short of the million mark.

So far, 1.19 million copies of "HEART STATION" have been shipped out to stores.

TV Asahi announcer Junya Shindo (31) is now engaged, it was learned on Monday. He and his fiancee, an airline employee, plan to hold their wedding ceremony and reception this spring.

Shindo primarily deals with sports reporting and is currently a regular on the soccer program "Yabecchi FC."

The latest celebrity to start the new year with a marriage announcement is talento Emi Hashino (35), who is perhaps best known for her regular appearances on the TBS show "King's Brunch."　She and actor Gotaro Tsunashima (35) tied the knot on January 1.

Hashino did not reveal how long the two have been together, but their relationship was discovered last year after various reports of the two out on dates.

Kabuki actor Kantaro Nakamura revealed on Tuesday that he is indeed getting married to actress Ai Maeda, as was reported earlier this week.

Nakamura and his father, kabuki actor Kanzaburo Nakamura, attended a preview event for the movie "ZEN" on Tuesday, and they met with the press afterward. Kanzaburo fielded the questions on behalf of his son, confirming that the couple have been going out for seven years and are planning to wed in the fall. They had been planning to announce their engagement after January 16, the first death anniversary of Nakamura's mother. Kanzaburo also mentioned that he was planning to meet with Maeda's father on the 17th.