During an AKB48 concert on Saturday, it was announced that Team A member Mai Oshima (also known by the nickname Maimai) will be leaving the group. Her final Akihabara performance will be on March 27, followed by her last concerts as an AKB48 member on April 25-26 at NHK Hall.

According to an entry on her blog, Oshima said that she has long wanted to become a talento in variety shows and television dramas. She has recently been making lots of TV appearances on her own, and she felt that graduating from AKB48 would be the best course to achieving her goals.

The presentation ceremony for the 32nd Japan Academy Awards took place in Tokyo on Friday. Yojiro Takita's "Okuribito" completely overwhelmed the competition, winning in 10 of the 13 categories it was nominated for. With this, the film has now received a total of 60 major awards since the end of last year.

Aside from Best Picture, the film's ten prizes included a Best Actor win for Masahiro Motoki. This is his second time receiving that honor in the Japan Academy Awards, with the first being in 1993 for Masayuki Suo's "Sumo Do, Sumo Don't."

• Best Picture: Okuribito
• Best Animated Picture: Gake no Ue no Ponyo
• Best Director: Yojiro Takita (Okuribito)
• Best Screenplay: Kundo Koyama (Okuribito)
• Best Actor: Masahiro Motoki (Okuribito)
• Best Actress: Tae Kimura (Gururi no Koto)
• Best Supporting Actor: Tsutomu Yamazaki (Okuribito)
• Best Supporting Actress: Kimiko Yo (Okuribito)
• Best Music: Joe Hisaishi (Gake no Ue no Ponyo)
• Best Cinematography: Takeshi Hamada (Okuribito)
• Best Lighting Direction: Hitoshi Takaya (Okuribito)
• Best Art Direction: Towako Kuwajima (Pako to Mahou no Ehon)
• Best Sound Recording: Satoshi Ozaki, Osamu Onodera (Okuribito)
• Best Film Editing: Akimasa Kawashima (Okuribito)
• Best Foreign Language Film: The Dark Knight

Special awards were given to "Yougisha x no Kenshin" and actor Kenichi Matsuyama.