NHK announced on Thursday that the late ZARD vocalist Izumi Sakai will be making her Kohaku Uta Gassen "debut" this year. Like the memorial concerts earlier this year, the performance will combine live musicians with videos of her singing.

In September, memorial concerts for the singer were held in Tokyo and Osaka, and it was recently announced that the show would go on tour. A special performance will take place at the NHK Osaka Hall on New Year's Eve, and it will be shown live as part of Kohaku Uta Gassen.

It was also announced that a two-disc album titled "ZARD Request Best ~beautiful memory~" will be released on January 23. The 30 songs on the album received the most votes out of approximately 500,000 requests made via mail and ZARD's official website. More details will be announced later this month.