Translated by Mandilinn
January 4, 2018

On the 4th it was announced that the highest viewer rating for the 68th NHK Kouhaku Uta Gassan was recorded in the Kanto region with 48.4%. It was the setting for Namie Amuro who performed at 11:18PM on the same day.

Namie participated as a guest performer and sang “Hero”. She announced her retirement in September of 2017, making this her final Kouhaku Uta Gassen stage. Namie was not initially included in the list of performers, and NHK continued negotiations for her to appear on the show until just before New Years Eve. In 2016, the announcement of the judging was the highest viewed moment, but this year, Namie’s final performance recorded the highest viewer ratings of the program.

The MCs for the 68th Kouhaku Uta Gassen were Arashi’s Kazunari Ninomiya for the white team, and Arimura Kasumi was in charge of the red team. This is the pair’s second year in a row hosting. The average audience rate was 35.8% for the first half and the second half recorded 39.4%.