They don't actually provide any of the data they supposedly based the decision on, so on what basis has AKB48 "clearly" not met "any" of the criteria? Besides which, it is trivial to point to other artists who have "clearly" met even fewer of these qualifications and were still invited. You also don't seem to realise the 3rd point is basically "we'll do whatever we want and you'll like it". Spoiler (Or, more realistically based on past leaks, "we'll do whatever we're paid to do and our wallets will like it.")
1A) I saw this already and that's also why I referenced the fact that AKB48 is very close on Sakurazaka's tail for sales. I actually don't know if Sakura released any DVDs this year, but AKB48 definitely has, plus they have their streaming service Eizo where people can watch concerts. 1B) AKB48 has definitely gained more buzz on SNS than any 46 release this year. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't think of any 46 song being used for an ad campaign like AKB48's collaboration with New Balance. Plus, like I mentioned previously in another discussion, Ne mo Ha mo Rumor has kind of gone viral on Tiktok - the sound has been used 5 times as much for videos as any other AKB48 song. Sakurazaka only has 1 sound (BAN) and it has a third less videos than Ne mo Ha mo Rumor. I realise Sakurazaka's videos have more views than AKB's, but...... Nagaredama has 4.5M views and BAN has 7.4M, but as far as I can tell, neither song has any additional versions? AKB48 has 2.2M on Ne mo Ha mo Rumor official, 2.5M on the Full dance practice and 2.2M on the exhaustion version dance practice, which puts them at 6.9M. This is more than Nagaredama and closely behind BAN. If you also count the video posted by ABC Mart with the advertisement, you get an additional 2.7M views (9.6M views total). You could argue that it's the same people watching these videos and give them an average of 2.5M views, but also keep in mind that it would require people to actually like the song in order for them to keep watching various versions of the song. 1C) I already said this, but we can't know how many people requested which songs on Karaoke, unless you work at a Karaoke spot somewhere in Japan. But also that would be just 1 out of hundreds of thousands of Karaoke places and not necessarily reliable data. 1D) I don't know how many times AKB48 performed on TV with AKB48, let alone how many times the Sakamichi groups performed their singles this year. I do know though that AKB48 has been performing the song for a while and they still are. Mere days ago, their performance at FNS Kyousai went viral yet again. It was released around the same time as Nogizaka's Kimi ni Shikarareta, but the last time they performed that was like a month ago. AKB48 had 16 concerts this year, plus appeared at 3 festivals as the whole group, plus 2 festival appearances by subunits (IxR and SenSuality). Not to mention the fact that they have a theatre where they perform regularly (and yes, this should be counted imo). Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm using the wiki, but Sakurazaka46 had 13 concerts and 1 festival appearance as a whole group. As for 2E and 2F, it's impossible to know what the result of these polls is unless they reveal it publicly. I don't think they have. I don't know how you can say AKB48 hasn't met any of these criteria. It's just objectively wrong. And, as @wlerin pointed out, Kouhaku states that this is just reference material and they might just do what they like.
ofc it's Kouhaku who decides who is invited but what i wrote stand still bc the data are published by Billboard and other sites, if we compare the data nogi/46g did better than akb/48g. how they did singles did on twitter? nogi was at #2 and akb #6. digital download nogi #9, akb #23. cd both at #1 but nogi sold more. etc... again all the data are on billboard/ect.. and if you want to compare the groups outside of their singles, nogi is still more popular than akb on sm, for example their latest radio show trended on twitter with more than 65k tweets a couple of days ago, akb didn't have those numbers unless i missed something. there's a reason why people in japan call them Owakon now, no matter what people seem to believe here on stage48, the situation is more complicated than you guys think.
The lowest rating of Kouhaku is at 39-40s.. that's still among the highest rating for a tv programme in Japan though. especially when other shows is decreasing in ratings, in a much more significant way than Kouhaku plus, for Kouhaku, it's the prestige that matters to the idols. just look at how the members' responds when they were not invited.
aren't we questioning all 3 groups? Nogi is the mothership so i focused on them, and even if it's just sakura or hina being invited, their songs sold more than akb, on sm/streaming they are popular. it makes sense.
The question was whether all 3 46s deserved to be there. The issue is not the top rated group, but the bottom rated group. Nogi was never the issue.
Yeah and every single by Morning Musume of the last decade has sold over 300k but no-one can actually see that reality for what it is. If you'd like to actually share Billboard/Soundscan data be my guest. People love to talk about it but nobody ever shares the actual data outside of the first three days and first week figures. The current known total for Nemohamo Rumor from Oricon (you know that normal source people rely on in Japan and thus on forums about Japanese groups) isn't even a full 398,000 falling just shy of it at 397,626.
What do you want to say? You know this is the 8th week since Nemohamo Rumor has been released, right? And the sales still rise. This single can be in top 10 of 2021 Oricon top singles. It's enough for me.
For her I don't think it is a matter of popularity within current year. It's a matter of legend status. Kohaku has had a few artist like that since its inception. Artists they invite every year or almost every year and ones that are so firmly entrenched in terms of impact on Japan that they can invite them at any time and no-one even bats an eye. @nokoru - Yeah Top 10 yearly...good luck with that. Also I've never said that them selling only so much is bad. They're selling better than many artists can only dream of selling. That doesn't mean that objectively speaking they're not charting impressively. Dropping from 1st to 48th 3 weeks ago in the daily after a 21k spike due to handshakes sales being counted and again this week from 1st to 47th. Yes the sales continue to rise, but mostly purely because of handshake sales being finally counted. Otherwise we get weeks like the past 2 where they're not even selling 500 copies over the course of entire weeks nevermind daily.
^Except they're not going to. Johnny's and K-pop more or less already secured that list. If anything we might see Nogizaka46 on there.
Maybe it was Just to late with the Single release? Releasing the single in summer. With the buzz and Promotion? Would be better a sooner release
well to decide who to invite, kouhaku compared groups success and popularity and decided akb wasn't what kouhaku needed in the last two years.
Not even dying thou. In fact, last year many 'analysts' made huge a fuss over 'why and how Kouhaku revived itself in 2020'. Again, YOU might not care, but the idols do care and that's what matters. It's not our place to decide whether it's important for them to get invited or not, when obviously they matter to them. IMHO, them not being invited is indeed a bad (and huuuge) news in the short term. BUT if a bad news can push management to work smarter and harder, making good songs.. it'd be more benefecial in the long term (+a delicious material for their narrative/documentaries too). I only pray that this could wake the management up. stop slacking, and things can get better. ps: Japan Record Award is dying thou.. due to the last few scandals.