Beloved JPOP artist Utada Hikaru has announced on her web diary that she will be taking a break from the music industry to concentrate on personal needs. She felt that she was neglecting her personal growth due to her successful music career that started 15 years ago. More »

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Seems like we stumped you all in the previous Song Snippets game. The answer to the previous song snippet is Ne-Yo feat. Utada - Do You. Playing Song Snippets is easy: Listen to a snippet of a song and post your guess in the comments below. The first person to guess correctly earns 100 EXP points. More »

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Today’s song of the day courtesy of 1206mhkim is Utada’s Final Distance (M-Flo remix). More »

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Congratulations Gswizzie for correctly guessing Photo Shuffle #9 with Utada. Here’s the original photo: More »

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It took some time before someone could correctly answer Song Snippets #2 but someone did it. Congratulations LilSparky67 for guessing with Utada’s Come Back To Me. More »

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Miss something last week? Don’t worry. We got you covered — here are last week’s top posts: More »

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On Sunday, January 24th, Japanese singer/songwriter Utada Hikaru stopped at the Fillmore in San Francisco for her “In The Flesh” concert tour. Crowds of people came out to see the show and tickets sold out fast. The concert was mostly promoting her English songs, but to the crowds pleasure, she managed to squeeze in probably her most well-known song: First Love. Utada always gives solid performances and fans were not dissatisfied at all. More »

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If someone were to ask me what made my year personally, I’d have to say Ningin. 2009 had it’s share of highs and lows in the world of Asian pop culture and entertainment. Asian artists crossed over, made Hollywood debuts, fought illness and court battles. The best part of 2009 was that we were all present together as a community to experience it all! In summary, this is what happened in 2009 for us. More »

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When it comes to making strides, this decade was all about Asian pop acts making them in the world of Asian pop music. Aside from sheer talent and devoted fan bases, the biggest driving force and probably the reason why you know about these Asian pop stars is because of well, the Internet. While I didn’t make it on my own list of Top Asian Pop Acts of the Decade, I’m sure you’ll agree wholeheartedly with my choices. And maybe we’ll see me around for the next decade. (Or not.) More »

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Our interview with Utada this year wasn’t at all the last we’d hear from her. According to Live Nation, our beloved Utada is scheduled to embark on a tour called “In the Flesh” really soon. More »

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Traffic on Ningin has been great! We’ve been growing every month and it’s all thanks to you guys. More traffic also means a bigger budget for prizes and giveaways. So we’re going to be dipping into our stash of albums and do something no website has done before. Starting July 1st and for all 31 days of July, we’ll be giving out a free album to a random registered user. More details after the jump. More »

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Ningin Blogger DavidHou wrote earlier today about NY1 not including BoA in their snap poll of which Asian artists will be the first Asian pop star. Offhand, I can see why this would be a slight against BoA. However, in speaking with a senior SM official today, the truth is that SM asked that BoA not be included. So it’s nothing malicious or intentional on NY1’s part. (Danny, you don’t have to block them anymore!) More »

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Local New York City cable news channel asks YOU to vote for “Who Will Be America’s First Asian Pop Star?” You’ve got Wonder Girls, Se7en and Utada on the voting ballot.

Ummm… Where’s BoA? Yeah. Nice diss, NY1. More »

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I guess it’s only fair that since I featured Jaebeom abs a few days ago, I should feature Taeyang abs as well. They’re both good, hard to decide right ladies??

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We just got word from Utada’s publicist that Utada has postponed all of her in-store appearances this week. Utada’s been diagnosed with an acute case of relapsing peritonsillitis. (I’m not a doctor but I think in simple English that means she has a tonsil infection.) We were told that under doctors orders she has to take it easy for two weeks, then she should have a full recovery. More »

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The 2009 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival closed on Thursday night with a screening of the Oscar winning film DEPARTURES (directed by Yojiro Takita). The winners of this year’s 25th festival were also announced and it was a lineup of the usual suspects who have been cleaning up at Asian film festivals throughout 2009… More »

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At long last next Tuesday, May 12, Utada’s “This Is The One” finally gets released in American record stores. In March (Yes, way back in March), “This Is The One” was released digitally in the US market. It debuted at #20 on the iTunes overall Album chart and #2 on the iTunes Pop Album chart. Utada became the first Japanese artist to break the Top 20 Album chart on the iTunes US Store (or is that Japanese-American artist?). More »

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Thanks for all your feedback about our EXP system thus far and the prize suggestions. We think a lot of the bugs have been fixed and so we’re going to try to do monthly prizes in addition to our current weekly BoA poster prizes. More »

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With the United States release of Utada’s second English album “This Is The One” drawing closer, Utada and Myspace Karaoke have joined forces to promote the album. More »

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Some of our favorite Asian artists are going to be hitting American newstands this month in People Magazine! Wonder Girls, Utada, BoA & Se7en are featured in a nice little write up in the April 20 issue called “Coming to America… Asian Pop Stars”. It’s like a little who’s who of “Interviewed by Ningin!” More »

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