Rising Sun, Dreams Come True, GLAY! NHK General TV's "Hokkaido Road" will broadcast three special music programs

■Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, Dohatsuten, and Furui Riho also appear in the Rising Sun special feature!

Rising Sun, Dreams Come True, GLAY.

NHK General TV’s “Hokkaido Road” (a Hokkaido local program) which covers a variety of topics about Hokkaido in an accessible way, will be broadcasting three programs featuring music beloved by Hokkaido residents.

The program will be streamed on NHK Plus after broadcast and can be viewed from anywhere in the country.

Program Information

NHK General TV“Hokkaido Road”(※Hokkaido local)

■ “25 Years with the People of Hokkaido: The Charm of Rising Sun”
09/20 (Fri) 19:30-19:57
*Catch-up streaming available for one week on NHK Plus
Rebroadcast: 09/28 (Sat) 11:25-11:52

Guests: Atsushi Yanaka, NARGO (Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra), Naozumi Masuko (Dohatsuten), Furui Riho, and others
MC: Takayuki Suzuki, Moeka Tada

The Rising Sun Rock Festival, which began in 1999, will celebrate its 25th anniversary in the summer of 2024. It is one of Japan’s leading outdoor music events, welcoming nearly 100 artists active in Japan to a special venue spanning Ishikari and Otaru, and attracting more than 60,000 spectators every year over two days. For Hokkaido residents, it is a special two-day summer event that goes beyond just enjoying music, with people saying things like, “You can enjoy the outdoors while having a barbecue in a tent,” and “It’s a New Year’s-like event where relatives and friends always get together once a year.”

This time, the show’s MC Takayuki Suzuki, who is a “regular” at Rising and has even been on stage, and MC Moeka Tada, who is participating in Rising for the first time, will be doing a thorough interview on-site to find out more about its appeal. We asked Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, the band with the most appearances, and Hokkaido-born band Dohatsuten about their appeal.
In addition, the program will also feature the efforts of the “unsung heroes,” such as the staff who sorted and set up the 70+ sets of instruments on each stage, and the NPO that has been providing guidance on trash sorting for many years.

We also cover the rising star Furui Riho (from Otaru City) as she makes her long-awaited first appearance on Rising Sun. We will cover the “Hokkaido people’s special day” from various angles.

■ “Dreams Come True is Back! Summer 2024, Ikeda Town”
09/27 (Fri) 19:30-19:57
*Catch-up streaming available for 2 weeks on NHK Plus
Rebroadcast: 10/05 (Sat) 11:25-11:52

Guest: DREAMS COME TRUE (Miwa Yoshida and Masato Nakamura)
MC: Takayuki Suzuki, Moeka Tada

DREAMS COME TRUE’s vocalist, Yoshida Miwa, is from Ikeda Town, Hokkaido. In July 2024, Dreams Come True will hold a two-day outdoor event, “Dreams Come True and Dreams Come True Day,” in Ikeda Town to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the completion of Ikeda Wine Castle and the 35th anniversary of their debut. A total of 15,000 people, more than twice the town’s population, attended the event from inside and outside Hokkaido.

Yoshida, thinking of his hometown which was becoming depopulated, had been planning this event for over a year together with fellow member Masato Nakamura, wondering if there was some way to give something back to the depopulated town. Not only did the live performance feature songs that Yoshida himself selected, such as “Haretara Iine” and “ALMOST HOME,” which “evoke the scenery of Ikeda-cho,” but it also featured a “Dreams Come True Disco” stage with Ikeda-cho kids’ dancers, and all-you-can-drink Tokachi wine and grape juice, making it a “Dreams Come True Fest” with everything you could want.

As this was an unprecedented large-scale event in the town, the townspeople also put in their best efforts. The town hall staff, who are long-time fans, the catering company that delivered lunch boxes to the large number of staff, and the yakitori shop that set up a stall, attracted a large number of Dreams Come True fans from all over the country in the evening. This is a documentary of two exciting days surrounding Ikeda Town and Dreams Come True.

■ “GLAY♥Hokkaido Special ~30 Years of History~”
Friday, October 18th, 19:30-20:42
*Catch-up streaming available for one week on NHK Plus

Guest: TERU, TAKURO (GLAY)
MC: Takayuki Suzuki, Moeka Tada

TERU and TAKURO from GLAY, all members of which are from Hakodate and will be celebrating their 30th anniversary in 2024, will appear. A 72-minute special will be broadcast, full of “30 years of love for Hokkaido,” which they can only talk about with MC Takayuki Suzuki, who has been their friend since their debut.

In 1997, Hokkaido Takushoku Bank went bankrupt. This DVD includes news of GLAY’s big break that year, the music video shoot for their hit song “Winter, again” in the snowy fields of Biei, their 2001 live performance in Ishikari for 100,000 people, behind-the-scenes footage of their 2013 outdoor live performance at Midori no Shima in Hakodate for 50,000 people, rare footage of an event they appeared at in 2007 at Suzuki’s invitation to “liven up Yubari with the power of music!”, and even their unexpected collaboration with Suzuki on the theme song for the Hokkaido Shinkansen in 2016.

Furthermore, MC Moeka Tada will thoroughly investigate the legend of GLAY that remains in Hakodate. They were rock bands, but they were also polite? Their fond high school days. Did the title of their smash hit “HOWEVER” actually differ? Did they really write the graffiti on the wall of their “origin” live house? And so on, and so on, providing a series of surprises.

TERU, who says that “my love for Hakodate is at its hottest right now,” will also be showing off his painting studio for the first time. There will also be a behind-the-scenes look at the production of “Goodbye Gently,” the new theme song for “Hokkaido Road,” written and composed by TAKURO. Watch this and you’ll fall in love with Hakodate and Hokkaido even more! Keep an eye out for the 30-year history of GLAY, delivered through “120% Hokkaido Love.”