Last month we told you about upcoming concert series Next Music From Tokyo, which is a group of five Japanese bands that will tour Canada in May. Andimori, Mothercoat, Owarikara, Kulu Kulu Garden and Goomi will work their way across Canada starting on May 22, starting in Vancouver and ending up in Toronto before going home to play a final show in Tokyo.

The concert group has cooperated with online Japanese music store HearJapan to release a sampler of some of the groups on the tour. You can download this totally free exclusive three-song collection for at HearJapan.com. Note that the song 'Aliens,' by Kulu Kulu Garden, is exclusive to this release.

Tickets for Next Music From Tokyo are currently available through TicketWeb.

JPOP group UVERworld will be supplying the theme song for upcoming Capcom PlayStation Portable game release 'Last Ranker,' a role-playing game set to release this July. The song is titled 'Ultimate.' There's no set release date for the single yet, but a summer date near the game's release is expected. 'Ultimate' will also be used as a background song in upcoming television commercials for the game.

According to Japanese music news website BARKS, UVERworld vocalist TAKUYA says that the song was written with thoughts of ruthlessness in mind, which matches up with their feelings of the game.

This news follows the release of UVERworld's fifth album last week, titled 'Last.' According to Oricon's charts, the album debuted at #2 with over 80,000 copies sold already.

JPOP group w-inds. will be providing the theme song to NHK television historical drama 'Mattsugu ~ Kamakura Kaigan Torimono Hikae,' which just started airing last week in Japan. The song-to-show connection makes sense as group member Tachibana Keita stars in the television show in his first major acting role.

The group's new single is called 'Addicted to love,' and it will be released on June 23. MusicJapanPlus says that the song is about a couple that manages to fall in love even after experiencing heartbreak. The single will be released with a couple of different covers, and there will also be a special edition that will include a DVD with video content.

For JPOP in May, the releases come mostly in single form, following a month of several high-profile album releases in Japan. Your wallet gets no break, especially for fans of Japan's boy bands. All the big groups have singles coming out: KAT-TUN has 'Going!' coming early in the month and Arashi keeps it going with 'Monster' on the 15th. And leave it to Korean boy band Choshinsei to hit you multiple times with their three Japanese singles released on three days in a row. Starting on May 13th they'll release 'All About U,' 'Magokoro,' and 'J.P. Reborn.' To round things out, and not to leave the girls out, the 48-piece girl band AKB48 will release their single 'Ponytail to Shou Shou' on May 26th.

Check out the full list of May JPOP music releases after the jump.

Japanese rock star Gackt is no stranger to voice work or video games. We recently told you about how he landed his first regular role in an animation as a voice actor. Prior to this, Gackt has recorded work for several video games, and lent his likeness to several others, like 'Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core.' Now, he's back at it again, this time for a PC role-playing game called 'Dragon Nest.'

At a Tokyo press conference it was announced that Gackt would provide the voice for game villain Belskard, says GameGrep. He will also be singing the game's theme song, which will be released as a single on June 16th. In proper Gackt form, the star showed up at the press conference dressed as the game's villain, and came out on stage to screaming fans. You can get a better look after the jump, where you'll find a video clip from the conference.

Japanese superstar Gackt has just moved over to the Avex Group label, which also works with fellow superstas Ayumi Hamasaki and Tohoshinki, among many others. Under the Avex label Gackt will release a new single in June, and details on this release will be revealed later this month.

Gackt will also be doing a nationwide Zepp tour under the band name "YELLOW FRIED CHICKENs." There will be 24 concert performances through August 20th in Japan.

Europe will also get to see Gackt as it has been revealed that he will kick off his first European tour this summer. TokyoGraph says that details on this tour are still limited.

The all-girl, 48 member idol group AKB48 has claimed their first No. 1 album this week. They were finally able to obtain a No. 1 single last year with their 15th single release, 'RIVER,' but topping the album chart is completely new to them. Oricon's album ranking page shows that the group sold 294,627 copies of 'Kamikyokutachi,' which was released last week on April 7.

AKB48's first No. 1 also sets this year's record for first-week sales by a female artist or group. TokyoGraph says that 'Kamikyokutachi' is also the first female release to break the 250,000 mark since 2002.