In Japan's New Year's Eve television tradition, Kōhaku Uta Gassen is broadcast by NHK before midnight.
The annual program is a song contest in which teams of popular female and male performers compete. The female team is known as Akagumi, or Red Team, while the male team is Shirogumi, or White Team. Performances combine music, elaborate staging, and year-end entertainment.
Kōhaku began in 1951 as a radio program and moved to television in 1953. It became one of Japan's most prominent New Year broadcasts, with viewers watching at home before or around the midnight transition.
The program is sometimes confused with Joya no kane, the Buddhist temple bell-ringing custom. Kōhaku is a televised music competition; Joya no kane is a religious observance in which bells are traditionally struck 108 times.