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NHK Announces Voice Actor Masako Nozawa for 2025 Kōhaku Song Contest Guest Judge

The Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) announced on Wednesday the seven guest judges for the 76th Kōhaku Uta Gassen ("Red and White Song Contest"), Japan's most-watched music television program. The guest judges include voice actor Masako Nozawa (Goku from Dragon Ball), wheelchair tennis player Tokito Oda, actor's Akari Takaishi, Taiga Nakano, and Nanako Matsushima, former soccer player Kazuyoshi Miura, and literary critic Kaho Miyake.

Nozawa has previously appeared on NHK's annual New Year's Eve program in 2015 and 2020. Her debut appearance on the program in 2015 was as the voice of Gegege no Kitarō's Kitaro. In 2020, Nozawa appeared as singer Kiyoshi Hikawa's support guest.

The program is set to feature 20 primarily female musical acts in the Red Team and 17 primarily male musical acts in the White Team. Singer's Kiyoshi Hikawa and Masaaki Sakai will also appear during a “Hōsō 100 Nen Kōhaku Tokubetsu Kikaku” (100 Years of Broadcasting: Kōhaku Special Event) special event during the live show. Comedian Hiroiki Ariyoshi, actresses Haruka Ayase and Mio Imada, and NHK announcer Naoko Suzuki will host the program.

The 76th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen will air in Japan on December 31 from 7:20 p.m. to 11:45 p.m. JST on NHK General TV, BSP4K, BS8K, NHK Radio 1, and NHK ONE (formerly NHK Plus).

Nozawa first appeared in the oiriginal 1963 Astro Boy anime series. She then voiced the character Kitarō in the 1968 Gegege no Kitarō anime, and in the 1971 sequel. She returned in the franchise to voice the character of Medama Oyaji in the 2018 Gegege no Kitarō remake, and in the 2023 GeGeGe no Kitarō ~Kappa no Terraforming anime film. Since then, Nozawa has played several lead character roles in different anime series, but she is best known as the voice of Son Goku in the Dragon Ball series.

Nozawa also holds the Guinness World Record for "voice actor who voiced the same character in a video game for the longest period" and "longest video game voice acting career," for her work as Dragon Ball's Son Goku. She won one of the 71st Kan Kikuchi Prizes "as a traiblazing representative of Japanese voice actors" in 2023. She was honored as a Person of Cultural Merit this year.

Sources: Kōhaku Uta Gassen's X/Twitter account, NHK, Comic Natalie