There is a type of reporting known as burasagari shuzai in Japanese. Literally, it means "hanging reporting," or "dangling reporting," and there can be no better illustration of why it is given this name than the keyed-up backstage zone at "Kohaku Uta Gassen" ("Red and White Song Battle"), NHK's annual New Year's Eve musical television extravaganza.
The live-to-air "Kohaku" has so many performers — well over 50, if you count its MCs, celebrity judges and comedians in addition to the singers — that they have to use dressing rooms not only in the event venue, Shibuya's NHK Hall, but also ones next door in the NHK Broadcasting Center. It's during the stars' return trips from the stage to their dressing rooms, and, in particular, along a 20-meter stretch of corridor leading away from the stage, that the dangling reporting occurs — the only journalistic option available on the night.
At the most recent "Kohaku," held on the last evening of 2009, a Thursday, it looked something like this: