59th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen
The 59th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen, referred to from hereon as "Kōhaku", was aired on December 31, 2008 from NHK Hall in Japan.
The music show on New Year's Eve is broadcast on both television and radio, and divides the most popular music artists of the year into competing teams of red and white.
Hosts
- Red team host: Yukie Nakama
- White team host: Masahiro Nakai
- Mediators: Kazuya Matsumoto and Fumie Ono
- Radio broadcasting spot person: Yasuhirio Yamada and Aika Kanda
Performers
Results
The winners were the shirogumi, the white team, making it their 4th consecutive win. The white team now leads with 31 wins over the red team with 28 wins. The table below documents the voting and points distribution:| Method | Red Team | White Team | Total |
| Number of votes by NHK Hall audience | 594 votes | 1,853 votes | 2,447 votes |
| Number of votes via cellular phone | 22,330 votes | 53,951 votes | 76,281 votes |
| Number of votes via 1seg | 22,763 votes | 38,957 votes | 61,700 votes |
| Number of votes via digital TV poll | 66,313 votes | 110,789 votes | 177,102 votes |
| Results | 112,000 votes | 205,530 votes | 317,530 votes |