As it is the last broadcast of 2014, the hosts wish to introduce the kanji characters that best represented the year for them. Kumai-san mentions that the official Kanji of the Year for 2014 — as selected by the Japanese Kanji Proficiency Society — was “税” (zei, tax), referring to Japan’s consumption tax increase from 5% to 8%. Kumai-san still feels that 8% is huge, and she hates it when some prices are listed only as e.g. “5000 yen plus tax,” wishing that they would just list the full price as-is, tax included.

Kumai-san’s kanji of the year is “瞬” (shun, moment/instant). For her, it felt like the year was over in an instant. Also, after their hiatus announcement, she has been treasuring each and every moment with the group more than before. Chii praises Kumai-san’s kanji as being very deep and agrees with her choice: she can’t believe that it was only earlier this year that they went to France or released “Diet Oukoku” — she says she probably wouldn’t be able to do the choreography right now if asked to.

Chii’s kanji of the year is “思” (omo, think/consider/reminisce). Chii explains that she thought about things a lot, what with their hiatus announcement, their trip to France and such. Plus, she felt that she made lots of memories with the group this year, like going to Disneyland together, sleeping in the same room with everyone, etc. Kumai-san is impressed with Chii’s kanji choice, too.

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There’s three days until Christmas Eve, and our hosts can now finally reveal that the Berryz gift exchange discussed last week will take place this year as well! The two groan about how difficult it is finding a present that could make all of the other members happy, but somehow they must try.

S/mileage has just announced their name change, and the hosts are impressed it was Kananan who actually came up with the new name. Kumai-san thinks that whereas S/mileage sounded cute and energetic, ANGERME brings to mind an image of grownup women. She thinks this name means they might now mostly have songs that sound more “grownup” as well; Chii, however, points out that their new songs have already been announced and they’re titled “Taiki Bansei” and “Otome no Gyakushuu.” Learning this, Kumai-san is relieved that perhaps not much will change after all.

Recently announced were also the top buzzwords of Japan in 2014. While these were the hot words of 2014 among the general Japanese public, Chii proposes that they in turn announce the buzzwords among the members of Berryz Koubou.

Unsurprisingly, Kumai-san says her buzzword of the year was “enjoy.” “Isn’t that your buzzword for every year?” Chii deservedly asks, but Kumai-san explains that this year the word permeated not only to the fans and the other members more than ever before, but also to her private life: even her friends would use the word around her with no rhyme or reason, leading to frequent curious looks from passersby.

For Chii, she thinks her buzzword was “rap.” On Berryz’ autumn tour, Chii got to sing “Loving you Too much” with Maasa. The song includes a brief rap part; Chii says this made her “awaken” to rap, and she now tries to rap in her private life as well. She wasn’t sure if she should reveal this information on the radio — the staff appear to be looking at Chii quizzically, wondering what on earth she’s going on about — but she swears it’s the truth.

Kumai-san says she has actually noticed improvement in Chii’s rapping. She then gets a great idea: Chii should showcase her skills right now on the show! Chii hesitates, saying she already knows people on Twitter and elsewhere are going to laugh at her, but eventually gives in — she’d been practicing in their dressing room just yesterday, after all. Kumai-san offers to provide her a beat to rap to.

Chii: Wanna eat crab / Wanna eat sea urchin / Wanna eat salmon roe / If that’s the case, HOKKAIDO IN THE HOUSE!

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