Despite earlier speculation from the Japanese media hyping the participation of SNSD, KARA, and Big Bang in Japan's annual music ceremony, "Kohaku Uta Gassen" at the end of the year, official word from NHK states that the three groups will not be attending. On November 24th, "Kohaku's" official homepage was updated with the names of the 44 groups who would be attending the ceremony. Fans eagerly scanned past SMAP, L'arc-en-Ciel, AKB48, Koda Kumi, Ayumi Hamasaki and many others, only to find that Korea's popular idol groups SNSD, Big Bang, KARA did not make the list in the end. Much attention has to focused on their potential participation, so fans were unfortunately left disappointed with their idols' absence from the "Kohaku" line-up. Source + Photos: Star News via Nate