Winners for ‘Billboard JAPAN Music Awards 2012′ announced

On December 15th, Billboad Japan announced the winners of their “Billboard JAPAN Music Awards 2012.”
Billboard JAPAN established this award festival back in 2009. There are two sections for the awards; “Artist Awards” which nominates artists who have topped the Billboard Charts throughout the year, and the winners are chosen by adding up votes submitted through cell phones and the internet along with the points from the weekly charts. The other section is “Chart Awards” that they give to the songs that topped their respective yearly chart.
The grand prize is the  ”Artist of the Year” award and this year it was given to AKB48! This is the second consecutive year for AKB48 to receive not only the “Artist of the Year”, but also the awards for “Top Pop Artist”, “Hot 100 of the Year”, and “Hot Singles Sales of the Year.”
Below are the winners for the “Billboard JAPAN Music Awards 2012″!
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<Artist Awards>

Artist of the Year 2012
- AKB48
Top Pop Artist 2012
- AKB48
- Mr. Children
- Arashi
- EXILE
- Amuro Namie
Jazz Artist of the Year 2012
- Norah Jones
Classic Artist of the Year 2012
- Tsujii Nobuyuki
Animation Artist of the Year 2012
- Mizuki Nana
Independent Artist of the Year 2012
- Golden Bomber
Active Artist of the Year 2012 presented by Daiwa House
- BIGMAMA
New Artist of the Year 2012
- Ieiri Leo
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<Chart Awards>

Hot 100 of the Year 2012
“Manatsu no Sounds good!” – AKB48
Top Album of the Year 2012
“Mr. Children 2005-2010 <Macro>” – Mr. Children
Hot Top Airplay of the Year 2012
“Good Time” – Owl City and Carly Rae Jepsen
Hot Singles Sales of the Year 2012
“Manatsu no Sounds good!” – AKB48
Digital & Airplay Overseas of the Year 2012
“Good Time” – Owl City and Carly Rae Jepsen
Hot Animation of the Year 2012
“Ikiteru Ikiteku” – Fukuyama Masaharu
Adult Contemporary Airplay of the Year 2012
“Happy Pills” – Norah Jones
Top Jazz Albums of the Year 2012
“MOVE” – Uehara Hiromi The Trio Project
Top Classical Albums of the Year 2012
“Kokyuu suru Piano” – Matsui Sakiko
Top Independent Albums & Singles of the Year 2012
“The beginning” – Ayaka
Top Overseas Soundtrack Albums of the Year 2012
“Disney Date ~Koe no Oujisama” – Disney
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Source & Image: Billboard Japan official site