NHK General TV's program "Yuku Toshi Kuru Toshi" will be broadcast live for the first time on December 31 at Iwakiyama Shrine (Hirosaki City, Aomori Prefecture).

This program broadcasts New Year's Eve and New Year's bells all over the country live. This year, the event will be broadcast from 10 locations nationwide. With the theme of "Overcoming disasters and connecting to the future," the event will be broadcast from Iwakiyama Shrine, as well as Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine (Kamakura City, Kanagawa Prefecture) and Itsukushima Shrine (Hatsukaichi City, Hiroshima Prefecture).

Iwakiyama Shrine is a shrine built over 1,200 years ago with an inner shrine on the summit of Mt. Iwaki, also known as Tsugaru Fuji. Known locally as "Oiwaki-sama" and "Oyama", it is crowded with many people during New Year's visits. This is the first time that the program will be broadcast from Iwakiyama Shrine, and the first time in 12 years that it will be broadcast from Aomori Prefecture.

Regarding the relay from Iwakiyama Shrine, the program announced that it was to pray for a bountiful harvest next year for the farmers who were affected by the heavy rains that occurred in the Tsugaru area in August.

Broadcast from 23:45 on December 31st to 0:15 on January 1st.