No, Kouhaku is LIVE. I dun think there's even one year prerecorded.
Kouhaku is a VERY VERY important music show in Japan. New year's eve is a national holiday and many people usually stay at home (although I think nowadays more and more people celebrate outside), so lots of people watch this show. Although the viewer's rating keeps declining (like... around ~35% last year), back then (~9 - 10 yrs ago) the ratings were over 50%.
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