Another new female solo on the rise!
Her name is Junna Sakai (short Junna as stage name) and she debuted this summer with the mini-album 'Vai! Ya! Vai!'.
She's only 17 years old and started her career with 14(!) as the singing voice for the anime Walküre.
Her voice is damn strong.
November 1st ( her birthday) her first single called 'Here' was released and it is going strong digitally since (currently No.2 on iTunes, but No.1 before e.g.).
Official site
It's interesting, how all the young female artists rising are more of the 'girl next door' type.
With Namie retiring, the so called 'kira kira artists' (the 'divas' in the west) are slowly fading, without somebody coming after it. Though imo, it would be important to have more than one type of (successful) female artists out there. Japan needs strong female figures and I sadly don't see much of it anymore in the Japanese music scene.