The pianist-composer and his daughter performed Carpenters songs as various guests discussed the group’s impact in the studio and then counted down their most popular songs based on a viewer survey.

On Richard Carpenter’s 62nd birthday October 16, he held a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan and announced that he would be restarting the group.

“I am pleased to choose to relaunch The Carpenters in Japan,” he said to the reporters. “Japanese people have always been loyal. They’re not big on something that’s like a flavor of the week sound. Once they like you, they like you.’

The Carpenters first toured Japan in 1970, and Carpenter said it was probably the first country where he realized he and his sister Karen, who died in 1983 of complications from anorexia, were popular outside the United States.

Even after Karen’s death, The Carpenters remained superstars in Japan. Their songs have even been printed in English-language textbooks.

Carpenter said he plans to release an album of new Carpenters covers toward the end of next year along with a special solo Christmas album of new material.

Both records will be aimed at the Japanese market. He will also do a tour of Japan in 2010, his first since 1997.