Japanese Pop, or J-Pop, has been taking the world by storm. For example, boy band Travis Japan became the first Japanese act with a debut single to break into the top 5 of the Global Excl. U.S. Chart in November 2022. If that’s not impressive enough, the top 10 streamed J-Pop acts globally earned a total of 17.3 Billion On Demand Total (audio and video) streams in 2022, +17.8% compared to the top 10 in 2022. Known for their upbeat, catchy beats and influences with Anime and Manga culture, the genre has the potential to become a global sensation. To get a better understanding of J-Pop, here are the top J-Pop artists of 2022, both in Japan and in the US.
What’s interesting about this chart is that the top J-Pop artist in Japan is not necessarily the top J-Pop artist in the U.S. To break this down further, let’s look at their streams per region, based on the worldwide geographic regions that Luminate tracks.
While Ado has more streams in Japan, YOASOBI has more of an international presence. For example: a little under half of YOASOBI’s streams come from outside of Japan. Of that half, 24% of YOASOBI’s streams come from Asian countries, with 7% from Indonesia and 3.6% from Taiwan. It’ll be exciting to see what efforts J-Pop acts are making to expand into Western audiences this year.
The Power of J-Pop Fans
We can’t discuss J-Pop without mentioning how incredibly powerful its fanbase is. According to our U.S. Artist & Genre Tracker, J-Pop fans are +135% more likely than K-Pop fans, and +235% more likely than average U.S. Music Listeners to say they are very likely to purchase NFTs in the next 6 months. The below chart shows how dedicated J-Pop fans are and how willing they are to support their favorite artists through purchasing their merchandise.
Although it may seem like J-Pop and K-Pop fans are very different, they are very similar in the way they listen to music. Looking at the format penetration chart below, both genre fans heavily consume music through watching music videos clips or listening via music streaming services or CDs. J-Pop fans’ penetration surpasses K-Pop fans in each format, which again shows how passionate J-Pop fans are to music.
2023 is looking to be an exciting year for the J-Pop industry as we’ve already had some new tracks from YOASOBI, Ado, and the release of Yuuri’s debut album. Fujii Kaze is also going on his first ever international tour, hitting 6 cities across Asia this summer. As we kick off Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we will continue to bring to light trends that we see among Asian music. For questions about Artist & Genre Tracker or how to access the data, please reach out to us here.
