I have been involved in bringing Japanese music to the USA, as well as promoting the releases in the USA for quite a long time. May it be from popular labels to indie labels, it was part of my life during the ’90s and the 2000s. In fact, it’s still a part of my life today.
I have always dreamed of Japanese music to be sold in the United States for the same prices as American albums but also outside of Japan affordably.
And seeing how Japanese music is being sold digitally on Amazon for a similar price to an American album, feels a bit surreal.
Because getting there, it was not an easy road.
So, let me discuss the challenges, there are somethings that can be discussed but it would give you an idea of the difficulties that were experienced.
The 60s
Many people may not know this but the first Japanese song to be released in the US was back in 1963 and topped the charts in many countries including the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 was Sakamoto Kyu’s “Ue o Muite Aruko” (aka “Sukiyaki”).
The song released by Capitol/EMI in the US and Toshiba-EMI in Japan, was immensely popular and is one of the world’s best selling singles of all time, selling 13 million copies worldwide.
Sakamoto Kyu appearing on American television and suffice to say, he was the first Japanese talent to achieve this level of success overseas.
But let’s say that that was a rare moment in US history.
The 70s
I can’t necessarily say when Japanese music became expensive. But I do have a lot of Japanese LP’s left behind by my late father and I can easily remember having to set this Sansui receiver he pruchased in Japan and remembering to switch the dial to Phono in order to play the albums as a kid.
The 80s
In 1980, Victor Entertainment popular pop music duo Pink Lady would become the first Japanese group to have an American variety show. Unfortunately, it is considered as TV Guide’s “The 50 Worst TV Shows of All Time” and lasted five weeks.
Considering that Mie and Kei of Pink Lady did not understand English, nor speak it, the only reason why the show was greenlighted because Pink Lady was super popular and released an English disco song “Kiss in the Dark” in the US. The show’s developers Sid and Marty Krofft were led to believe that Pink Lady were fluent in both English and Japanese. Which would become a running joke as the duo starred alongside comedian Jeff Altman.
As for the song “Kiss in the Dark” (which was released by Victor in Japan and Elektra/Curb in the US), the song would be the second time in US history that a Japanese act would do well on the American Billboard Charts ranking #37.
Interesting tidbit, my father’s first Japanese CD that he bought was American jazz band Hiroshima’s “Another Place”. I never knew as a lad that this group was based out of East LA but as a kid, I thought it was a Japanese group.
The 90s
Back in the ’90s, the only way to get Japanese music was either through a Japanese store like Kinokuniya, the UC Irvine Bookstore (which was one of the major hubs of getting Japanese entertainment in the ’90s) or Tower Records. And that was paying for Japanese music at a premium. And the availability was sparse. Some would go as far as going to a Chinatown to get their JPOP (ala knock offs).
If you lived in a metropolitan city, such as California’s Japan Town or LA’s Little Tokyo, getting access to Japanese music was easy. For one, they had stores that sold the music and they had rental shops that would make copies on cassettes for you to enjoy the music.
But there was no doubt that many listened to their Japanese music through Taiwan labels such as Son May Records (SM) or other labels because for one, they were easily accessible through China Town for much cheaper price and also, they were being sold at anime conventions at the time.
Quite often you could get a lot of deals on music at the conventions and to be truthful, not many knew they were getting knockoffs as the original and the bootlegs were nearly identical in cover. The only difference is that the bootlegs would contain more songs.
It lasted through the early ’90s through the early 2000s, but that would change as conventions were pressured by Japanese entertainment companies to ensure no more bootlegs were sold at their dealer’s rooms.
My first Japanese CD which I purchased for myself was Lindberg’s 1991 “EXTRA FLIGHT”. It was a mini-album and had 27 tracks. I remember when purchasing it from Kinokuniya in Japan Town in San Francisco, I was going back and forth because the price was sold around $25 (while it was sold cheaper in Japan but because of shipping to the USA, the store tends to tack a few dollars more to the price at the time). But it was my first foray into purchasing Japanese music on CD.
But remember the label I brought up in the ’60s, Toshiba-EMI. Well, they would be instrumental in bringing Japanese music overseas to the US in the ’90s.
But during the mid-90s, we started to see Tower Records stores beginning to sell Japanese music cheaply thanks to Toshiba-EMI, who became one of the first Japanese companies to do this for a few big name artists including numerous J-Pop compilation albums. Meanwhile, we started to see indie labels release music from Shibuya Kei group, Pizzicato Five in America through Tower Records.
The fact is there are Japanese performers who would love to achieve that same level of success or something near it.
Pink Lady tried in the ’70s but it didn’t go as well. But Toshiba-EMI had a group in mind.
The first was DREAMS COME TRUE, the popular group who were known for breaking music sales records throughout the ’90s. In fact, when the group announced they were leaving Sony Music in 1996, it caused a stir because Sony Music shares dropped severely on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the group would sign with Virgin Music America and Toshiba-EMI with a promise that they could release music in the United States. One of the reasons why DCT left Sony Music.
But before they were to release an album in the US, DREAMS COME TRUE were testing the waters as they created the song “Winter Song” which was featured in the Japanese release of the Hollywood film “Sleepless in Seattle”. While the song wasn’t used in the US release, it was featured in the Japanese soundtrack. If anything, it was a positive indicator that Yoshida Miwa and the group could transition to the US market because she could sing well in English. Or was it?
I was the editor-in-chief of one of the popular Asian college newspaper publications at the time and I did what I could do to promote the group but the group received barely any promotion or airplay. It was proven difficult as the people who attended the concert were primarily all Japanese and they were begging for the artists to sing their Japanese songs and not their English songs.
People I interviewed at the concert would say the same thing to me, that they felt the Japanese audience was waiting for the group to sing Japanese songs, when they were there to promote only their English work.
At least Toshiba-EMI was able to stand by their words of having them release music internationally, as they were able to release three English studio albums.
But it appeared there was another Toshiba-EMI artist that possibly could do even better. She was young teenager and had this image that would draw people in from Japan and also abroad. Her name was Utada Hikaru and while she was in living in America at the time, she was in a pop group known as U3 with her mother, enka singer Fuji Keiko at the age of 10, she would go solo under the name Cubic U which a single and an album was released in 1996 in Japan (despite still living in the US). While the single and album didn’t chart, the label didn’t give up on her.
Utada Hikaru spoke fluent English and Japanese and in 1998, she moved to Tokyo, attended a school (with other foreign music artists) and she would get a second chance of releasing music, this time with her real name and the song was a double A sided single titled “Automatic/time will tell” released in December 1998 which would sell 1.291 million units.
During the late ’90s, it was common to see Japanese music artists and bands sell over a million units which was magnificent. And as 1998 was a big year for Utada Hikaru, in 1999, the music industry would be threatened by the emergence of the MP3.
Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker would create Napster, a pioneering peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing software service which digital audio files were distributed among those who were utilizing the software. For many college students, they found ways of distributing Japanese music through Napster and other P2P software such as Gnutella, FreeNet, Soulseek, LimeWire, Scour, Kazaa and more.
By 1999, with no understanding how illegal MP3’s were, it was a college thing and the trendy thing to do. Many sites would be created of where people could download Japanese music.
Meanwhile, in Japan, we were seeing more companies focused on how to bring their artists in the US. Kuraki Mai who was compared to having similar vocals to Utada Hikaru was to release an American single going by the name Mai K. through Giza Studio/Bip! Records with the song “Baby I Like”. While Sony Music Entertainment Japan was looking to promote their female rock duo PUFFY to an American audience.
Around the late ’90s, it was also a time where we started to see online retailers start to appear.
Japanime, now known as Manga University, the company was one of the first to sell authentic Pokemon products from Japan to the US market and also had a search service where they would search out Japanese music products for people and if they found it, they would purchase it and sell it to the consumer. And while a good service, it unfortunately became laborious and the company would change its business strategy (they would become even bigger by acquiring the rights to “How to Draw Manga” books for sale outside of Japan).
But as people wanted access to Japanese entertainment, we also saw people wanting Korean entertainment, Chinese entertainment and we started to see companies like AsiaCD (who would become later known as YesAsia) come to the scene.
The 2000s
As mentioned, Toshiba EMI was the first company to bring a Japanese artists and were active through the ’90s, but Sony Music Entertainment Japan was exploring of going bigger in the US.
In 2001, YesAsia formed a strategic alliance with EMI to sell their Asian media products in North America. While online retailer Neowing would launch CDJapan and would become the biggest go to online site catering to Japanese music.
People had more options to purchase their music albums online but shipping has always been a concern for people and the costs of Japanese music CD’s were much more expensive than American albums. How could one find a way to promote and sell Japanese music to an American audience but retain American pricing?
Sony Music Entertainment Japan was experimenting with “NOT FOR SALE” releases and events. In fact, Sony Music Japan began with their “An Evening with JAPAN’s NOT FOR SALE Allstars” at the 2000 South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas with PUFFY, Polysics and more.
But while Sony Music was getting a foothold, in 2002, Avex Entertainment also started to give it a try by bringing their popular artist BoA and just starting, Koda Kumi to the New York Tokyo Music Festival event.
Sony Music Entertainment Japan was the first Japanese music label to break new ground through create a US label, Tofu Records in 2003. The label would not only bring their artists to America, but have them perform at major American anime conventions and their albums would be sold at a much cheaper price!
Tofu Records was launched to distribute Japanese artists and for the most part, work in tandem with the anime conventions to bring artists and bands such as L’Arc~en~Ciel, TM Revolution, PUFFY, Tamaki Nami or non-conventions for artists like Kubota Toshinobu. The label would also release several not-for-sale compilation albums to target college radio stations and For Sale compilations for those interested in Japanese music.
And while Avex Entertainment was trying, and Toshiba EMI having worked with YesAsia, Sony Music Japan went full force with Tofu Records.
It worked well because Sony Music Entertainment Japan was dedicated and they had staff based in New York and Los Angeles to help promote the new label and also had staff with experience and familiarity with the US market.
In fact, their artists PUFFY (to avoid any confusion with Sean Puffy Combs, the group changed their name to Puffy AmiYumi for the US market) would achieve success and would be the next Japanese duo to appear on Japanese television since Pink Lady’s TV series in 1980 through an animated TV series “Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi” which aired from 2004-2006.
While Sony Music Entertainment Japan achieved success,AVEX Entertainment who would follow by establishing a base in New York. Following a similar model to Sony by working to get their artists to perform at anime conventions, establish an office in New York but unlike Sony Music Entertainment Japan of creating a music label in the US, they decided to release a CD’s in America through a middleman.
Unfortunately, sales of the CDs didn’t work out all that well because at the time Avex CD’s featured anti-copying technology in Japan which prevented people from making copies of their media and converting their CD’s to MP3. So, when the CD’s were sold in the US, the technology wasn’t taken well and while rumors circulated of possible litigation, the company just stopped selling physical CD’s immediately.
Unfortunately, the battle against websites hosting JPOP singles and albums illegally became a frustrating issue for the labels. As it affected the music industry in the US, for the Japanese music industry who wanted to establish a foothold and bring Japanese music masses found out it difficult.
For years, people have used file sharing sites to download singles and albums and while many American companies had inhouse lawyers to fight such things. In Japan, it was much worse than they expected and it was too difficult to fight.
Unlike Japanese animation fan subbers who worked with a code to never release anime with fan subs if they were to be released in the US, there was no code of honor with those who had their Japanese music online.
Japanese music labels tried their best to stop websites that allowed for illegal downloading but each time one would be stopped and links being removed, more would open and for music companies having to contact their law firms to stop this and that overseas and to provide proof to file sharing companies that they infringed on their copyrights, became too much work and made it too costly.
If anything, the problem was where was the source, because it was noticed that albums not released to the public were showing up on the websites days or weeks before their release. And it was suspected that those who were producing the CD’s in the factory could be the cause of the leaks (Note: In the US, it was discovered that a CD factory worker was responsible for leaking songs early to music piracy groups).
So, while piracy was a major problem. Another problem was pricing.
While Tofu Records made the effort of selling music towards an American public who were used to spending $10-$20 on a music CD, for other labels who distributed their music of major pop artists wanted to sell the music at Japanese prices, and the average prices of Japanese music CD’s range from $30-$50. If they did a discount, they would remove $10 at the most. But never at US prices.
And so while those companies who resisted change, never would sell as many CD’s as they hoped in the US, another company would find an opportunity.
In 2004, JapanFiles.com was born and they wanted to sell Japanese indie music at affordable prices, high encoding, DRM-free and also work at bringing these artists to performances convention or non-convention. For Japanfiles.com, they succeeded and found people who were willing to try out indie Japanese music.
And it did work and other similar companies that started to pop up around the globe but it went beyond just sales or working with the labels. The hope was to have enough sales and data to bring in a huge Japanese music labels would join their platform.
JapanFiles were able to get many indie artists/bands on their platform and years later, they were able to do something huge. The company was able to secure a partnership with Up Front Works and Hello! Project (which meant Morning Musume and other related H!P groups and artists) and release over 150 Hello! Project/singles encoded at 320 kbps and all albums sold for under $10.
This was the home run the group had been looking for as they were able to sign many visual rock bands to their platform and would be the instrumental in bringing Japanese indie and major talent to anime conventions during the late 2000s.
And while things looked good for the Japanese entertainment companies, unfortunately 2007-2008 would be a horrible year for the global economy.
The housing crisis would affect the global economy so much that many economies would not recover for years.
The companies that took the major hit was the Japanese animation companies.
One has to look back in the history of Japanese animation, when it first was released in the US, it was $34.95 for a copy on VHS or LD. It then became maybe 2-4 episodes on DVD.
It was expensive, but people were still buying. While those who couldn’t afford it, looked towards getting fansubs from people through mail or online bittorrents.
From the VHS years to the bittorrent sites of today, illegal copies have always been an issue but the anime industry learned to adapt. As it has today with anime now primarily featured through streaming platforms such as Crunchyroll, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and Vudu Fandango.
But 2007 marked the end of many anime companies. Longtime companies that brought anime to the masses have gone under. Many longtime anime publications have went under.
Only the strongest who took an interest in streaming anime online and found a way to get anime in the hands of viewers willing to subscribe, would be the vision of the future. Physical sales of DVD’s and Blu-rays were only for those who preferred physical releases but digital was the future.
But if anything, these anime streaming companies had hope and found a way to get people to watch anime for free legally and get access to more via a paid subscription format.
Crunchyroll is no doubt one of the biggest companies today that managed to become a successful but it wasn’t easy [as seen in my 2006 interview with one of the founders of the company at the time].
Who would imagine AD Vision going under and Funimation being the top company for anime releases? AD Vision would eventually be resurrected as Sentai Filmworks but many other companies didn’t not survive.
Who would have ever saw in the future that Funimation being acquired by Sony. And then Sony-owned Funimation acquiring Crunchyroll (who was acquired years earlier by AT&T) for $1.175 billion in 2021.
These companies went from small companies to billion dollar companies and their persistence in hoping people would watch anime legally would become successful. In fact, in the past, I could remember talking about accessing anime through illegal means. But these days, it’s people who watch their anime legally.
And now anime has grown to become commonplace. It’s hard to believe the challenges of bringing anime to the US (which I was also involved in since the ’90s).
But before Japanese animation to thrive, it had to go through hurdles. But what about Japanese music?
The difference is that the Japanese animation companies were willing to listen and work with companies worldwide. Japanese music companies will not change their way of doing business, if it involves losing money.
Giving as way something for free is losing money. Putting a music video on YouTube is losing money. If they were going on YouTube, the best you will see is a short clip but never the full music video because the full music videos would be sold optionally on DVD or Blu-ray with a CD.
To coincide with the economic collapse of the anime industry, in 2007, Tofu Records stopped but Sony Music Japan still kept its New York office, while Avex closed their New York office a year later. As for Toshiba-EMI, they became a wholly owned subsidiary of the EMI Group Ltd. Toshiba would sell of its previous 45% stake.
2010s
So, we saw anime growing to become popular today and you have to give the anime companies an applause because the economic downturn of 2008, we saw a lot of anime companies crash and burn.
The same with Japanese music companies years later.
While JapanFiles.com was able to secure the works of Hello! Project, the company would post a thank you on their website and that they were closing down.
But my feeling was that industries are too late when they approach the US. Was the Hello! Project a good idea during the late 2000s? Considering that AKB48 was the most popular group in Japan? It reminds me of negotiations when one music label wanted to bring a male Japanese idol pop group but it was years after their peak.
What Japanese music labels (with no experience to the US market) were expecting in the late 2000s and early 2010s were unattainable.
And I understand because there is “talk” and a lot of the biggest anime conventions spending the money to bring bands or groups for performances in the US, these other labels wanted the same thing but now instead of the usual discussions on cost, they wanted all the profit and just wanted a convention to spend their own money. Essentially putting the convention at risk if they are unable to sell tickets for the convention or can meet the demands of having seats all full.
If anything, the main three who were knew how to work with the US market was Sony, Avex and JapanFiles.com. Toshiba-EMI which became EMI would put its Japanese productions under its sublabel, Univeral Music Japan.
Behind-the-scenes, I know strategies among these companies were changing and I knew things were a bit dire through my talks with the reps in Japan and the US. It was not a good time at all.
To be truthful, having worked with Japanese entertainment companies and doing what I can to bring entertainment to the US, I felt after 2007/2008, things were dying and I wasn’t sure when things would ever change for the best.
And it prompted me to change my website from Japanese entertainment website to an entertainment website that covers entertainment worldwide ecause without the Japanese music companies committing to the US market, the American and European entertainment companies were contacting me to promote their talents, their entertainment and it was one of the hardest decisions I had to make, but it was an opportunity that I couldn’t refuse.
Times were changing and everyone was moving to a new strategy, for business, I had to as well.
But I still assisted the Japanese entertainment companies, may it be to book artists but did I notice with my meetings, the discussions were more of focusing on bringing anison artists to the US, through conventions. Getting music on video games, films, etc. The idea of selling Japanese music to the public was rarely discussed. If there were discussions of music, it was about the artists being able to set a booth to sell their music at the event and the label making money.
If there was discussion, it was more or less how digital sales were not going as expected. But then I would respond with, “because you are selling older music and music of artists or bands that are not popular”. And similar to the 2000s, I would bring up about the growth of the KPOP market. But I don’t think they really took it seriously.
In Japan, we would see KARA become popular and in 2011, Girls’ Generation would become the popular group and “MR. TAXI” made me see a major change. People were talking about the group, even AKB48 and other Japanese artists were talking about their love for KPOP. Even at anime conventions, I started seeing people cosplaying as Girls’ Generation.
But a year later, things would change!
In 2012 when PSY released “Gangnam Style”, which continues to be one of the top viewed music videos of all time on YouTube with over 4 billion views.
While the whole world was now captivated by Korean music, Japan was as well. And I can remember the calls with Japanese music reps in disbelief of the immense popularity of the song.
While KPOP was growing in popularity, a new phenomenon started to take place. People who were willing to purchase many AKB48-related merchandise in their country and were willing to fly to Japan to meet with their favorite idol.
After years of hearing that people were starving students and couldn’t afford Japanese albums because they were so expensive, after 2012, I started to discover a new group of fans. Those who were purchasing tons of AKB48-related CD’s because they offered photocards but event tickets to meet their favorite idol and take pictures with them.
I started to realize that the idol phenomenon was strong and people didn’t mind spending the money to get the merchandise. These people were hardcore fans, something that I just never came across before. There were fans who were hardcore over Johnny’s groups and even Morning Musume, but rarely have I met a large collective willing to spend money and travel to another country to watch them perform.
Not only that, their interest were also into KPOP, so they were spending money on their KPOP favorites as well.
What about Japan? I noticed in Japan in 2015, three things being pushed musically. Japanese idol music (46/48 related), anison music and KPOP. In my discussions, the Japanese music label rep would ask, what were they doing right and what were we doing wrong?
It was the same things I wrote them in the 2000s. But I didn’t expect things to change because Korea wants to win people through the release of music performances and music videos on YouTube. For Japan, this is not the way things to go because music videos are things that can be seen on bonus DVD’s sold with a CD.
But “Gangnam Style” and the use of music for people to dance to was used all over YouTube, PSY would come out to the major networks to perform but the fact is KPOP has a community that has been nurtured for many years.
In America, fandoms were there for Japanese groups, but I saw it moreso towards visual rock bands in the 2000s and now idol groups in the 2010s. But these groups are small to KPOP idol groups which are more vocal, which have more active participation and also, are very much into buying the merchandise. And if they meet with fans who didn’t have money to afford the album, they would purchase it for them.
There would be large crowds in Shibuya, primarily for KPOP artists.
And to see the fandom grow to such a level, even more so than the H.O.T., S.E.S., FIN.K.L. and Baby VOX years of the late ’90s and early 2000s, the TVXQ years in the late 2000s, to see this explosion thanks to Girls Generation, BIG BANG, Red Velvet, BLACKPINK, GOT7, Monsta X and of course BTS.
But while the popularity of KPOP happened worldwide, there are still a lot of people interested in Japanese music. But I would like to think that because of the popularity of KPOP, we are starting to see changes in the Japanese music industry.
In 2016, one Japanese artist went viral with hundred millions of views. But not sure if this is the Japanese music that you want people to get to know Japanese music.
In 2018, we saw AKB48G in competition with Korean rookies to become a member of a new idol group. And IZ*ONE was born! And this would lead to more people in Japan becoming interested in KPOP as the group released music in Korea and Japan.
What IZ*ONE did was to open new doors to try something new among certain Japanese entertainment companies.
Sure, we see more Japanese now in KPOP groups, we saw Japan having a Produce 101 series. When IZ*ONE disbanded, we saw the J-LINE members opening the gates for Japan to try things that would only happen in Korea.
Miyawaki Sakura’s graduation concert allowing photographers to take photos as they did in Korea, we saw AKB48 now posting their dance practice videos and Honda Hitomi bringing her experience from that group to AKB48. The same with Yabuki Nako, who along with Honda Hitomi are building the gap between JPOP and KPOP through hosting shows or even on TikTok.
So, why do I bring up KPOP? Because I do feel that thanks to KPOP, it’s now making changes within Japanese music entertainment companies to modernize and change with the times.
They are seeing that the Korean music companies are taking chances in order to promote their artists. We are starting to see Japanese music talent take chances.
Who would imagine Hoshino Gen showing up on the video game “FORNITE” and people getting the opportunity to listen to his music while playing the video game? That’s brilliant!
A month later, who would have thought that Johnny & Associates would have Travis Japan appear on “America’s Got Talent” in July 2022
We are seeing comedians such as Watanabe Naomi move to New York to give an American career a try, we are seeing ROLA who’s face is all over Japan for DMM moving to Los Angeles, MIYAVI moving to Los Angeles and these are people taking the opportunities because they see change for their careers.
We are seeing Japanese entertainers leaving major management companies to form their own or join independent management companies. We are seeing major label artists/bands pursuing independent careers.
And for the Japanese entertainment/music scene, we are seeing change.
For so long, the red tape and the old way of thinking has been far too prevalent in Japan. In other words, if the machine is not broken, don’t worry about it. Well, times are changing and the Japanese music entertainment companies have to change as well. Not because of KPOP but because with social media, people from all over the world have been brought closer together than ever before.
There are exciting opportunities out there and Japanese music labels had opportunities but because of old ways of thinking, they were to stubborn to do so. But times are changing!
Thanks to TikTok and social media, people are seeing Asian entertainment or hearing music and people are dancing to it and more and more people are interested in it. Now we are seeing KPOP artists perform at major music festivals and huge concert venues.
As for music digitally and bringing things to a close, by the mid-2010s, we started to see Amazon Japan make it easier for people to purchase Japanese music as shipping from Japan to the US from Amazon was affordable if you were a person to buying a lot of music or other merchandise.
Companies also started to test the market out with LINE, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube Music but only a few artists and groups at a time. Testing the waters to see if people outside of Japan were willing to purchase music digitally.
A year ago, I tried purchasing Japanese music on Amazon Music (USA), because I haven’t been able to go to Japan to purchase the albums and while Amazon Japan was my go to for ordering music, unfortunately after the pandemic, shipping prices have increased considerably. So, in 2001 very little was available for purchase via Amazon Music digitally. Only indie artists and very few JPOP artists.
Fastforward a year later, we are now starting to see Amazon carry Japanese music digitally and selling it for under $10. Sure, while a plethora of artists, bands and groups featured are older, you will find new releases as well.
Mr.Children’s May 2022 best hit albums are available for under $10 (in Japan, they are Y2300, about $17US). NiziU’s special edition album of “U”, Perfume’s new album “Plasma”, ARASHI (yes, the URA greatest hits and their huge album “5×20 All the BEST!! 1999-2019 (Special Edition)” are on Amazon), Yonezu Kenshi, Aimyon, LiSA, Sekai no Owari, Fukuyama Masaharu, Hoshino Gen, Utada Hikaru, Def Tech’s albums and music, you’ll find many many names slowly being available on Amazon US. And I would imagine Amazon for other countries outside of Japan are probably doing the same.
As I looked through the Oricon Charts, I typed numerous names and granted, a large number ARE NOT on Amazon USA just yet and it would seem that the labels are selecting artists that have a large fan base. So, City Pop fans hoping for Yamashita Tatsuro or Takeuchi Mariya albums to be available, unfortunately, not just yet.
LiSA is no surprise as Anison is popular and I expect to see more Anison to be widely available for people online.
As for female idol groups, I do see older releases for AKB48 and Nogizaka46. But that’s a start!
The fact that ARASHI is on Amazon USA is a shocker, considering how strict Johnny & Associates has been for decades. But it seems they are loosening up, especially on social media and their approach towards entertainment. Again, who would expect Travis Japan on “America’s Got Talent”?. If SMAP, TOKIO, V6 or even King & Prince are sold through Amazon Music digitally, that would be a shocker!
If anything, the fact that Mr.Children was sold digitally on Amazon US was a shocker, because I checked two months ago and it wasn’t yet available. But the fact that Toy’s Factory allowed it, including their new albums, must mean the company is also becoming more progressive and if conservative company’s are now starting too, that’s a good sign.
Now we are just waiting if Avex Entertainment who were once the most progressive music labels during the early ’90s, will change their perspective and be welcome to change.
And with the progression that we are seeing in the past year, does that mean we will be seeing same day releases in Japan and the US sometime soon?
I really do hope so.
Sure, we are seeing it with KPOP releases, with same day releases across the board and the pricing is not too far off as a KPOP mini-album (using Yena’s “SMART PHONE” mini album released last week as an example) is sold in the US for $4.99 and in Japan it was sold for Y700 ($5.19 US).
Granted, I don’t know if we will ever see the disparity of US/Japanese prices for a Japanese music album ever shrinking considering the mentality of Japanese music to be sold at a premium in Japan has been the status quo for decades.
But it takes time and patience and we can only hope that many Japanese music entertainment labels steps things up as the industry really needs to change. It’s been baby steps, but some of us have grown older as we have waited and hoped for these changes to happen sooner or later.
Anything is possible right?
