Japan
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Official HIGE DANdism’s “Subtitle” makes history on the latest Billboard Japan Hot 100, released Jan. 25, extending its record to 12 weeks at No. 1 (8 of those weeks consecutively) to break the all-time record for longest-leading single on the chart.
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The records for both consecutive and non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 were previously held by Gen Hoshino’s “Koi,” which hit No. 1 seven times consecutively and 11 times in all.
“Subtitle” racked up 12,610,115 streams this week, down from 13,481,602 last week, to rule the metric for the 14th consecutive week. The grand total for the track is currently at 259,611,559 streams. The song is at No. 4 for downloads (7,654 units, down from 8,709) after topping the metric 8 times and totaling 273,438 units to date. It racked up 1,839,544 views (down from 2,044,575) to come in at No. 3 for video views, and while it never hit No. 1 for this metric, it stayed at No. 2 for 9 weeks and currently totals 36,927,130 views.
While “Subtitle” continues to gradually slow down (7.2 percent down in total points from the previous week), it’s still around 2,000 points ahead of the song at No. 2 — “KICK BACK” by Kenshi Yonezu — and it’ll be interesting to see if it can extend its record next week and beyond.
KinKi Kids’ “The Story of Us,” the third single marking the 25th anniversary of the Johnny’s duo’s CD debut, bows at No. 3 on the Japan Hot 100 this week. The track written by the two members launched at No. 1 for physical sales with 178,502 copies sold in its first week, but couldn’t supplement that advantage with other metrics of the chart’s methodology.
back number‘s seventh album Humor, the three-man band’s first studio set in four years, blasted in at No. 1 on Billboard Japan’s Hot Albums chart this week. The song “I Love You” off the set rises 15-7 this week on the Japan Hot 100 after collecting points in streaming and radio airplay. Other songs by the popular band, including past hits such as “Takane no Hanako-san,” also surged in points and a total of eight tracks by the band is charting on the Japan Hot 100 this week.
The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, YouTube and GYAO! video views and karaoke data.
See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from Jan. 16 to Jan. 22, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English Twitter account.
J-pop singer-songwriter Yuuri premiered the new music video accompanying his latest song “Billimillion” on Jan. 19.
The new track by the 28-year-old musician lends support to the younger generation trying their best to get by in modern times, through an allegorical story about an old man who offers a young man large sums of money in exchange for 50 years of his life. The “Betelgeuse” singer has been performing this song that encourages people to make decisions they won’t regret since last year, including his tour celebrating his YouTube channel sailing past a million subscribers.
The visuals released on YouTube features Tekken’s flip animation depicting the message and story of the new track through his signature black-and-white drawings.
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Official HIGE DANdism’s “Subtitle” has tied the all-time record for most weeks at No. 1 on the latest Billboard Japan Hot 100, dated Jan. 18, logging its 11th week atop the chart.
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The track has now caught up with superstar Gen Hoshino‘s “Koi” that set the 11-week record in early 2017. The tracks are also tied for most consecutive weeks at No, 1 with seven each.
Hoshino’s ubiquitous hit continues to be widely popular today, and “Subtitle” is also well on its way to becoming one of HIGE DAN’s biggest hits as well. But, as predicted last week, the track is slowing down considerably — the overall points for “Subtitle” decreased by about 10 percent this week— so we’ll see if the next tally will become a history-changing moment on the Japan charts.
The four-man band currently has three songs charting in the top 10 — “Subtitle,” “White Noise,” and the former No. 1 song “Mixed Nuts” — with “White Noise” debuting at No. 5. The track is the opener for the latest story arc of the TV anime series Tokyo Revengers and is the band’s second tie-in with the series following the long-running hit “Cry Baby” from the summer of 2021.
LIL LEAGUE from EXILE TRIBE’s debut single “Hunter” launched with 88,660 copies (No. 2 for sales) and bowed at No. 2 on the Japan Hot 100 this week. The new group, formed through the iCON Z 2022 Dreams For Children audition that was the biggest of its kind in LDH’s history, also came in at No. 1 for radio this week.
Meanwhile, “Kamisama datte kimerarenai,” the tenth single by 22/7 (Nanabunnonijyuuni), a virtual idol group produced by Yasushi Akimoto of AKB48 fame, hit No. 1 for sales with 89,460 copies sold, but couldn’t follow up in other metrics (No. 25 for radio, for example) and debuts at No. 7 on the Japan Hot 100.
The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, YouTube and GYAO! video views and karaoke data.
For the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from Jan. 9 to 15, see here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English Twitter account.
Veteran J-pop singer-songwriter Chara chatted with Billboard Japan for its Women in Music interview series celebrating women in the Japanese music industry. The initiative launched this year in the same spirit of Billboard’s annual Women in Music event that launched in 2007. Billboard Japan aims to elevate women who continue to break new ground in Japan’s music business through interviews, live performances and panel discussions.
On top of her long-standing music career, Chara returned to acting this fall for the first time in 26 years in the Disney+ series Subete wasurete shimaukara (“Because I’ll Forget Everything”) starring Hiroshi Abe, and has been working more often with her two children — daughter Sumire and son Himi — who are also carving out their own paths in show business. When asked what she values as an artist and mother, she emphasized the importance of words and communication. The 54-year-old artist, whose songs depict the delicate subtleties of love, spoke about the power of words in this latest interview.
When you were little, what kind of woman did you look up to?
My earliest recollection of a grown woman would be my kindergarten teacher, and I adored my teacher who could play the piano. So I wanted a piano, but my parents didn’t get me one at that time. When I became a teenager, I remember seeing (Japanese singer-songwriter) Akiko Kosaka leading an orchestra and singing the song “Anata” (“You”) while playing a grand piano, and I thought that was cool. I guess I was impressed by a young woman leading a large group of people.
From there you also became a singer and have led bands yourself. How did you find your way there?
I never did very well in school, but I absorbed a lot from other fun things and exercised my mental muscles that way. Now there’s a term for women who record music at home, “takuroku joshi” (bedroom producer girl), and I was probably one of the first to do that. I met my band mates while playing instruments for fun and started making music. There was no music software you could get cheaply like you can now so everything was analog, and I bought equipment with loans.
I also started learning to play the piano but got tired of it along the way. Playing the practice pieces over and over was never fun and I also wasn’t interested in learning the skill to play fast. I liked music, but didn’t feel like studying it in college because I figured, “If I go to music school, I’ll have to practice like this all the time.” So I quit playing the piano and got a synthesizer and began fooling around on that instead.
Were there any indications of your signature style back in those days?
I think I was a little different everyone else from around the sixth grade. I had the sense that “my parents don’t own me” from around then. I didn’t know that studying abroad was a path that existed, and didn’t know how to get out of my small world, so I ended up at roller discos. Discos were popular when I was in high school, and I also used to cheerlead, so I liked roller discos where you could dance and listen to music while wearing roller skates. I’ve probably been influenced by the people I met at the places where I hung out.
Does that mean you didn’t have an ideal of the kind of person you wanted to be?
There were lots of people I admired. Cyndi Lauper appealed to me, both her music and the way she looks. When I was in school, fashion (in Japan) wasn’t as free as it is today, and it was rare to see a woman with her hair half buzzed or spiked up like hers. I remember being scolded for wearing an outfit that showed my belly button and large hoop earrings to driving school. Even so, I did my best to be creative.
Do the women you admire have anything in common?
I think it’s about appearing to be in a good mood. I’m sure there are times when people in a bad mood or in bad shape, but instead of giving up, they give out power that makes them appear to be in a good mood.
That sounds exactly like who you are now.
It’s not that I’ve been able to be like that since I was young. Even now, I’m not perfect at all. When I was young, I couldn’t speak up honestly because people would say I was being a smart aleck and there were lots of times I caused trouble for those around me. But especially after I had children of my own, I began to think that I have to take responsibility for my words. Words are scary because once you put them out there, you can’t take them back. I’ve experienced many failures in my life, but since having kids, I’ve come to appreciate both the scary and fun aspects of words more. Children are very observant of their surroundings. They ask lots of questions, and you have to respond to what they ask with words. But thanks to that, I’ve come to think that even ordinary words are interesting. When I was younger, I was more arrogant and didn’t want to use the same ordinary words as everyone else. I wanted to find an expression that no one else was using no matter what. But through conversations with my kids, I came to realize that wonderful words can be found anywhere. Because children start talking using really simple words.
Looking back to the days when you made your debut, if you were to give yourself some advice, what would you say?
When I made my debut, I didn’t know anything about the rules of the industry, so I held back and sort of waited to see how things would go. I figured, “I don’t know anything, so I’ll leave it up to the pros,” but there was this one time I was so unhappy with the finished product that I cried because I was shocked that it was completely different from what I’d had in mind. But maybe I didn’t communicate those feelings properly to the people around me at the time. Now I think, “Why didn’t I just try it myself?” but I feel that way now because I made mistakes and learned from them.
One thing I can say though is that it’s important to communicate properly with words. And to make sure the other person understands you. In order to make something go in the right direction, I think it’s all right for both parties to confirm what they’re thinking. And if you can’t align your viewpoints, then so be it. Because if you feel like you disagree, the other person usually feels the same way too.
What do you think is needed to make the world a place where more women can flourish?
I think maybe the world isn’t going to change much unless something happens like a woman becoming the president (of the U.S.). When I first started out, it was common for men (in Japan) to say things like, “Women should shut up” directly to us, so I suppose things have improved a bit since then. One thing we can do now is to raise boys so that a better future will come. For example, parents building a balanced relationship between each other first, since kids observe and sense the relationship between their mother and fathers at home.
You’ve raised a boy yourself. Was there anything you took care in doing or was important to you when he was little?
I’m sure there were a lot of things, but I’ve forgotten a lot of them. [Laughs] But I loved a translated picture book called The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf and used to read it to him a lot. The main character is a bull named Ferdinand who’s brought to a bull ring. He’s a gentle soul who loves flowers. His mother thinks it’s fine for him to be just the way he is, and says it’s OK if he doesn’t live like a typical fighting bull. I never thought that boys should act like boys, and my son probably sensed that I felt that way.
—This interview by Rio Hirai (SOW SWEET PUBLISHING) first appeared on Billboard Japan.
In recent years, you’ve doubtlessly felt some major shifts in the Western pop music scene. Of course, there has been the rise of reggaeton, fresh takes on pop-punk, edgy new grooves from London, and hit trends that originated on TikTok. While these are all fascinating movements, there’s another in the air — the meteoric rise of Asian artists.
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Since the late 2010s, listeners around the world have been reappraising music from Asia, and the development of streaming platforms has provided Asian music with an even greater presence. Special note should be taken of the presence of musician Hikaru Utada, who uses they/them pronouns and has drawn a great deal of interest for their rich catalog of songs, including “Somewhere Near Marseilles,” a club-like tune that deftly evokes the precarious emotional states people have been thrust into by the pandemic. In 2022, they released their latest album, BAD MODE, to the acclaim of music lovers everywhere.
Hikaru Utada is now known for their intriguing style, drawing the listener into a maze of fine, spiraling rhythms, working with producers such as Floating Points, A. G. Cook and Nariaki Obukuro on their new album. It’s important to remember, however, that long before they released songs like “Face My Fears” and “Simple and Clean,” which became well-known in the West due to their use in the Kingdom Hearts games, they had already created universally loved hits.
One of those was “First Love,” the topic of this column. “First Love” has become a hit song in many countries throughout Asia, taking the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on the Apple Music Daily Top 100 and Spotify Daily Rankings Hong Kong and Taiwan. It’s also rising rapidly through the charts in Korea and Indonesia, enjoying a passionate revival not only in Japan but across national borders. This rediscovery was sparked by the November release of the Netflix series First Love. The Netflix series was inspired by the interaction generated from the Hikaru Utada songs “First Love” and “Hatsukoi” and their maddening sense of heartache. The show has become a hit throughout Asia.
“First Love” was revealed to most of the world from the main stage at the Coachella Festival in 2022, but it first captivated Japanese listeners back in 1999. Even though Hikaru Utada was just 16 years old at the time, the song has been a continuing inspiration throughout the years. In that way, as well, the fate of the song resonates with the series First Love, whose story winds back and forth through the past and the present.
What has influenced the path of “First Love”? As is clear from the fact that the song has become a hit again throughout Asia, 23 years after its initial release, it’s clear that “First Love” possesses a certain kind of universality.
Its structure is extremely simple — just piano, bass, drums, and acoustic guitar. This format brings out Utada’s vocals to their fullest. Their vocal performance, which demonstrated a highly refined expressive sensibility despite the song being one of their debut-era releases, can be enjoyed to its fullest on “First Love (A Cappella Mix),” included on the exclusive limited-edition 7-inch single. Their vocals, like a tightrope walker that sways with the music but never falls, are nothing less than breathtaking.
Special attention should be paid to their use of breath. Throughout the song, they use an unusual breath approach, but only for the verse. The floating opening of the song begins, “Saigo no kiss wa, tobacco no flavor ga shita, nigakute setsunai kaori” (“Our last kiss was the flavor of cigarettes, A bitter taste”). They take a breath between “sa” and “igo,” and then again before “kiss,” expressing the fluttering, flustered feelings of love. However, although they pause midway through the word “tobacco,” they don’t take a breath. There’s a momentary silence, one in which even their breathing is stopped, deftly expressing time coming to a halt during a kiss. In the second verse, “Tachidomaru jikan ga ugokidaso to shiteru, wasurerarenai koto bakari” (“Time, standing still, is about to start moving, So many things I don’t want to forget”), the lyrics are accompanied by surprising, bold breath usage. Time, which was stopped for a moment by a kiss, starts up again, along with their breath. Utada uses an “a-i-o” rhyme pattern in both verses (“saigo” and “tachido”), but there’s a crucial difference between them. This deliberate use of breath is also reflected in the newly released Dolby Atmos version, “First Love (2022 Mix).”
A lot has been said about how “First Love” demonstrates unique vocal timing, with pauses where they would not normally be found in Japanese, along with novel uses of breath as an instrument. However, what’s truly notable, more than the methods themselves, are the way that Utada interwove their use of breath with the lyrics to create a sensation of time coming to a standstill during a kiss tinged with a hint of the smell of a cigarette, or the sadness that comes with time starting again when you realize that love has ended. It is because these feelings are shared by people throughout time, we have — unforgettable experiences that are hard to put into words. “First Love” uses breath to breathe new life into emotions that have had an indelible impact on us but have dissipated with time. This is bound to become a universal, or perhaps invariable, artistic technique that will become part of the common language of music, transcending time and borders.
—This article by Tsuya-chan first appeared on Billboard Japan
Official HIGE DANdism’s “Subtitle” continues to steadily extend its record at No. 1 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100, dated Jan. 11, now at 10 weeks with only one more to go to tie the record for longest-leading hit.
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The all-time record for most weeks at No. 1 on the Japan Hot 100 is 11 weeks, held by Gen Hoshino’s “Koi.” HIGE DAN’s current hit dominated three metrics of the chart’s methodology when it ruled the song chart last week — streaming, downloads, and radio airplay — and is down to one this week (streaming). While “Subtitle” continues to hold for the sixth consecutive week at No. 1 on the Japan song chart, total points for the song is down by about 2,000 on the latest list, so it remains to be seen whether it can catch up with Hoshino’s smash hit from 2016 on the next.
Solo music producer Vaundy made a splash nationwide on the year-end live music extravaganza, the 73rd NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen, and the effects are showing on the charts. The 22-year-old singer-songwriter currently charts eight songs on the Japan Hot 100: “Kaiju no Hanauta” (No. 3), “Odoriko” (No. 30), “CHAINSAW BLOOD” (No. 42), “Fukakouryoku” (No. 46), “napori” (No. 72), “Tokyo Flash” (No. 80), “Hanauranai” (No. 95), and “Koikaze ni Nosete” (No. 97). These tracks increased points in streaming, downloads, video views, and karaoke, indicating that his performance of “Kaiju no Hanauta” on the historic music program left a strong impression and spilled over to other songs in his catalog. The young artist also performed “Omokage (produced by Vaundy)” with star singers milet, Aimer, and Lilas Ikuta on the program, which also boosted this track from No. 84 to No. 20 this week.
The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, YouTube and GYAO! video views and karaoke data.
See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from Jan. 2 to Jan. 8, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English Twitter account.
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury, the first Gundam animated TV series in roughly seven years, has just drawn to a close. For the first time in the franchise’s history, the protagonist was a woman, and the show generated a lot of buzz for the new directions it was taking Gundam, such as including elements of school life and inter-corporate war.
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The show’s writer, Ichiro Ohkouchi (also responsible for Planetes, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, SK8 the Infinity, and more) was asked to “create a Gundam series that could be enjoyed by newcomers to the franchise, including young viewers.” This, he explains, is why he added new elements to the anime. “I’m not all that young myself, so I thought if I merely tried to match the story’s sensibilities to those of young people, I’d end up missing the mark. Instead of simply lowering the target age, I expanded it — up, down, left, right — with the hope of making a series that would also be appealing to younger viewers. Traditionally, Gundam is mainly about tragedy, battles, and wars, but this new series also involved school life, society, and romance.”
However, he couldn’t turn his back on the traditions of the franchise, which began in 1979. “I wanted to create something that was true to Gundam. I added new elements to the excellent foundation established by previous Gundam shows. However, that also made it hard to control the amount of information involved. Maintaining balance was a struggle.” Ohkouchi did this out of respect for Gundam fans and for the traditions of the franchise. “The reason Gundam is so famous is that countless people have created an uninterrupted chain of works that feature the things that make the franchise great. I couldn’t just ignore that and make something totally different.” “One thing I can say is that one of the central elements is a certain hard-edged tone. When the first Mobile Suit Gundam came out, most of the new series’ viewers hadn’t even been born yet. Viewers knew many people who had lived through war themselves, and so war was still something that still felt real and familiar. When I thought about what fighting meant to today’s generations, I thought ‘companies.’ People experience factional struggles, they get called to oppressive meetings and harassed by superiors. I thought I could use those kinds of battlefields to create something that wasn’t all that divorced from modern audiences.”
Matching the desires of the series’ creator to share Gundam with even more people by expanding its audience, YOASOBI (a musical duo known for producing songs inspired by novels) wrote the show’s opening song, “The Blessing.” YOASOBI consists of two artists, Ayase and ikura. It was formed in 2019, and its debut song, “Yoru ni Kakeru,” took first place in Billboard JAPAN’s 2020 “Hot 100” year-end song chart.
YOASOBI’s Ayase recalls, “Honestly, there was a lot of pressure. However, I wanted to create a great song that would live up to those high expectations. At first, I had these ideas for concepts that I thought would be interesting, but ultimately I decided to make a powerful, straightforward song that reflected my image of Gundam.”
ikura added, “It’s the opening theme, so you hear it every episode. That’s why we talked about making a song that you could interpret in different ways as the story progressed. We hoped to make a song that would remain fresh, with new things to discover each time you listened to it, instead of just keeping the impression it made when you first heard it.”
Each of YOASOBI’s songs is based on a novel. “The Blessing” is based on Cradle Planet, a novel by Ohkouchi. “When I first heard their song,” says Ohkouchi, “I was amazed. The novel isn’t a happy one, so the song they wrote could have ended out like a witch’s curse, but their imagination led them to come up a response in the form of ‘The Blessing.’”
Cradle Planet is written from the point of view of the Gundam Aerial, the mobile suit piloted by the show’s protagonist, Suletta Mercury. Ohkouchi explains why: “Suletta starts out unaware of what’s really going on, so I thought that a song based on a novel about her would end up being really vague. Writing about the adults around her would result in a song that doesn’t really match the series. The show is about Gundam, so I thought ‘Why not make a Gundam the protagonist?’ I proposed writing about how Suletta would look from the perspective of the Gundam, and they took up my idea.”
The name The Witch from Mercury conjures to mind images of “curses” and “spells.” Ayase talked about the creation process that led them to “The Blessing.” “At first, I was just kind of thinking, ‘What’s the opposite of a curse?’ I’m not sure if it would be a blessing, but reading through the novel and other materials, there were these different situations involving people encouraging and supporting each other, which, I felt, threw the curses into sharper relief. I always struggle with naming songs when we finish them, but this time the process went surprisingly smoothly. ‘Curse’ is such a strong word, but at the same time it’s commonplace, something you can feel in all kinds of places. ‘The Blessing’ is, of course, about the world of The Witch from Mercury, but I also think it connects, in a way, to actual society.”
In the past, vocalist ikura has decided on delicate singing nuances before going into recording, but this time was different. “I didn’t think too hard about it, but instead read the novel, listened to the music, and then decided to throw in all the power I felt from them. The lyrics are powerful even compared to other YOASOBI songs, and I’m singing about really sweeping themes, so I thought that instead of trying to load the lyrics with my own delicately detailed emotions, it would be better to sing the words as they are written, expressing the feelings I had when reading the story.” “Suletta is doing her best to survive in the environment she is thrust into, but that’s a curse placed on her by her mother. She doesn’t realize this, but her partner, the Aerial, knows all about it. At the end of the novel, when Suletta chooses to confront her situation head-on instead of fleeing, the Aerial tells her ‘I’m here with you.’ I hope that the Aerial’s kindness and Suletta’s power come through in the song.”
When Ohkouchi heard the song, he says, “I was moved at how accurately the image of the original novel was retained, and how it was opened up to make the song.” At the same time, he also points out how the lyrics can be interpreted differently after watching each episode. The song itself changes as the story progresses.
“That’s what we focused on the most,” explains Ayase. “The season consists of 12 episodes. I wanted viewers to listen to the opening every time, without skipping it. I wanted to make it a song that developed along with the heroine, so that it felt different as the story went along, and its emotional impact flowed with the story.”
“I’m amazed that they were able to write it that way,” says Ohkouchi. “Originally, it’s a song about Suletta, but, for example, after you watch episode 7, it becomes a song about Miorine. Then, at some point, it becomes a song of encouragement for the audience. It’s wonderful how its range of interpretations blossoms like that. When you try something new, at some point you’ll be tempted to give up. If ‘The Blessing’ springs to mind at a time like this, it’ll inspire you to keep pushing forward.”
—This interview by Takuto Ueda first appeared on Billboard Japan.
INI is a global boy band made up of 11 members (Rihito Ikezaki, Takumi Ozaki, Masaya Kimura, Takeru Goto, Yudai Sano, Fengfan Xu, Hiromu Takatsuka, Shogo Tajima, Hiroto Nishi, Kyosuke Fujimaki, and Jin Matsuda), the winner of one of Japan’s biggest audition shows, PRODUCE 101 JAPAN SEASON 2.
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Since debuting on Nov. 3, 2021, they’ve released three singles, all of which took first place on Billboard Japan’s weekly singles sales chart, Top Singles Sales. On Dec. 14, they released their long-awaited first album, Awakening. Hopes are high for their further success.
Billboard Japan interviewed the entire band and talked to them not only about the album, but also about the current state of INI.
You’ve already made a lot of fans in Japan, but for people outside Japan: What kind of group is INI?
Shogo Tajima: We formed this group through an audition show, so we’re a group of 11 people born in all kinds of different places with very different backgrounds.
Kyosuke Fujimaki: We’re part of a talent agency that was established in Korea and Japan, so our music videos and songs are made in Korea, but they have Japanese elements mixed in, creating something that’s all new.
Fengfan Xu: There are elements of J-pop in the way members sing, and in our personalities, so our songs have the best qualities of both K-pop and J-pop.
Masaya Kimura: The way we operate is also a bit unusual for a band in Japan. Each of us has our own strengths and specialties, and we have a real diversity of personalities. Fengfan (Xu) speaks English and Taji (Tajima) speaks Korean, which also makes it easy for us to reach out overseas.
Hiroto Nishi: I feel like we must be the most energetic dancers in Japan nowadays. One of our strengths is our powerful and dynamic performing style. It’s one of our hallmarks.
Takeru Goto: We also have members who are particularly skilled at rapping or at singing. That’s a point of pride for us, as a group that makes music with a hip-hop base.
You’ve recently released your long-awaited first album, Awakening. How did it come out?
Takumi Ozaki: The album is the culmination of our first single, “A,” our second single, “I,” and our third single, “M.” The album’s theme is “awakening,” and I think it really brings out everything each member has been working on so far.
Kimura: In terms of dancing and vocals, we’ve grown since our first single, and I think the album clearly shows how the members have awakened. We haven’t been practicing for years and years as trainees, but instead we entered this world through an audition show, so we’ve been practicing day by day by finding time in between our other activities. When we practice, we’re always focused on how we can show off how we’ve changed since when we released that 1st single, and the results of those efforts are packed into this first album, which shows an “awakening INI.”
Yudai Sano: That’s exactly what I was thinking. For each single we’ve released, I picked something that I really wanted to focus on in my own way. This album brings out all of that.
Hiromu Takatsuka: I think this album establishes what kind of group INI is. Each of our three singles has shown, little by little, what kinds of songs we sing. Then, with this album, I think we’ve established our identity.
Ozaki: We’ve awakened not only as performers, but also as people. Fortunately, we’ve been able to do all kinds of work, so I think we’ve grown as people, too, making the group more appealing. That growth ties into our performances, and I think you can feel it in the album.
Fujimaki: I think we were able to put all of our development into the album and I hope that we can move on from here into the future.
I’d like to talk a little about your songs. Your first song, “SPECTRA,” is your lead single, and Nishi worked on the lyrics, right?
Nishi: That’s right. It was pretty hard. I worked with some Korean writers on it, and you know how the way language sounds to natives and non-natives is totally different, right? Korean, especially, is similar to English and the consonants are really clear, while in Japanese the vowels are really clear. Thinking about our previous songs, I figured that it would be better to focus on the sound, more than the meaning. I struggled with which type of approach would go over better.
Are there any key lyrics?
Nishi: “Orera saikyo (‘We are the best’)” (laughs). I just said, almost offhand, that it would be fun if we sang “Orera saikyo,” but that turned out to be the key to the song. For the Korean creators, the sound of those lyrics just clicked, I guess.
Goto: The parts that Nishi came up with were super easy to tell. When I read through the lyrics, as soon as I came to a part that Nishi wrote, I was like “A Japanese person came up with this.” You could feel Nishi’s word sense coming through. As a fellow member of the band, I felt really proud that his lyrical suggestions were used. I sing some of the parts that Nishi wrote, so my own parts are my favorite parts of the song.
Nishi: Wow, that makes me so happy! Thank you! During practice, I’ve seen Takumi mouthing the lyrics to the verses I wrote, which is wonderful.
Sano: The tone of the song is also really clearly defined, so it’s easy on the ears. The intro starts out with this mysterious feel, and just when you think it’s going in an ethnic direction, it settles down, then it gradually swells towards the chorus, and then it pops. It really has that INI feel.
Fujimaki: It fits the album perfectly. It conveys that bright, bouncy feeling, and I hope our performances give that same feel.
The next song is “Dramatic.”
Kimura: The way “Dramatic” develops is really interesting. The chorus sticks with you, and the song keeps changing direction as it unfolds. We wanted people to notice the dancing, as well, so we had ReiNa, a Japanese choreographer, handle the choreography. We’d always worked with Korean choreographers before, so this was our first time asking a Japanese person to do the choreography. It was pretty hard, but it perfectly matched the song, so it was easy to really get into.
Tajima worked on the lyrics for “Runaway,” right? Were there any key lyrics?
Tajima: The part that goes “Worrying like I always do, Sleepless nights gnaw at my heart, I want to shout, but no matter where I go, I just can’t shout” — the part I wrote! I hope I expressed that feeling of frustration of wanting to just shout it all out, but not being able to. I was really happy that my lyrics were used. This part links up with the “I finally found you, And as I hold your hand, I’m not lonely,” and it makes me realize that I’m not alone, I’m here with my MINIs [INI fans], my fellow band members, the people around me, working hard alongside me. I wanted, ultimately, to make it an optimistic song, and I think I succeeded in packing all of those elements into just a few lines.
(Everyone claps)
Rihito Ikezaki: I really like the theme of this song.
Tajima: It’s like a “voyage.”
Ikezaki: Yeah, exactly. Like, when someone finds someone they love, you often hear things like “I’m right here next to you” or “I love you.” You don’t often hear things like “Let’s run away together.” You’ve got to deal with society every day, but choosing to escape is also a viable choice. I love that.
Xu: I’m with you, there. I feel like this is a song we’re singing to our MINIs. It is full of that sense that we have nothing to fear because our MINIs are with us.
Jin Matsuda: We need to keep growing together with our MINIs and getting bigger and bigger. I feel like the song also carries a message of enjoying the moment, and of staying together into the future.
Nov. 3 marked the one-year anniversary of your debut. I’m sure you’ve had all kinds of experiences in the meantime, but one of the big ones was KCON 2022 LA, your first time performing outside of Asia. Did you take away any lessons from that?
Kimura: I learned how big the language barrier was. I keenly felt the limits of my ability to express things outside of actually performing. Fengfan did his best for the team, but there were language barriers when it came to MCing, when it came to listening to others — everywhere. The audience got really hyped watching our performance, but there were huge barriers everywhere else. So that experience showed us where the issues we need to tackle are.
Matsuda: I learned that I need to study different languages. Fengfan was a true lifesaver. We were interviewed by local media, and, needless to say, it was all in English. We didn’t know what to do.
Ikezaki: Fengfan handled everything.
Matsuda: Shogo took the initiative when Korean was involved, too. It made me realize how essential Fengfan and Shogo are to us being able to call ourselves a “global boy band.” It brought home the fact that we need to try harder.
Xu: K-pop groups always have members who can speak Japanese and English, and they developed those skills when they were trainees. We didn’t have a trainee phase, so we need to work hard and study languages on our own. I was also acutely aware of our lack of ability to really command the entire venue.
Tajima: It showed us that the MCing is also important. Every part, from taking the stage and performing to talking to fans, is an important part of shaping our group’s image.
Ozaki: Right. When I stood up on that stage and heard the cheers, I was like “This. This is what it’s all about.” I really felt that strong desire to be right there when I heard those cheers. I want to keep doing my best, never forgetting that feeling for even a moment.
Matsuda: I also felt the cultural differences. It was a great leap forward for me.
Kimura: Even people who had never heard of us before got really into it. Maybe that’s the L.A. mindset.
Nishi: That was exhilarating! It made me realize that I wanted to put on live shows where it felt like everyone was enjoying the entertainment together. At the same time, I realized that in Japan, too, we need to be able to create an atmosphere that draws in the audience.
Fujimaki: I’d never experienced that kind of atmosphere before. I was just swallowed up by the atmosphere and the excitement. I got really hyped up, and I used that to good effect in my performance, but I lost sight of my own limits. On the one hand, it was super fun, but on the other hand there were parts of my performance that were a bit sloppy.
Takatsuka: It was really amazing, wasn’t it? There were all kinds of people there — Japanese, Koreans, Americans, people from other countries — and looking out from the stage, it felt different than when we perform in Japan. I was aware of just how big the world was, and how little we were. But, at the same time, I felt an even stronger drive to make it big on the global stage.
Goto: I watched the performances by the other artists, and they were really world-class entertainers. I realized how timid we were. It was really frustrating at first, but by the time we were about to go back to Japan, on the other hand, I was really fired up.
Sano: I was so nervous that day. But I thought to myself, “If you let yourself get nervous, it’s all over,” so when I performed, I just kept telling myself, “You’re the coolest person in the world!” Perhaps because of that, when I rewatched my performance, I really did think I looked cool.
Matsuda: It’s important to think “I’m the hottest guy in the world!”
Sano: It really is. The event reaffirmed the importance of being confident when you perform.
I see that you learned a lot. How do you plan to use what you learned in the future?
Goto: One thing we want to apply right away to our upcoming arena tour is pacing. We’ve never performed over a dozen songs at one of our shows, so this will be all new to us. I think that looking crisp and sharp will be important. Moving energetically looks cool and gets the audience amped up, but you can’t look all blurry when the camera is on you. I was really surprised watching the other artists at KCON 2022 LA. I was like “How do they look so clear on camera?” So I want to use what I’ve learned and study up how to look even better on camera.
Sano: For me, it’ll be about being confident when I perform and improving my basic abilities. When it’s my turn, I want to put in a performance that sticks in people’s memories. When they’re heading home from the show, I want the MINIs to be saying, “Yudai was just amazing during that part.”
Nishi: Yeah, that’d be nice. For me, I want to create a space that’s great for me and for all our MINIs. I really like sharing that sense like, “I’m having fun, and the MINIs that are watching me are having fun.” I want to create that atmosphere of a shared experience that I felt at KCON 2022 LA.
Ikezaki: That’s what I was thinking, too. You get really nervous, and you’re thinking, “I can’t mess up the choreography” or “I can’t be off-pitch,” but a real artist can simply pump up the music together with the audience. The top K-pop musicians are really good at that. The level of quality is high, but you can also see that they’re having so much fun up on stage. I want to learn to do that.
I’m getting a clear vision of you all growing tremendously in the future. What kind of perspectives and mindsets do you plan to apply as you grow as a global boy band?
Xu: Assuming that we become even more widely known in Japan, I want to keep in mind that people’s eyes are on us. There are MINIs overseas, and people around the world are watching our content, so I also want to always keep in mind that we’re being watched by people outside Japan, too. I also want to maintain an awareness of minority and gender issues. There aren’t very many Japanese groups that have that kind of mentality, and I hope that we become more attuned to those issues in the future. That’s going to be essential as an entertainer in the global market, so I want to make that one of our goals.
Ozaki: I agree. Also, my personal opinion is that it would be good for our members that can speak English and Korean to become active overseas, such as appearing on TV variety shows. The more we can communicate, the greater our potential to reach those markets, and we might be able to get even bigger as a group by extending ourselves more on the global stage. Of course, we’d also be building a solid foundation in Japan.
Takatsuka: Right. We’ve tried hard to let people know about INI, but I really feel that we need to go beyond that and find something extra. We need to create, discover, and refine new band appeal and bring out the individuality of our group. For example, that would include our overseas efforts, like Takumi mentioned, and also the TV dramas we appear in. That approach of actively taking on new challenges is important. So far, we’ve been emphasizing INI as a group that can dance and sing, but as we grow through the years, I hope we discover all kinds of other “INI strengths.”
This interview, by Azusa Takahashi, first appeared on Billboard Japan.
Official HIGE DANdism’s “Subtitle” logs its eighth week at No. 1 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100, dated Dec. 28, and isn’t showing signs of slowing down.
The song serves as the theme for the acclaimed drama series Silent, and during the week its final episode aired, “Subtitle” ruled downloads again with 19,013 weekly units (up from 15,910, seven weeks at No. 1) and streaming with 17,913,433 streams (up from 17,468,383, ten consecutive weeks at No. 1). In particular, the track sailed past 200 million streams on its eleventh week on the chart, faster than the previous record holder, BTS’ “Butter,” which recorded the milestone at 14 weeks. In other metrics, the track climbed 10-4 for radio airplay, 5-3 for karaoke, and stayed at No. 2 for video views for the third week in a row, resulting in an eight percent increase in overall points from the previous week.
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This chart week tallied the week ending on Christmas Day, Dec. 25. Various holiday favorites racked up points again, especially in radio, and eleven songs entered the Japan Hot 100 with two breaking into the top 10. The results are: back number’s “Christmas Song” (2015) at No. 5, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” (1994) at No. 9, Yuuri’s “Christmas Eve” (2022) at No. 18, Tatsuro Yamashita’s “Christmas Eve” (1983) at No. 23, Keisuke Kuwata’s “Shiroi Koibitotachi” (2001) at No. 29, Ariana Grande’s “Santa Tell Me” (2014) at No. 37, Wham!’s “Last Christmas” (1986) at No. 44, BoA’s “Merikuri” (2005) at No. 49, Yumi Matsutoya’s “Koibito ga Santa Claus” (1980) at No. 84, B’z’s “Itsuka no Merry Christmas” (1992) at No. 88, and Suzuki Suzuki’s “White Kiss” (2021) at No. 100.
Among these, back number’s “Christmas Song” ruled karaoke for the first time — it finished at No. 2 last year — and ranked highly across the board in other metrics as well, coming in at No. 5 for radio, No. 7 for video, No. 8 for streaming, and No. 44 for downloads. Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” currently enjoying another streak at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart in the U.S., came in at No. 2 for radio, No. 11 for streaming, No. 26 for video, No. 55 for downloads, and No. 62 for karaoke on the Japan charts. Incidentally, the No. 1 song for radio airplay was Tatsuro Yamashita’s J-pop Yuletide classic, “Christmas Eve,” from 1983.
The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, YouTube and GYAO! video views and karaoke data.
See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from Dec. 19 to 25, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English Twitter account.
Ryokuoushoku Shakai frontwoman and songwriter Haruko Nagaya and keyboardist peppe are the next featured artists on Billboard Japan’s Women in Music interview series highlighting trailblazing women in the Japanese music industry. The initiative launched this year in the same spirit of Billboard’s annual event that began in 2007, with a mission to celebrate the women who continue to break new ground in Japan’s music business through contents including interviews, live performances and panel discussions.
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The four members of Ryokuoushoku Shakai — two women and two men — formed the now hugely popular band in high school and celebrated their tenth anniversary in music this year. The J-pop group continues to soar, successfully performing its first headlining show at the prestigious Nippon Budokan in Tokyo in September.
But Nagaya admits that until recently, she’d been hitting a wall, feeling that she couldn’t go on unless something changed. She speaks about how she overcame those obstacles and shares her newfound vision in this interview with Billboard Japan, while peppe looks back on watching her bandmate grapple with various expectations and arriving at some of her own realizations through frank discussions amongst the members.
Could you tell us about the women you look up to?
Haruko Nagaya: Mine would be (J-pop singer-songwriter) Ai Otsuka. I’ve always loved music and singing since I was a child, but after encountering Ai Otsuka’s songs, I was drawn to music even further. I fell in love with her very catchy song “Sakuranbo” (Cherry) and she has this gap between the cute first impression and her unpretentious personality that shows through her Kansai dialect. She also comes across as having a great deal of curiosity and those aspects were really attractive to me. Even now, I find that women who have that kind of distinctive individuality and unique gap like I felt with Ai Otsuka at the time are delightful, and I’d like to be that way, too.
peppe: I’ve never admired a single particular person growing up. Instead, I’ve created this image of the kind of person I admire by picking out and listing the good qualities of different people. It’s like I’m trying to incorporate as many of those qualities on that list as possible to bring myself closer to that image in my mind. If I were to explain the image in a nutshell, I guess it would be “a dignified woman.” I think when I make choices in my daily life, I’m subconsciously thinking, “What would a dignified woman do?” I want to keep accumulating even minor things like studying English, reading books, and being aware of people’s gazes as much as I can.
I’m sure there are listeners who consider you two as women who inspire them. Do you think being a woman influences your musical activities?
Nagaya: When I write lyrics, that means it’s from a woman’s point of view, obviously. A man could write lyrics with a woman as the subject, but I imagine the essence would elude him, so I think there’s significance in me expressing my honest feelings. Also, as a general tendency, more and more men are able to cleanly hit high notes and their vocal range is widening, so I feel frustrated because there’s a limit to the lower notes I can hit as a vocalist.
peppe: Those kinds of biological differences are limiting, aren’t they? As a keyboardist, it’s unfortunately true that my hands are smaller than men. But that’s a given so I make an effort to exhibit my originality through my way of expression, like how I play.
Nagaya: I also feel that people seem to expect me to present myself in a pretty specific way. I’m moved by the shows and performances of bands that expose their true selves and the things they carry within in a raw and honest way, but the things being externalized that way aren’t only the pretty parts, right? There’s a profundity that’s enhanced by expressing even the not-so-pretty parts. But maybe I’ve been putting up a barrier as well, and it’s like the people around me expect me to be a certain way.
peppe: Nagaya and I talked about this recently. I wasn’t aware of it, but when I thought about it again after she mentioned it, I could sympathize with her in some ways. She’s our vocalist and gets a lot of media exposure, so she must have felt that way often.
Nagaya: There’s a part of me that was reconciled to presenting myself in a way people expected, like uploading superficial content on social media to receive feedback. But even though I was the one doing that, there was a time when I couldn’t be genuinely happy when people wrote things like, “You’re so pretty” as a compliment. I was like, “That’s not what I want you to see, I want you to listen to my songs and look at what’s inside, at all the intensity.” It was frustrating to me that the “ideal Haruko Nagaya” and the “ideal Ryokuoushoku Shakai” had become entrenched in everyone’s mind.
Did you share this feeling with your bandmates?
peppe: We all discussed it before the Budokan concert. I thought it was difficult (to navigate) but there were some things I realized because she told us and we all became aware of it. I’m sure each member is handling it differently, but I’m glad I now know how she felt.
Nagaya: I remember peppe kindly saying, “We (the other members) were also being too dependent on those public expectations.” We’re glad people hold us up to high expectations and it’s easier to (go) along with it. And there’s no pushback that way. But I couldn’t keep going on like that anymore, so I decided to go all out for the Budokan show. I didn’t care if my makeup or hair was messed up, or if my face looked weird, I just went all out until I had nothing left inside. Now I try to stand on stage intending to convey what’s inside, even if my pitch is off somewhat.
peppe, what was it like for you, watching your bandmate’s change up close?
peppe: I felt her passion for music. There were times when I consciously wore pants to avoid being seen as feminine, but I might not have been thinking about things like that as deeply as she was. Even though we’re in the same band and were both women, we don’t feel 100 percent the same way, and I have my own way of proceeding. In that sense, I think the band itself would fall apart if we don’t know how each member feels at any given time, so I’m glad she told us. We were able to talk about it in the presence of all the crew as well as the band members, so maybe it was the right time for a change.
Nagaya: It was a great relief for me to be able to talk about it. I was able to get rid of a lot of hang-ups and change my behavior on stage, which also helped. I think the same goes for the lyrics I mentioned earlier. I want to convey genuine feelings by exposing even the most pathetic and ugly parts of myself, even if I’m a woman. I want to sing about everything including the part of me that longs to be strong but can’t always be that way.
It’s not that I only want to reach women, but I think that by (letting everything out), the music will be relatable to both men and women. There was a time when I thought about changing the first person in the lyrics to “boku” (generally used by men) to reach a wider audience. But now I want to create things that reach people in a deeper way, not just through a particular word choice.
In that sense, Ryokuoushoku Shakai is a band that’s supported by many people regardless of gender.
Nagaya: How people feel about gender can differ from generation to generation. We don’t hear much biased opinions from our fans, so I think many of them have balanced values. Since we started the band, we’ve been doing music hoping to become a household word, so we’re grateful and happy that many people are listening to our songs now, regardless of age or gender.
peppe: That’s so true. But as far as the industry is concerned, I sometimes feel that the ratio of women is still low. As a mixed-gender band, it’d be nice to have female staff members around, but they’re not always easy to find. Now I don’t mind so much, and when I’m not feeling well, I don’t hesitate to talk about it.
This veers away from the topic of music, but until recently, the main host on (Japanese) TV would always be a man and his assistant a woman. I hope we can achieve the kind of balanced society where competent people can do their jobs in appropriate positions regardless of gender.
Maybe we’re in transition when many things are changing. Looking back now, if you were to give advice to yourself in the first year of your career, what would say?
Nagaya: Sometimes I wish I’d spent my youth in this day and age. It feels like things are becoming more lenient. People are into different styles of fashion, hairstyles, and have different values, and the general vibe is more accepting of people as who they are. I really enjoy that feeling.
peppe: When we were students, it was a bit more like everyone chased the same thing, which led to a trend. It was scary to stray from that line.
Nagaya: Now, a wide variety of styles are accepted, so it’s easier to do what you want. I wonder how it would have been like if I’d spent my youth in these times, but I guess I feel that way now because I’ve reached this age. If I were still that age, maybe I’d be feeling some kind of peer pressure. But I want to tell my past self, “You’re setting your own boundaries and narrowing your possibilities.”
Listen to exclusive playlists curated by Haruko Nagaya here and peppe here.
This interview by Rio Hirai (SOW SWEET PUBLISHING) first appeared on Billboard Japan.