Ausländische J-Pop-Fans sagen, Japans Musikindustrie hasse sie. Die Wahrheit ist komplizierter: Anti-Scalping-Gesetze, eine von CDs abhängige Idol-Wirtschaft und eine Branche, die nie auf globales Streaming ausgerichtet war, haben Japan in ein Musik-Galapagos verwandelt.

This isn’t a discrimination issue, it’s a poor business strategy issue. K-Pop has shown the way to global riches – J-Pop just needs to hurry up and follow. The Japanese domestic market is shrinking day by day – the only way to grow is internationally.

Japan being insular. More news at 11.

> Japanese music industry analysts say South Korea caught Japan while it was napping.

Were the old boys ever awake?

Back in the old country, I don’t recall *ever* hearing a Japanese artist in the Top 40, on Top Of The Pops, etc. Not even during the 1980s.

Yoko Ono doesn’t count.

It feels like there’s a lot of missed opportunity.

Anyway, for the local concerts, how are things normally done with visiting bands, are those only accessible to locals too? I don’t know.

Also, I don’t know why they’re lumping the idol stuff in with normal artists, because the idol stuff isn’t really about the music, is it. That Mouse advert’s nice though 🙂

Japan has always been Galapagos, even now it’s still quite a homogenic country with significant barrier to assimilate into.

Remember what they called the flip phone 20 years ago in Japan? ガラパゴス携帯 (Galapagos handphone) because only Japan used them.

It’s true that Japanese economy, even in Music sector is lagging behind compared to K-Pop, but I don’t think Japan has to chase all the money as well. As a concert goers, J-Pop has a very high quality standard in their concerts (with the concepts, stage designs, costumes, merchs) and the business does not feel predatorial to the consumers. I love living in Japan since there are still sincerities & integrities in doing things, not blindly chasing money and follow the uncontrolled capitalism path.

Japanese anime has arguably stagnated because too many of the big studios are only approving projects that international audiences will like. If Jpop focuses more on international reach I worry that similar results would be seen. What is popular overseas is not necessarily popular here. So much of the vocaloid scene is written off as AI music by foreigners for example. I agree things should be done to make it easier for visiting fans to buy tickets though.

As a Japanese person, I actually have a question for global music fans. 

Do you really think J-POP can become genuinely popular on a global scale?

The core appeal of most J-POP lies in its lyrics. It’s designed to make listeners empathize and connect through the words and the underlying cultural context. Language is deeply intertwined with culture and daily life, and Japanese has a highly distinct structure and grammar compared to other languages. 

Can that same emotional impact really be conveyed when Japanese lyrics and expressions are translated into English?

If J-POP were able to achieve global popularity based solely on melody, choreography, visuals, and outfits, I feel we would already see the comment sections of Japanese music videos on YouTube overflowing with foreign languages and massive view counts. 

In my view, the reason K-POP is so popular in Japan is that nobody really prioritizes the meaning of the lyrics. Most Japanese listeners don’t understand the words, whether they are sung in English or Korean. They simply listen to the vocals as just another melody or instrument.

Japan has always been a Japanese first community.

There is no reason for them to branch out as long as they are still hitting their goals