In the late 1990s, before algorithms defined taste, before platforms flattened culture into recommended rows of thumbnails, music discovery still relied on randomness. Napster was messy, mislabeled, ...

No exploration of Japanese music would be complete without a dive into the world of J-Pop. Short for Japanese popular music, J-Pop is hard to define. It encompasses a wide breadth of genres and ...

Billboard Japan’s Women in Music initiative launched in 2022 to celebrate artists, producers and executives who have made significant contributions to music and inspired other women through their work ...

I wish it was you who smiled saying the snow is pretty~.” A “national winter song” that goes viral in Japan every winter is ...

In 2025, life imitates digital art. When a cohort of vintage Japanese pop songs went viral on YouTube throughout the 2010s, city pop and J-pop went from an absolutely underground interest of a select ...

Noriko Sekiguchi, better known as Poison Girl Friend, is behind some of the most lustrous downtempo, trip-hop, and late-night pop music in post–economic bubble Japan. The Yokohama-born artist was ...

A tsunami of fans surged into Tokyo Big Sight on a cold winter morning in late 2025, lining up before dawn for Comiket 107's 50th anniversary. Fans clutched sketchbooks, handmade costumes, and ...

As reported earlier, MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN is a brand-new award established by the five major organizations in the Japanese music industry — Recording Industry Association of Japan, Japan Association of ...

Locals looking for fun with a Far East flavor should head to the Orange County fairgrounds the first weekend of April as the OC Japan Fair returns with a slate of cultural activities, culinary ...