Gamer's World |After Music Awards Japan, What Can the Music Industry Learn From Videogames?
The Music Awards Japan was a glamorous event celebrating a year of hits in the Japanese music industry. (©CEIPA / MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN 2026)
Before I became a videogame journalist, I started out writing about music. And somewhere along the way, I began to specialize in interviewing Japanese musicians for Western media. I still keep one toe in that pool—but in June, I dived right into the deep end, by attending Tokyo International Music Market and the Music Awards Japan.
TIMM is a government-funded business-matching event where Japanese music companies try to find labels, concert promoters, and other companies from overseas to help take their artists to a global audience. I haven't been to TIMM in several years, and it was fun to catch up with old friends from the music world—and to notice some of the similarities with today's game business.
For one thing, the definition of "global" has definitely changed in the years I was away. Japanese pop artists used to focus on breaking the West, focusing on appearances at events like South by Southwest in Texas.
A Changing Definition of 'Global'
While more Japanese artists than ever are doing great in the US and Europe—from Babymetal's all-conquering tours to Perfume and Yoasobi appearing at the prestigious Coachella festival—many of the acts performing at this year's TIMM showcase concert were targeting regions closer to home, like China and Southeast Asia.
This is not dissimilar to videogames, where China has overtaken Japan as the second-largest game market and created global exports like Genshin Impact, and where Southeast Asia is the fastest-growing region in the world.
There was even a seminar during TIMM that focused on breaking into the music market in India, which is a place I've visited twice in the past few years as an up-and-coming market for games.
Japanese pop culture is huge in all of these places, with the wild popularity of anime, manga, and games opening doors for music artists to find new fans.
And of course, it makes more sense for companies in Japan to target specific territories rather than a vague aim to go "global" by hitting countries all around the world without a coherent plan. I sensed the music industry could benefit from working more closely with their comrades in the game space for some shared wins overseas.
I also attended the Music Awards Japan. This was the second edition of the awards, and the first to be held in Tokyo (last year's edition was in Kyoto).
Inside Music Awards Japan
Clearly inspired by the Grammys, the awards featured nearly 80 categories, from artist-focused trophies like Best Artist and Best Single to categories that highlight the workers who operate the spotlights rather than appear in them.
The jury consisted of some 5,000 industry professionals, and the ceremony was a black-tie affair, creating a classy and rarefied air.
The main ceremony was held at Toyota Arena Tokyo, and featured performances by top Japanese artists like Sakanaction, HANA, Aina The End, Mrs Green Apple and Fujii Kaze, as well as British artist Sam Smith.
Powerful Performances
From my seat close to the front, I enjoyed the impressive production values that translated perfectly to both an in-person show and an in-camera livestream broadcast. It was a great showcase for the incredible showmanship and technical skill of Japan's mainstream concert industry.
Seeing Sakanaction win Best Song for their single "Kaiju," their big comeback single after a two-year hiatus as frontman Ichiro Yamaguchi battled with depression, was a powerful reminder of how fragility can translate to indelible art. Meanwhile, a noisy, raucous performance by Hitsuji Bungaku proved the wide spectrum of what music can really do.
The awards ceremony itself also offered an interesting contrast with two major gaming events. One was the Japan Game Awards, a traditionally domestic-focused event that has recently made strides to reach overseas audiences.
The other was The Game Awards, gaming's biggest awards show, which also serves as a showcase for new game announcements and is often criticized for prioritizing those reveals over the awards themselves.
Too Few Winners?
That said, with 5,000 judges, I was surprised at the lack of range of the winning acts at the MAJs. For example, Sakanaction were the biggest winners of the night, picking up some eight awards, closely followed by Fujii Kaze with six and Mrs Green Apple with five.
Seeing these artists go up over and over again to collect their prizes and give yet another speech made me wonder how such a wide range of voters picked such a narrow range of winners.
And while the awards were partly focused on the idea of taking Japanese music to the world, it was also very strange that a band like Babymetal—who that very day were playing to an enormous audience at the Download Festival in England—were not nominated for anything at all.
Global Ambitions, Local Blind Spots
The lavish splendor of the event was designed to show the world that Japanese music can compete on the global stage, but the omission of regular touring artists from the awards was a stark reminder of how many artists are succeeding overseas in spite of a lack of meaningful support from back home.
Yes, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi—who gave a speech at a fancy party related to the awards—has pledged some ¥55 billion (about $340 million) of funds in support of Japan's creative industries in an attempt to boost Japan's soft power overseas.
But we've been through all of this before with Cool Japan and the 2020 Olympics opening ceremony. Japan has never managed to match the effort South Korea's government puts into exporting its music, or indeed Britain and some other countries with strong export programs.
I hope Takaichi's new initiatives will be successful, but the MAJs didn't do a lot to reassure me that any lessons have been learned in the halls of power.
And indeed, many of the problems I saw when music was my main beat over a decade ago have yet to be solved. Overseas fans still complain that it's difficult to attend concerts in Japan.
Even though it's easier to travel here now than it used to be, most booking sites now require a domestic phone number to buy tickets. The needless issue was hilariously highlighted when one of the showcase events during the week that was partly aimed at international industry visitors made it difficult for them to actually buy tickets. This is a hot topic among Japanese music fans overseas, so it felt like an unfortunate rake to step on.
A Charming Mess
And while this year's TIMM was a productive event that was useful to me personally, the organization was a little ragged, with the official website lacking detailed information and many of the attendees telling me they were confused about some of the basics.
I was a little surprised that an event that has been running for 22 years was still a bit shambolic compared with the smooth-running game expos I'm used to.
Then again, that's something I love about the music industry. The game business is generally very well organized, with an advanced corporate approach to marketing even among independent developers, and that makes it a hugely successful business.
But the ramshackle nature of the music world also has its charm: It's a reflection of the passion that drives it, and it was quite nice to immerse myself in it for a few days.
Industry Changes
It was also a real pleasure to meet more than a dozen music journalists from around the world who focus on Japanese music.
When I started writing about music around 25 years ago, there was no YouTube or Spotify or TikTok yet, and certainly no specialist websites, blogs, video channels and social accounts in English about Japanese music. I was one of a very small number of people in the West writing about Utada Hikaru, Puffy, Shonen Knife and Cornelius in those days, and I moved to Tokyo in 2006 to pursue it.
Nowadays, there are tons of great sites, podcasts, and video channels bringing Japanese music to the world, and meeting so many of the folks who run them at TIMM and the MAJs made me feel at home with my people.
New Artists to Watch
Finally, it was fun to discover some new rising artists. At a showcase concert by the organisers of MAJ, I saw short sets by Maverick Mom, who play manic guitar pop influenced by Number Girl; Avex boyband One Or Eight, whose poppy hip-hop-influenced rap and arresting minimal beats made for memorable dance routines; acoustic singer-songwriter Leina, who sang emotional and atmospheric songs powered by her acrobatic voice; and luv, whose earthy analogue soul groove sound was lent extra retro vibes by authentic old-school equipment, including a talk box.
I left this music-focused week with fresh eyes for both Japan's music business and Japan's game business. As each of them takes ever further strides into the global spotlight, I can't help but think they each have a lot to learn from each other.
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Author: Daniel Robson
