Cloud Nine CEO Takuya Chigira was recently interviewed about his career and perspective on the Japanese and anime music industries. His company is known for managing music acts like Ado; he shared how he first got his major industry start working with GReeeeN (now known as GRe4N BOYZ) after working in beauty product sales for much of his 20s.
When asked about Ado’s 2024: holding a solo concert, writing and composing “Shoka,” and producing the new idol group Phantom Siita, Chigira believed 2024 was a hard year for the singer and songwriter.
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When asked about the public response to Ado’s world tour and his own impressions, Chigira replied, “One thing is that the view from Japan is different from the view from overseas. I often hear about Japanese artists touring the world, but to be honest, I feel like they haven’t even stepped into the ring yet,” later adding, “I felt there was a gap between how Japan perceives its own music’s position globally versus the actual position of Japanese music in those local markets.“
His self-reflection continued as he voiced concerns about the music industry’s reliance on anime:
“I also felt that we can’t rely solely on anime. For example, compared to the scale of mainstream entertainment such as music and sports on a global scale, anime is still a niche form of entertainment. However, when compared to Japanese music’s global market share, Japanese anime is very large, so by riding on that, you can achieve results beyond the normal level. However, considering the size of the market that music originally has, the ceiling for anime is very low at the moment. In this situation, I felt a sense of crisis about approaching things through anime first and Japanese music becoming synonymous with anime, and I became more convinced that we need to be conscious of which ring we’re fighting in.“
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Chigira Hopes That Ado Stops J-Pop From Becoming a Niche Form of Korean-Dominated ‘Asian Pop’
Chigira believes that K-pop dominates overseas fans’ perception of Asian music. Meanwhile, the music markets in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand are rapidly growing. “The music of these three countries is somewhat inspired by K-pop,” he said. “If the music of any of these countries reaches overseas in a few years, I think the original K-pop-style music will be recognized as ‘Asian Pop.’ If ‘Asian Pop’ is established, there is a possibility that the J-pop that we are making will become a niche music within Asian Pop. This is just a hypothetical situation, but I think that J-pop needs to be established globally before that happens.“
In that vein, Chigira is pinning his hopes on Ado to introduce “J-pop and the Vocaloid industry to the world.” He added, “Looking at the current Japanese music scene, I think that Ado is the only solo artist who can compete on the global stage and reach her prime within the next 3 or 4 years. I believe that she is the only Japanese artist who can snag the main Grammy award.” Ado’s upcoming world tour in 2025 will be the stage he hopes she and J-pop undergo huge growth.
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Japan’s Position as World’s Second-Largest Music Market Is Under Threat
Despite Japan being the second-largest music market in the world (via IFPI), behind only the U.S., its revenue from overseas is severely lagging. Simon Robson, President of International, Warner Music, said in IFPI’s 2024 report, “In some ways, Japan’s biggest strength is also its greatest challenge, and that’s the fact that it is the second biggest market in the world. It hasn’t had to look overseas for opportunities. It’s very impressive to ‘just’ be incredibly successful in Japan.”
The image below from a Japanese government report reveals Korea’s revenue from overseas music licensing was $680 million in 2020. Meanwhile, Japan’s was just $10 million (2021) — a stark difference (the red parts circled):
While the above focuses specifically on licensing, a 2024 report from the METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry) highlights Japan’s bigger challenge: It lacks an industry-wide way of calculating its overall overseas music exports, making expansion incredibly difficult since it doesn’t know how best to use its resources to do so.
Ultimately, as anime continues its expansion, global hit series can be major billboards for Japanese music, as seen with the success of YOASOBI’s “Idol” (from Oshi no Ko anime, now at 562M views) and Creepy Nuts’ 300 million+ views on the “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” music video (from Mashle anime). “KICK BACK” by Kenshi Yonezu, which served as Chainsaw Man Season 1’s opening song, was the first Japanese-language song to be certified Gold by the RIAA.
Nevertheless, pigeonholing oneself into “anime music” comes with risks. The medium is still relatively niche compared to music, limiting its reach and opportunities to be exposed to general audiences who don’t really “get” it yet. The anime industry is certainly trying here though, with recent anime and NBA crossover nights, and anime-adjacent hololive Nights with baseball teams.
Still, the rise of music streaming makes it easier to connect with music from other countries. The sheer volume of music that can be consumed means that people may seek to draw patterns so it’s easier to share things they like, find more of them, and participate in fandom. The pattern drawn could be the ‘Asian Pop’ Chigira warns of. Therefore, a future where J-pop, lacking its own identity on the global stage, is thus conflated with other broadly similar forms of music that have focussed much more on international growth and rode the wave of streaming becomes a bleak possibility.
You can check out Real Sound’s full interview below; Chigira speaks on fellow why Ado’s debut song was “Usseewa” and how they dealt with the negative perceptions of her because of it, Ado’s role as producer of Phantom Siita, Cloud Nine’s approach to artist development, including that of Yurina Hirate, and much more.
Source: Real Sound
Featured image © 2024 UNIVERSAL MUSIC LLC
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