Asahi Shimbun‘s March 29 report revealed a conversation between Yusuke Nakagawa, the president of Atarashii Gakko! management company Asobisystem, and Yohei Yashiro of Sony Music Entertainment, the producer of YOASOBI. Yashiro shared that YOASOBI is actually losing money on overseas performances, but explained the benefits of continuing to do them regardless.
“Performing live in a place they’ve never seen before and receiving applause is a great input for an artist,” Yashiro said. “That experience creates a virtuous cycle for creating something new. If you don’t do that kind of thing, eventually you’ll find yourself in a slump.“
Yashiro added, “As a company and an industry, we have a history of working hard for decades. It is important to run as YOASOBI with the baton we’ve received and pass it on to the next. That is why I am running with the sense of taking the prize for winning our own leg of this relay race.“
YOASOBI has quickly become one of the most recognizable Japanese music acts. Just this year, the duo’s songs “Shukufuku” and “Ano Yume wo Nazotte” were certified 3x Platinum, while this week the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) announced that “Adventure” was certified Platinum. “Yoru ni Kakeru” was its first Diamond certification in 2021.
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YOASOBI’s overseas recognizability has also benefitted from the increasing popularity of anime, where it’s a regular pick for theme songs. “Idol,” used as the opening for Oshi no Ko Season 1 (2023), was the fastest song to be certified Diamond in RIAJ history since it adopted streaming numbers in 2020, and did so in less than a year. It’s been streamed over a billion times through Spotify and YouTube; the IFPI shared that it was the 19th best-selling song in the world in 2023. YOASOBI fans can look forward to the Witch Watch anime opening “Watch me!“, which can be previewed in the anime’s recent trailer.
The sentiment in Japan seems to be that now is the time for Japanese music to strike the overseas market. YOASOBI composer Ayase echoed this after the duo’s appearance at matsuri ’25 last week.
In an interview with The First Times, he said, “When I go to Little Tokyo and see the lines that form at stores that sell Japanese culture, I think that because everyone loves Japan, we need to approach it from the Japanese side. I think we need to break down the barriers that Japanese listeners and musicians have felt too strongly toward the rest of the world, as well as events.“
“There has certainly been a point in the past where people thought that overseas music was the supreme existence, and what about Japan, but I think we need to dispel that feeling from the Japanese side. I think it is truly wonderful that a festival has been launched to bring the entirety of Japanese festivals to the world.“
YOASOBI vocalist Ikura added, “Recently in L.A., we saw how Japanese pop music can make the world go crazy,” adding that she and her labelmates wanted to “come together and share the message that ‘the J-Pop we’re making is cool.’“
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Someone else making the case for overseas expansion is Takuya Chigira, the manager of global sensation Ado. Speaking to Real Sound in December, he said that Japan had a distorted view of its popularity overseas compared to reality.
“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,” he said, 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.“ While anime has been a great way to spread Japanese music, he said he felt a “sense of crisis” that Japanese pop would be conflated with anime music. He felt that Japanese artists should be more conscious of “the ring they’re fighting in.”
“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,” he explained, adding that he expects that with Ado’s trajectory, she’ll soon be able to compete for a Grammy.
Overseas fans can look ahead to YOASOBI’s performances at Primavera Sound Barcelona 2025 (June 5) and Wembley Stadium, London (June 8, June 9).
Source: Asahi Shimbun
Featured Image ©Kanehito Yamada, Tsukasa Abe/Shogakukan/”Frieren” Project
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