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Japanese Pop Music’s Internalized Perspective on Western Music
The concept of Prema, built around the idea of “export,” and its careful deconstruction of the layered inspirations available to an Asian musician like Fujii Kaze, becomes clear when looking at his recent work.
What is equally striking is how an album sung entirely in English and devoted to arrangements faithful to its roots has been so warmly embraced in the Japanese music market. From its release, it quickly climbed various charts, with all tracks, led by the pre-release singles and lead track, appearing on streaming surge lists. Its strong initial performance rivals that of his previous platinum-certified album.
It has long been said that Japanese audiences are drifting away from Western music, and Japanese-language songs dominate the J-Pop scene. So why has ‘Prema’ been received so enthusiastically? While the answer is not definitive, one useful perspective is to focus on Japanese pop music’s internalized gaze on Western music.
It is well known that the term J-Pop was coined in the late 1980s by the FM radio station J-WAVE to describe Japanese music that could be aired alongside Western music without feeling out of place. Originally conceived as “Japanese music on par with Western music,” J-Pop quickly became the mainstream of Japanese pop during the 1990s, driven by a combination of factors such as the mass production of drama tie-in hits and the nationwide expansion of large CD retailers. In contrast, Western music sales stagnated over the long term, and its presence in the domestic market has remained minimal to this day.
By the late 1990s, the so-called “CD bubble” had emerged, with annual sales routinely exceeding one million units, and a reference system within J-Pop was firmly established. Paradoxically, however, the value of Western music itself—the very music J-Pop originally drew upon—declined.
During the same period, a counter-movement emerged in response to the dominance of J-Pop. Bands such as SUPERCAR and NUMBER GIRL, which referenced the latest rock from the U.S. and U.K., and TRICERATOPS and NONA REEVES, which reinterpreted Black music through a band sound, received critical acclaim. Their approach bears some resemblance to Fujii Kaze’s current methodology. It should be noted, however, that their recognition existed within the context of alternative rock, and they never achieved mainstream popularity.
In this way, J-Pop since the 1990s can be seen as a form of “Japanese music” that incorporates elements of Western music absorbed in postwar Japan while applying arrangements that do not clearly reveal its roots. This formulation explains, in part, why international expansion has historically been difficult.
