Amid the homebound anxiety of the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, Japan seemed to take solace in one sonic solution: the NiziU hit, “Make You Happy.”

The omnipresent song soundtracked a few of the better firsts for some of us in Tokyo: our first outdoors walk in warmer weather, our first socially distant drinking party at Yoyogi Park, or the first time we tried out TikTok by taking part in the cardio-friendly “Make You Happy” dance challenge.

It was a year of firsts for the nine members of NiziU, too. Since forming out of “Nizi Project,” a reality TV competition that aired in the first half of 2020, the group has topped the Oricon charts (most recently for “Take a Picture / Poppin’ Shakin’”), scored its first “exclusive desserts” at Lawson convenience stores and made its debut on Japan’s end-of-year music extravaganza “Kohaku Uta Gassen.”