The defining story of J-pop in 2023 focused on the past. The reckoning with Johnny Kitagawa’s history of sexual assault and how his decades-old powerhouse talent agency, formerly known as Johnny & Associates, would move forward towered over the entertainment industry and the headlines. Nothing came close to matching it.

Yet the past 12 months gave us a new generation of artists who not only solidified their position as the country’s premier pop acts but revealed fresh mindsets. The image of J-pop as it existed in the 1990s and much of the 21st century — when a major agency like Johnny’s could flex its muscle and most companies were wary of the internet — has ended.

As a result, new possibilities for Japanese artists have emerged in overseas markets. In fact, here’s something I never thought I’d be able to write in a year-end wrap: International interest in Japanese artists is on the rise. In July, American data and research company Luminate shared its midyear report. It devoted an entire page to Japanese music, highlighting how quickly it’s growing globally.

But it isn’t necessary to read a report to know this development is going on. All you have to do is check the charts, YouTube views, festival lineups and general online chatter. Thanks to the work of younger artists being easily accessible, broader recognition due to tie-ups with anime series and films (the undisputed soft power king) and a unique sonic palette, Japanese music has made more inroads abroad than ever before. It’s no longer about if J-pop can work internationally, but rather a question of what it will look and sound like in the future as it continues to grow.

Idol movements

If you were to nail down a specific pivot point for J-pop in the decade so far, it would be the song “Idol.”

Released by the duo Yoasobi in April, “Idol” is undeniably Japan’s song of the year. It received a massive boost as the opening theme to the year’s biggest anime, “Oshi no Ko,” but the disorienting track was a force all its own, too. It dominated streaming rankings through the autumn and held the top spot on Billboard Japan’s Hot 100 chart for 21 consecutive weeks, setting a new record. But you could ignore all that data and still come to the same conclusion: The song is a bop. “Idol” soundtracked endless TikToks, inspired countless YouTube covers, popped up on TV and appeared at countless school festivals.

In Japan, “Idol” is the biggest hit of the 2020s so far, but it might be even more impressive as a true international breakout for modern J-pop. You can pick up on its reach by looking at its official YouTube video (over 382 million views at the time of writing) — scroll through the comment section and you’ll see languages from all over the world.

If you’re still skeptical, cold-hard data can back up its popularity. Yoasobi made history in June by becoming the first Japanese group to top Billboard’s Global Chart (excluding the United States), before hitting No. 1 worldwide on Apple Music and YouTube. “Idol” ranked as the seventh most-played song of the year according to information shared by Apple Music last week.

These achievements didn’t come out of nowhere, however. “Idol” represents the meeting point of multiple trends in Japanese music made visible over the past half-decade: It’s tied to a globally popular anime, securing the eyes and ears of a hugely successful market; it’s a digital-first offering, reflecting changes in the J-pop industry; and it boasts a sonic palette unlike anything else happening presently in pop music worldwide, drawing from gospel choirs, call-and-response chants and hip-hop from the American South.

By the end of 2023, Yoasobi rode the “Idol” wave to international festival appearances in Indonesia, Hong Kong and the United States, with a greater Asian tour planned for early 2024.

Ready for the show

Yoasobi isn’t the only player in this year’s J-pop scene, however. The 23-year-old artist imase kept popping up in the most unlikely places throughout 2023. A year prior, his shuffling “Night Dancer” became a TikTok trend here in Japan. But it spread to the point that, by early 2023, it had won fans abroad. “Night Dancer” found an audience in South Korea in particular, where it became the first Japanese song to ever enter the nation’s Melon Top 100 Song Chart.

This led to imase becoming a pop ambassador between the two countries. He performed in Seoul, did interviews with South Korean media, worked with (and appeared in videos alongside) burgeoning K-pop group Le Sserafim and even performed at the 2023 MAMA Awards, a yearly event where the South Korean music industry shines.

One of the biggest perceived challenges facing Japanese music in the latter part of the previous decade was how to turn global interest in individual tracks into something deeper with the artists who produced them. Japanese songs have been popular as evidenced by an assortment of viral hits and an online fascination with city pop, but what vexed the Japanese music industry was translating all that into the sort of bonds fans have with an individual artist, akin to the likes of Taylor Swift or BTS.

In 2023, an answer finally emerged: Who cares? Maybe in the highly fragmented global pop landscape, a series of individual hits can work just as well as a polished outfit. Nobody expected imase to do what he did — but now, he’s established, all thanks to TikTok.

He wasn’t alone. As mentioned earlier, anime tie-ups helped power fledgling artists like Soushi Sakiyama, Tatsuya Kitani and millet into the international head space. Viral trends turned young names such as Yuka, Sanghee and ChoQMay into “ones to watch.” A persistent fascination with Vocaloid helped turn producer siinamota’s headrush “Young Girl A” into an internet smash a decade after it was released in 2013, while a song by Ehamic featuring synthesized singing courtesy of Hatsune Miku inexplicably appeared in Marvel’s “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3.” Rock acts like Chai and Haru Nemuri continued to develop passionate followings and pull off successful tours. This was the year Spotify Japan debuted its “Gacha Pop” playlist, a clever acknowledgment of how Japanese music travels in the world and a celebration of the seemingly random.

And just finding a way into a Spotify listener’s algorithm could be all it takes to make them a fan. The Luminate report that emphasized J-pop’s global rise also highlighted three acts in particular as standouts: Yoasobi, Kaze Fujii (who toured Asia and kept releasing well-received singles this year) and Ado (who announced her first world tour for the first quarter of 2024, and whose growling “Show” has emerged as the autumn’s biggest J-pop hit, currently on top of Billboard Japan’s Hot 100 for the ninth consecutive week at the time of writing). All three broke through with songs, but have developed into emerging players on the world stage, with a sound all their own.

World calling

Aug. 6 marked a major moment in J-pop going abroad: Three artists performed in Los Angeles at Head in the Clouds 2023, the annual festival organized by Asian-centric label and agency 88 Rising. One was Yoasobi, but before that were two acts offering radically different methods on how to approach the world: XG and Atarashii Gakko!

XG is a seven-member Japanese girl group made in conjunction with Avex and South Korea-based producer Jakops. The project aims to take Japanese talent and train them via the K-pop method, putting them more in line with contemporary sonic trends. Yet XG bristles at both J-pop and K-pop tags, instead opting for its own tag of “X-pop.” The group sings in English over sounds that can come from anywhere. It became the first Japanese group to enter U.S. pop radio’s top 40 with the throwback “Left Right.” XG is borderless.

Quartet Atarashii Gakko! has songs that are almost entirely in Japanese and filled with references to Japanese pop culture in its music videos, while its members sport sailor-style school uniforms at all times. The group’s music flies off in myriad directions, never settling on any one sound but instead lassoing a bunch of styles into a hectic pop concoction. It enjoyed viral success at home and abroad this year with 2020 song “Otona Blue,” a cut nodding to Showa Era bawdiness filtered through Gen Z shenanigans. Atarashii Gakko! is distinctly Japanese.

Both approaches can and do exist in the greater global pop ecosystem — Atarashii Gakko! toured North America this past fall, while XG is preparing a trip for next year. Yet as Japanese music preps for an even bigger 2024, the separate paths these outfits present offer an interesting contrast in how to make it abroad. Do you embrace globalization and be as broad as possible? Or do you burrow into the quirks of where you come from?

All credit to XG, but I think it’s the latter approach that works best. That has been on full display in 2023, with the biggest hits emerging out of Japan being unafraid to embrace the country they come from, whether linguistically or in musical style. Yoasobi released an English version of “Idol,” but fans still gravitate toward the original.

Next year will see one of the biggest movements of Japanese artists into the greater world recorded in J-pop history. Yet that all started this year, when it became clear a new era of Japanese music had finally arrived.