J-pop is enjoying newfound global attention, in large part because the nation’s music industry finally embraced the internet. Not long ago, coming across a 30-second preview for an Exile song online felt like uncovering a rare gem. That has changed in the 2020s, to the point where companies are eager to share.
The latest entries in the race for virality come from NHK. At the end of March, the national broadcaster announced the launch of Tiny Desk Concerts Japan. NHK worked with America’s NPR to bring its long-running web series — which features artists performing stripped-down sets inside the cozy offices of the organization’s music department — to the other side of the world.
Tiny Desk Concerts Japan’s debut episode featured rising star Kaze Fujii delivering a playful set from the NHK Music department office in Shibuya. While the U.S. Tiny Desk shared the whole performance on its YouTube channel and official site, the Japan side offered up one song on the video platform before directing viewers to NHK’s dedicated page for watching full sets. It’s a little complicated, but hey, isn’t progress?
Tiny Desk Japan’s second episode arrived this past week featuring pop project Kirinji. Like the Fujii video, Kirinji’s performance on NHK's site includes English subtitles and an English description, underlining the program’s international vibe. The blurb for Kirinji in particular nods to growing global interest in and the resurgence of “city pop,” a genre of funk, disco and dance pop that rose out of Japan’s economic heyday in the 1980s and ’90s: “In recent years, the world has fallen in love with Japanese city pop, and Kirinji is riding that wave with its complex and unique urban sounds.” Most tellingly, the branding around the Tiny Desk videos emphasizes NHK World, the broadcaster’s global channel, which has long served as a vehicle to promote Japanese culture of all kinds abroad via shows such as “Cool Japan” or “Kabuki Kool.”
I first thought the idea of the Japan offshoot was ridiculous and a bit self-defeating. Artists like Fujii should be on Tiny Desk proper because he has already scored several viral hits overseas and is currently on tour in North America — people outside of Japan know who he is. And seeing as how NPR has his performance on its own official pages, his PR team got the win it would’ve desired. If an artist wants to make inroads into a foreign market, it’s probably better for them to go to said market to perform rather than opt for a domestic version of what’s being offered there. It’s not like Japanese acts have never been featured on the American Tiny Desk before. The likes of Cornelius, Hiromi Uehara and Chai have played on the show. And just a few weeks ago, rabble-rousing rockers Otoboke Beaver stopped by.
Therefore, the Japan version, initially, felt stunted with short-sighted ambition — what makes it stand apart from the U.S. original?
The second episode changed my mind. Unlike Fujii, a group like Kirinji could never get to NPR’s offices. The act is popular in Japan and has a cult following among those city pop-loving listeners NHK mentioned, but they are nowhere near as popular abroad as the Japanese acts who have made it on the American show.
The best-case scenario? Tiny Desk Concerts Japan can become a place for the full spectrum of Japanese music to shine, not just the top-level stuff. This is actually the function of Tiny Desk Concerts Korea, the first non-American version of Tiny Desk, which offers international gravitas to performers not exclusively from the world of K-pop. Your Yoasobi and Ado-level acts should aim for NPR — but for everyone else, heading out to NHK’s Shibuya office is actually a positive.
The biggest challenge NHK’s version faces at present is standing out among the cluttered world of music-centric videos. Over the past few years, a slew of YouTube channels in Japan and overseas have been offering performers space to play live versions of their songs, one homegrown example being the pioneering The First Take. Yet as that effort has shown, if a performance does well — and is accessible — it can spread and help a group find international listeners.
So NHK’s Tiny Desk could prove to be an important avenue for artists who would normally never get this kind of attention to receive some online shine. Just keep making it free to watch, and they’ll have as good a shot as anyone.
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