Shukan Bunshun recently ran some articles describing how last year the talent management company LDH allegedly paid entertainment behemoth Burning Productions to ensure that one of LDH's acts would win the top prize at the 2015 Japan Record Awards (JRA). Accompanying one of the articles was a photo of an invoice on Burning stationery showing that LDH owed it ¥108 million for "end-of-year business promotion expenses."
LDH manages the all-male R&B collective Exile and its side projects, one of which, Sandaime J Soul Brothers, was the subject of LDH's under-the-radar largesse and won the JRA last year. They also won it the year before, and their senpai (senior) group, Exile, won it in 2008, 2010 and 2013.
Though Burning does not run the JRA — that's done by the Japan Composers Association (JCA) — it plays a central role, in selecting the winners along with two other major entertainment companies: Avex Holdings, which owns Avex Records; and TBS, the television network that sponsors and broadcasts the JRA ceremony. The jury is made up of employees of these three companies, as well as journalists and industry insiders.