Japan’s music industry is in a particularly unique position: One one hand, the country is home to the second-largest recorded music market in the world, according to IFPI. On the other — and unlike its neighbors in South Korea — the J-pop industry has remained singularly focused on its home market.
But as covered in Luminate Intelligence’s latest special report, Asia: A Global Force in Music, Japan’s music leaders are looking to change course and bring its domestic artists and genres to bigger global audiences.
Luckily, anime — easily Japan’s biggest cultural export — has already proved itself an effective method for doing just that. A staple of all anime shows and movies is the “opening,” a song that typically plays during a montage or opening credits that sets the tone for viewers.
Luminate music consumption data shows that anime openings not only bring in massive boosts in streams for artists, but they often help Japan-based artists break through abroad for the first time.
A recent example of this trend is J-pop duo YOASOBI’s “Idol,” the opener for the anime Oshi no Ko that was released in April 2023. As of Feb. 12, 2026, the song had generated 3.9 billion lifetime global Total On-Demand (Audio+Video) streams and become the fastest Japanese song to reach diamond certification, according to the Recording Industry Association of Japan.
Overseas, the track reached no. 7 on the Billboard Global 200, a new peak for a song by a Japanese artist, which wasn’t outdone till late 2025, by Kenshi Yonezu’s “Iris Out” — the opening for the anime film Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc.
In many cases, artists have used the initial momentum generated by an opener to steadily increase their overall global audience. Ado, an anonymous pop singer and one of Japan’s latest breakout global acts, initially saw spikes in listenership following her music appearing in One Piece and Spy x Family in 2022 and 2023, respectively. But she continued to build her non-Japan base thanks to her enigmatic persona, steady musical output and strong online following.
Ado embarked on her Hibana World Tour in 2025, which sold out shows at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena — the first Japanese artist to do so — and London’s O2 Arena, among others.
The fan excitement and press generated from the tour helped push Ado’s international recognition even further, and as a result her daily global on-demand streams excluding Japan currently slightly surpass that of her home country. And with 212.1 million on-demand streams, she was also the most-streamed Japan-based artist in the U.S. for 2025.
Japan is just one of several countries in Asia looking to globalize their respective music markets. Check out our report Asia: A Global Force in Music to learn how the region is uniquely positioned to play a leading role in shaping the global music industry’s future.
