2025 Music Awards Japan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Hiroe Igeta (May 21)
- Kasumi Mori (May 21)
- Atsushi Yanaka (May 21)
- Masaki Suda (May 22)
| 2025 Music Awards Japan | |
|---|---|
| Date | May 21–22, 2025 |
| Venue | Rohm Theatre Kyoto |
| Country | Japan |
| Hosted by |
|
| Most wins |
|
| Most nominations |
|
| Website | musicawardsjapan |
| Television/radio coverage | |
| Network | |
The 2025 Music Awards Japan, part of the Music Awards Japan series, is the inaugural award ceremony to be held at Rohm Theatre in Kyoto on May 21–22, 2025. It is organized by the Japan Culture and Entertainment Industry Promotion Association (CEIPA), an organization founded by five major Japanese music associations. Japanese broadcaster NHK announced it would broadcast the second day of the awards show, while both days would be live streamed on YouTube. Hiroe Igeta, Kasumi Mori, and Atsushi Yanaka hosted the first day of the ceremony,[1] and Masaki Suda hosted the second day[2] with foreword from Haruomi Hosono.
Singer-songwriter Fujii Kaze received 17 nominations followed by hip-hop duo Creepy Nuts (16), pop duo Yoasobi (14) and the pop-rock band Mrs. Green Apple (13).[3] Creepy Nuts became the most winning artist with nine awards.
At the of January 2025, CEIPA announced a concert featuring Japanese singer Ado, girl group Atarashii Gakko! and pop duo Yoasobi which took place at Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, California on March 16, 2025. It was the first showcase to be held prior the award ceremony.[4]
Between May 17 and 23, 2025, the MAJ Music Week was held. This event which took place in the week of the award show contains out of conferences, seminars and concerts. The second day of the award ceremony was broadcast on NHK General TV, while both days were livestreamed on YouTube globally.[5]
Nomination process
An automatic system will create a pool of eligible works and artists based on metrics by Oricon, Billboard Japan, GfK Japan, Luminate, Usen, Daiichi Kosho Company, JASRAC and others. To be eligible for a nomination an artist has to have released a work between January 29, 2024 to January 26, 2025.[5]
From this generated pool, a panel of persons from the Japanese music industry selects up to five nominees per category.[6] Once the nominations are announced, an international panel will select the winner of each category.[7] The nominees and winners in the categories Best of Listeners' Choice: Japanese Song and Best of Listeners' Choice: International Song are determined entirely through a public vote via Spotify.[8]
During voting process, each eligible voting member are allowed to vote for five songs, artists or albums. It is also allowed to vote once for a work the voting member was directly involved. In the second voting round, only those voting members who participated in the first voting are eligible to vote alongside the international panel members.[9]
On April 21, 2025 the organisers withdrew the nomination of the song "Show" by Ado in the Best Anime Song category for not meeting the nomination criteria of being a song used as opening or ending theme or an insert song in an anime production and issued an apology. It was also announced that a re-vote will take place among the four nominated works.[10]
Winners and nominees
The nominees for 50 categories were announced on April 17, 2025.[11] The nominations for Karaoke of the Year were announced separately.[12] The Best Enka/Kayōkyoku award was announced on May 19, ahead of the ceremony dates.[13] Sub categories and main awards' winners were announced on May 21 and 22.[14][15]
Main categories
| Album of the Year | Artist of the Year |
|---|---|
| Song of the Year | New Artist of the Year |
|
|
| Top Global Hit from Japan | Best Song Asia |
|
|
Sub categories
| Best Japanese Song | Top Japanese Song in Asia |
|---|---|
|
|
| Top Japanese Song in Europe | Top Japanese Song in Latin America |
| |
| Top Japanese Song in North America | Best J-Rock Song |
|
|
| Best Japanese Hip Hop/Rap Song | Best Japanese R&B/Contemporary Song |
|
|
| Best Japanese Dance Pop Song | Best Japanese Alternative Song |
| |
| Best Japanese Singer-Songwriter Song | Best Enka/Kayōkyoku |
|
|
| Best Anime Song | Best Idol Culture Song |
|
|
| Best Revival Hit Song | Best Cross-Border Collaboration Song |
|
|
| Best Instrumental Song | Best Vocaloid Culture Song |
|
|
| Best Music Video | Best Dance Performance |
|
|
| Best Viral Song | Best Dance/Electronic Song |
|
|
| Best Jazz Album | Best Classical Album |
|
|
| Best DJ | Best Japanese Song Artist |
|
|
| Best J-Rock Artist | Best Japanese Hip Hop/Rap Artist |
| Best Japanese R&B/Contemporary Artist | Best Japanese Dance Pop Artist |
| Best Japanese Alternative Artist | Best Idol Artist/Group |
|
|
| Best Japanese Singer-Songwriter | |
| Best International Rock Song in Japan | Best International Alternative Song in Japan |
| |
| Best International Hip Hop/Rap Song in Japan | Best International R&B/Contemporary Song in Japan |
|
|
| Best International Pop Song in Japan | Best K-Pop Song in Japan |
|
|
| Special Award: Chinese Popular Music | Special Award: Indonesian Popular Music |
|
|
| Special Award: Korean Popular Music | Special Award: Philippine Popular Music |
| Special Award: Thai Popular Music | Special Award: Vietnamese Popular Music |
|
|
| Karaoke of the Year: J-Pop[12] | Karaoke of the Year: Enka/Kayōkyoku[12] |
|
|
| Special Award: Oshi-Katsu Request Artist of the Year | Special Award: Radio Best Radio-Break Song |
| |
| Song of the Year for Creators | Honorary Award in Music-Technology |
| |
| Largest Live Audience | MAJ Timeless Echo[16] |
| Grand Prix Engineer | |
| |
| Best of Listeners' Choice: Japanese Song | Best of Listeners' Choice: International Song |
|
|