The is a music awards established in 1982, presented by the

Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers The , often referred to as JASRAC, is a Japanese copyright collection society. It was founded in 1939 as a nonprofit organization, and is the largest musical copyright administration society in Japan. Overview JASRAC's main business activity ...

(JASRAC), which is given to

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

s and

music publisher A music publisher is a type of publisher that specializes in distributing music. Music publishers originally published sheet music. When copyright became legally protected, music publishers began to play a role in the management of the intellectu ...

s who have generated the highest revenue in royalties during a

fiscal year A fiscal year (also known as a financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. La ...

Overview

The JASRAC Awards is awarded to

s and

s whose works have received the largest revenue in royalties by the JASRAC earned through music distribution,

karaoke is a type of interactive entertainment system usually offered in nightclubs and bars, where people sing along to pre-recorded accompaniment using a microphone. Its musical content is an instrumental rendition of a well-known popular song. I ...

and media usage like features in

advertisement Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...

s. The top three songs out of the ten highest-grossing songs are awarded the Gold, Silver and Bronze Award while the International Award is given to the song with the highest revenue overseas and the Foreign Award is awarded to highest-earning non-Japanese song in Japan. The winner of the Gold Prize for the fiscal year of 2024 was also awarded the Song of the Year for Creators at the

2025 Music Awards Japan 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 ( ...

which was presented by JASRAC.

Milestones

In 2003, the

background music Background music (British English: piped music) is a mode of musical performance in which the music is not intended to be a primary focus of potential listeners, but its content, character, and volume level are deliberately chosen to affect behav ...

for 2001 animated film ''

Spirited Away is a 2001 Japanese Anime film, animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It was produced by Toshio Suzuki, animated by Studio Ghibli, and distributed by Toho.Joe Hisaishi , known professionally as , is a Japanese composer, musical director, conductor and pianist, known for over 100 film scores and solo albums dating back to 1981. Hisaishi's music has been known to explore and incorporate different genres, inclu ...

became the first instrumental work to receive the Gold Award. In 2012, JASRAC announced that

SMAP was a Japanese boy band, composed of Masahiro Nakai, Takuya Kimura, Goro Inagaki, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, and Shingo Katori. The group was created in 1988 by music producer Johnny Kitagawa, founder of Johnny & Associates, originally as a six-p ...

's 2003 single "

Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana is a song recorded by Japanese boy band SMAP. The Noriyuki Makihara composed song was released as a single in 2003 and sold more than 2.57 million copies, becoming the third best-selling single in Japan in Oricon history. Along with Hikaru Utad ...

" had generated the most royalties in the 30-year history of the awards. As of 2025, five songs won Gold Award for two consecutive years: * Eiko Segawa – "Inochi Kurenai" (1988–1989) * SMAP – "Sekai ni Hiitotsu Dake no Hana" (2004–2005) *

AKB48 AKB48 (pronounced ''A.K.B. Forty-Eight'') is a Japanese idol musical girl group named after the Akihabara area in Tokyo, where the group's theater is located. AKB48 has sold more records than any other female musical act in Japanese history. AK ...

– " Heavy Rotation" (2012–2013) *

Lisa Lisa or LISA may refer to: People People with the mononym * Lisa (Japanese musician, born 1974), stylized "LISA" * Lisa, stagename of Japanese singer Lisa Komine (born 1978) * Lisa (South Korean singer) (born 1980) * Lisa (Japanese musician, b ...

– " Gurenge" (2021–2022) *

Yoasobi Yoasobi is a Japanese pop duo formed in 2019. It consists of musician and record producer Ayase (music producer), Ayase and singer-songwriter Lilas Ikuta, under the moniker Ikura. With the slogan "novel into music", the duo originally released Y ...

– " Idol" (2023–2024) In 2012, the Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards was awarded to "Heavy Rotation", " Ponytail to Shushu" and " Beginner", all by

. It was the second time in the award's history since 1996, when composer

Tetsuya Komuro is a Japanese musician, songwriter and record producer. He is recognized as the most successful producer in Japanese music history and has introduced contemporary electronic dance music to the Japanese mainstream. He was also a former owner of t ...

won Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards, that all three main awards were awarded for songs performed by a single artist. According to ''

Asahi Shimbun is a Japanese daily newspaper founded in 1879. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. The ''Asahi Shimbun'' is one of the five largest newspapers in Japan along with the ''Yom ...

'', the idol group placed a total of five songs in the top ten of the highest crossing works in royalties in 2011. The following year, songs by AKB48 once again took Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards with "Heavy Rotation" winning Gold in the second consecutive year, " Flying Get" for Silver and " Everyday, Katyusha" for Bronze. In 2015, the Silver, the Bronze, the International and the Foreign Awards were given to works related to animation music. The background music (BGM) of ''

Attack on Titan is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama. It is set in a world where humanity is forced to live in cities surrounded by three enormous walls that protect them from gigantic man-eating humanoids referred to a ...

'' and 1978's "

Lupin III , also written as ''Lupin the Third'', ''Lupin the 3rd'', or ''Lupin the IIIrd'', is a Japanese media franchise created by Monkey Punch. The series follows the endeavors of master thief Lupin III (character), Lupin III, grandson of gentleman t ...

Theme" won Silver and Bronze respictively, while the ''

Dragon Ball Z ''Dragon Ball Z'' (''DBZ'') is a Japanese anime television series produced by Toei Animation. Part of the ''Dragon Ball'' media franchise, it is the sequel to the 1986 ''Dragon Ball'' television series and adapts the latter 325 chapters ...

'' BGM won International Award and "

Let It Go "Let It Go" is a song from Disney's 2013 computer-animated feature film '' Frozen'', whose music and lyrics were composed by husband-and-wife songwriting team Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. The song was performed in its original show ...

" from '' Frozen'' won Foreign Award. The ''

Fairy Tail ''Fairy Tail'' (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiro Mashima. It was serialized in Kodansha's ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' from August 2006 to July 2017, with the individual chapters collect ...

'' BGM won International Award in 2017 with 97.7% of the total royalties generated in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

alone.

Winners

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

References

External links

* {{Japanese Music Award Shows 1982 establishments in Japan Awards established in 1982 Annual events in Japan Japanese music awards