The 2018/19 edition of the New Year’s Eve live music program Kohaku Uta Gassen earned the highest viewership rating in recent years and generated a buzz that has visibly elevated some songs by the show’s performers back into the latest Billboard Japan Hot 100.
Kenshi Yonezu, whose outstanding candlelit performance of “Lemon” from an art museum in Tokushima broke the internet after it aired, continues his reign on the Japan Hot 100, dated Dec. 31, 2018, to Jan. 6, 2019.
After returning to No. 1 last week by leading three out of eight metrics of the chart’s measurement, “Lemon” dominates five metrics this week — downloads, look-ups, Twitter mentions, video views, and karaoke — spending its second consecutive week and fourth total frame at the top of the Japan Hot 100.
Notably, downloads for the song increased over 950,000 units from 50,953 last week to 146,075 this week, and the music video was viewed 11,005,665 times, up over 4 million views from 6,913,409 views last week.
DA PUMP‘s “U.S.A.” also holds steady at No. 2. The video maintains high viewership at 9,883,566 times, up 500,000 times from 9,385,512 views last week.
The 60th Japan Record Awards held Dec. 30, featuring various artists performing live throughout the show, also generated renewed interest in some tracks. Jumping up 19-4 this week is MISIA‘s “Ai No Katachi feat. HIDE (GReeeeN),” reaching its highest position yet. The song was fueled mostly by increased downloads (43,579 units) and also performed better in all eight metrics.
Aimyon was also featured in many year-end music programs, and two of her hits from last year, “Konya Konomama” and “Marigold,” continue to chart in the top 10, with the latter reaching a new high at No. 3. The 23-year-old singer-songwriter is Japan’s first hitmaker of the streaming generation and currently has seven songs in the Japan Hot 100, all powered by streaming. Songs that perform well in the streaming metric tend to stay on the chart, so Aimyon’s tracks could become a mainstay, depending on how they continue to garner points in other areas.
The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, radio airplay, Twitter mentions, YouTube and GYAO! video views, Gracenote look-ups and audio streams from Amazon Music Unlimited, Apple Music, AWA, Google Play Music, KKBOX, LINE MUSIC, Rakuten Music, Recochoku provided by Gfk Japan, streaming counts based on lyrics displayed on PetitLyrics, and karaoke data from Daiichikosho and XING.
Billboard Japan Hot 100 Top 10 (dated Dec. 31 to Jan. 6)
1. [1] Lemon / Kenshi Yonezu (24,090 copies / 146,075 downloads / none)
2. [2] U.S.A. / DA PUMP (4,629 copies / 21,290 downloads / 1,874,602 streams)
3. [7] Marigold / Aimyon (1,118 copies / 31,169 downloads / 2,634,639 streams)
4. [19] Ai No Katachi feat. HIDE (GReeeeN) / MISIA (1,961 copies / 43,579 downloads / 1,625,576 streams)
5. [4] Flamingo / Kenshi Yonezu (4,712 copies / 32,833 downloads / none)
6. [47] Let’s Go Bowling / Keisuke Kuwata & The Pin Boys (34,796 copies / 4,080 downloads / none)
7. [5] Konya Konomama / Aimyon (641 copies/ 11,878 downloads / 2,158,170 streams)
8. [9] Kaerimichi Ha Toomawari Shitakunaru / Nogizaka46 (11,781 copies / 9,477 downloads / 1,088,491 streams)
9. [40] Idea / Gen Hoshino (none / 21,815 downloads / none)
10. [6] Blizzard / Daichi Miura (1,725 copies / 8,378 downloads / 661,489 streams)
[ ] : Position last week.
( ): Physical sales / downloads / streams (Top 50 only)