The MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN (MAJ) is finally happening next year.

Expected to be the “Asian version of the Grammy Awards,” this brand-new awards event was founded by “the five major organizations in the Japanese music industry” — the Recording Industry Association of Japan, Japan Association of Music Enterprises, the Federation of Music Producers Japan, Music Publishers Association of Japan, and All Japan Concert & Live Entertainment Promoters Conference.

Set to be Japan’s “largest music awards show,” the highly anticipated event will hold its inaugural edition from May 21 to 22, 2025 at the long-standing Rohm Theatre Kyoto in Japan’s Kyoto prefecture. In addition, day two of the event is set to be broadcasted live through both a local Japanese TV channel, while a both days will be streamed on YouTube for the rest of the world with some regions excluded.

The Awards Categories

The awards will be spread across more than 60 categories, which includes the six major ones such as Song of the Year and New Artist of the Year. In addition, there will be 23 divisions in the Song category, seven in the International Song category, five in the Album category, twelve in the Artist category, and three in the “Alliance Category.”

The Song category is described as a celebration of “a wide variety of music genres and cultures” in Japan, with “genre divisions honoring J-pop, rock, hip-hop, idol culture, anime and more, as well as special divisions for revival (resurgent hits), Vocaloid culture, and music videos, among others.” In addition, there are also set to be two awards that will be decided through inviting votes from general music listeners via Spotify.

With the Album category, including Album of the Year, “projects from genres that add color to music culture awards will be recognized including jazz, classical music, movie music/original soundtracks albums, and video game soundtracks.” Meanwhile, in the Artist category, a prize — called the “MAJ Timeless Echo” — “for artists who have been active in the Japanese music industry for a long time and contributed to its enrichment.”

Officially powered by Billboard Japan‘s chart data, selections for each category will be determined through a voting process set to be participated in by more than 5,000 voting members. “We are very honored that our data is being used as one of the core data sets for the songs entered in MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN,” states Seiji Isozaki, Billboard Japan‘s chart director. “We will continue to improve the accuracy of our data so that we can convey how people enjoy music and the joy of music itself.”

The Six Major Categories

The six aforementioned major categories for Music Awards Japan are as follows: Song of the Year, Album of the Year, Artist of the Year, New Artist of the Year, Top Global Hit From Japan, and Best Song Asia.

Song of the Year

The Song of the Year highlights the “songs considered to be musically creative and artistic.” Its method of selection employs the use of “an original, MAJ-specific chart” created through the combination of “the weekly points of the top 100 tracks on the six metrics (radio airplay, CD sales, downloads, streaming, video views, and karaoke) comprising Billboard Japan’s Hot 100 song chart” and “the Top User Generated Songs chart.” Here, two months “will be considered a single period, and songs charting in each period will be nominated for Song of the Year,” with both “domestic and international songs” being are eligible for the category.

Album of the Year

Much like Song of the Year, Album of the Year showcases the full-length releases “considered to be musically creative and artistic.” Its method of selection is also similar, making use of another “original, MAJ-specific chart” but this time, “combining the CD and downloads data comprising Billboard Japan’s Hot Albums chart, and GfK’s streaming data.” Here, two months will also be considered a single period, and albums charting in each period will be nominated for Album of the Year,” with “domestic and international albums” also being eligible for this category.

Artist of the Year

The Artist of the Year award is a celebration of acts deemed to be “musically creative” as well as “artistic.” Nominees will specifically “decided from artists with either songs or albums nominated for Song of the Year or Album of the Year,” with both “domestic and international artists” being eligible.

New Artist of the Year

The New Artist of the Year award will shine a spotlight on up-and-coming and rising acts. The category’s nominees will be “decided from artists of songs extracted from those nominated for Song of the Year, according to Billboard Japan’s Heatseekers Songs rules.” This category notably includes certain rules of exclusion.

First, artists who “have entered the top 20 on the Japan Hot 100 or top 10 of the Japan Hot Albums tallies in the last six months (26 weeks)” will be excluded. Second, artists who “have logged at least four months (17 weeks) in the last six months (26 weeks) on the Heatseekers Songs top 20” will also be excluded. Finally, groups and projects that include the aforementioned excluded artists will also be excluded from the New Artist of the Year category. However, “artists who perform under completely different names are not excluded.”

Top Global Hit from Japan

The Top Global Hit from Japan category “celebrates domestic songs that have become hits around the world.” Nominees will be “decided by selecting the top 5 songs from the global chart created by extracting Japan-based songs from the global viewing data (streaming, downloads, music videos) compiled by Luminate, excluding the number of views in Japan.” The nominees will then be selected through votes from Spotify users outside of Japan.

For this, “only the highest-ranking song will be considered for acts with multiple songs on the list,” with a total of “five songs by five acts” being nominated for the award. The tallying period for this category will specifically be from data compiled from February 2, 2024 (Friday) until January 30, 2025 (Thursday).

Best Song Asia

The Best Song Asia category highlights the “Asian songs that have become hits in Asia.” Nominees will be “decided from the top 3 songs from the 2024 year-end charts of Asian countries/regions excluding Japan.” For the first-ever MAJ, songs from a number of East and Southeast Asian countries will be considered for nominees, including the Philippines. Meanwhile, the other eligible countries are South Korea, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

The General Voting Categories (Listeners’ Choice)

The inaugural MAJ will include two general voting categories where “one best work will be decided from 30 works chosen as nominees through Spotify’s voting function.” These two categories are Listeners’ Choice: Best Global Song of the Year powered by Spotify and Listeners’ Choice: Best Song of the Year powered by Spotify.

Best of Listeners’ Choice: Global Song powered by Spotify

This award is given to “the Best Global Song decided by general vote from Spotify users from both within and outside Japan, from among domestic songs that have become global hits.”

Best of Listeners’ Choice: Domestic Song powered by Spotify

Meanwhile, this award is given to “the Best Song decided by general vote from Spotify users from both within and outside Japan.”

The Co-Creation Categories

On January 16, 2025, a new set of categories for the awards were announced, dubbed the “Co-creation categories,” which are “linked to companies involved in music.”

The companies are as follows: Toyoa Group (top partner); ASAHI BREWERIES, LTD., Kinoshita Group and NTT DOCOMO, Inc. (gold partners); and Kyoto University of the Arts (Uryuzan Gakuen) (silver partner). In addition, there will be prize partners who are slated to “establish their own divisions in the co-creation categories.” These are XING Inc., DAIICHIKOSHO Co., Ltd., JASRAC (Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers), Spotify Japan, and USEN Corporation (U-NEXT.HD).

Meanwhile, media partners will include TimeTree Inc., IRIS Inc. (TOKYO PRIME), LIVE BOARD, Inc., and LY Corporation, while JTB Corp., Space Shower Networks, Inc., and RecoChoku, Co., Ltd. will be project partners. In addition, “companies related to the music industry will support the awards as music industry partners.”

For the co-creation categories, “the best song will be chosen from among those enjoyed by general listeners on karaoke and cable broadcasting.”

Karaoke Special Award: Karaoke of the Year powered by DAM & JOYSOUND

The Karaoke Special Award is an award “honoring songs sung the most at karaoke.” These songs are determined from a top 30 list of tracks sung the most on DAM and JOYSOUND (Japanese karaoke companies) during the target period will be eligible. In addition, “the song sung the most on DAM and JOYSOUND during the Karaoke Special Award tallying period after the nominees have been announced will be chosen as the best work.”

This category is composed of two divisions: J-pop and Enka or Kayōkyoku.

Request Special Award: Oshikatsu Request of the Year powered by USEN

This award will be given to honor “the artist that received the most requests on the USEN Oshikatsu Request Ranking.” Those with “the highest number of requests during the period will be selected as the Entry Artists,” while the top artists who have accumulated more requests “will be selected as the Nominated Artists” and will be awarded as best artist.

Creators Special Award: Song of the Year for Creators presented by JASRAC

This award will highlight “the creator of the song that received the largest distribution of royalties from JASRAC.” It will be given to “the creator of the song from among those entrusted to JASRAC for copyright management which received the largest distribution of royalties for 2024.”

Other categories have also been announced, including Best Viral Song, which celebrates songs that became popular after going viral on TikTok”; as well as the Radio Special Award which is “chosen by radio directors and radio DJs in collaboration with radio stations nationwide.”

Song Category

Best Viral Song

The Best Viral Song highlights the “songs that went on to attract general attention after having gone viral through their use in videos and posts on TikTok.” The best song will be determined from “the top 50 songs chosen based on an original chart that combines the number of times they were used on TikTok and the total number of views on videos using the songs.”

Alliance Category

Radio Special Award

This award is meant to honor the songs that “radio directors, radio DJs and producers think are musically creative and artistic.” It will include a primary vote which will be done “based on Radiko’s annual on-air data, and the best work will be selected from the final candidate songs.”

The MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN 2025 is set to happen in May 2025. A MAJ Week will happen from May 17 to 23, 2025 (Saturday to Friday), followed by the awarding ceremony happening from May 21 to 22, 2025 (Wednesday and Thursday) at the ROHM Theatre Kyoto in Kyoto, Japan.

Tickets to attend the awarding ceremony will not be open to the public. However, a live broadcast on Japan’s NHK and a “global stream” on YouTube is already scheduled, “with some regions excluded.” In addition, details on the award ceremony and related events will be announced at a later date. Watch this space for updates.