Make Believe Mailer #134: Fun Japan
A Year Where Government Involvement Really Impacts Music
The Prime Minister of Japan faces the thousand of people in front of him, and starts talking about Candies. For Shigeru Ishiba, Showa-era idol groups stand as a particular point of expertise, with his love of the ‘70s trio Candies being well documented by all media across the country. Needing to break the ice in front of what feels like the entire nation’s music industry, he turns to his love for upbeat pop from years ago.
Ishiba’s speech from that point on, though, pivots to the present. After World War II, the nation strived to become “Prosperous Japan,” a goal the Prime Minister says was achieved. What shape does the country take moving forward? He suggests “Tanoshi Nippon” or “Fun Japan,” a phrase popularized by author and politician Taichi Sakaiya, he’s been trying out more recently while setting out his vision, to the chagrin of some editorial writers. Ishiba turns his attention on the greater entertainment industry, with a special focus on music, noting how it is becoming vital (and valued) at a level comparable to steel and semiconductors.
“Of course, the steel and semiconductor industries are important, but we would like to see an era in which the Japanese music industry will lead Japanese industry and the entire world with ‘fun’ at its core,” he says.
It’s not so much what Ishiba said at this event, held Thursday at the sprawling Grand Prince Hotel Shin Takanawa International Convention Center near Shinagawa Station, but rather his being present. It was a gesture underlining a development that, in 2025, will be on full display — the country is ready to throw its support behind music. Having one of the most powerful people in the world present certainly bolded that…but the banner hanging above him might have been even more telling.
The history of the Japanese government attempting to spread soft power globally is a bumpy tale. The defining effort of the 21st century has been the much derided “Cool Japan” initiative, which at its best funnels funds into projects that can strengthen the behind-the-scenes mechanisms making such cultural sharing possible…and at its worst is a boondoggle built on the belief if you tell the world stuff is hella neat, they’ll have to believe it.
I’ve always approached Cool Japan from a musical perspective…and when I tilt my neck from this angle, it’s an abject failure. Despite what narratives from the period would have you believe, people around the world clearly had an interest in Japanese music in the 2010s. This is the period of “PonPonPon,” of BABYMETAL filling up festivals, of “city pop” fascinating a generation of youth glued to YouTube, of Hatsune Miku being a sneaky super influence on a generation to come. The problem, though, was none of this happened thanks to help from the Japanese government. If anything, officials from Cool Japan would eventually be asking the BABYMETAL folks “how do you do this?” A damning question from a tax-payer-backed group meant to, you know, promote Japanese pop culture1.
Which is why the CEIPA New Year’s Party 2025 struck me as, at least symbolically, such a sea change. I attended the Jan. 16 shindig as an associate of a PR company — wait for the full disclosure on this one below — rather than a journalist, though it was impossible to not view any of this from the perspective of someone covering this very topic for 15 years now. CEIPA — standing for “Culture and Entertainment Industry Promotion Association” — has existed for just over a year now, and represents a previously never-seen unity between Japanese music industry governing bodies.
It’s a union between the big five — the Recording Industry Association of Japan, the Japan Association of Music Enterprises, the Federation of Music Producers Japan, the All Japan Concert and Live Entertainment Promoters Conference, and the Music Publishers Association of Japan. At this party — featuring a buffet-style “linner” and free drinks2 — around 3000 people from these bodies and assorted companies in the greater Japanese music ecosystem showed up, a number that felt massive. This was confirmed from much more veteran connections I have who were, of course, present, noting how previous attempts to ring in the new year felt much smaller and this carried the air of a networking event. Yet it was more than that, too.
While I don’t have any insider info or gossip about why CEIPA came to be, I’m guess it’s because Japanese music has actually entered the global landscape over the last five years, thanks to a combination of mixed-media tie-ups, streaming accessibility, and general fascination with everything the country offers at large. No bureaucratic arm made “Idol” or “Bling-Bnag-Bang-Born” hits, or helped Fujii Kaze and Ado sell out shows around the world. Yet they sensed a chance to actually push Japanese music into the global forefront…and perhaps more importantly, reiterate Japan’s role in the international music industry.
Enter CEIPA, a group whose full function is to accomplish this. It’s much more defined than the nebulous workings of Cool Japan, with a marquee event on the calendar. One so big, in fact, Ishiba himself mentioned it in his speech.
OK, here’s the twist / full disclosure — a company I work at in a freelance capacity handles English-language PR for MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN, the 2025 centerpiece of CEIPA’s efforts to give Japan a place at the global table. This is why I was even at this party, hoarding highballs and onion rings, in the first place. It’s an effort to create an Asian Grammy Awards. Feel free to assume I can’t offer any objectivity on an event I’m literally paid to work on3, but I will say this from my reporter mind — this is ambitious, a much bolder move then anything Cool Japan did for the music industry in the 2010s.
It is the centerpiece of 2025…but really, it’s just part of a bigger effort to make Japanese music a part of the greater global entertainment discussion. I was reminded of this while leaving the hotel conference area and encountering someone who got me far giddier than the prime minister.
MYAKU-MYAKU, the official mascot for Osaka Expo 2025. I actually gasped when I saw them standing outside, and ran over to take a photo with them…I will not share that, as I look like I thumb, I’m a writer for a reason.
Ishiba’s whole “Fun Japan” talking point originates from the 1970 Osaka Expo, a transformative event in the Kansai region’s biggest city. Sakaiya wasn’t envisioning the world when he introduced this phrase, but was rather thinking about how to revitalize the parts of the country that weren’t Tokyo. Yet today, it works together. Ishiba wants to shift away from a current model where one city dominates the national landscape, all while bolstering a global reputation for all things cool and fun. MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN and the Osaka Expo 2025 will be vital players on both ends.
The following 12 months will be Japan’s chance to establish itself on the global stage, whether via award shows or Expo events. More than at anytime in the past, music will play a major role in this — because the bodies that want to promote this see that it is something to support, to the point where the leader of the country swings by the music industry get-together — with the government having the chance to play a part in actually establishing a new epoch for this corner of pop culture.
It will be “fun” to watch, at the very least.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
Check out the Best Of 2025 Spotify Playlist here!
It’s worth noting that the role of government promoting music is a more mixed bag than you’d think…see the way the South Korean government’s backing of the K-pop industry has gone from “essential” to “just a part of” to “not that big a deal, really!” to “well, hmmm, actually” to “wait, is there a government?” Really, what it always boils down to is…is some big government body providing money to make this easier, or is it a total uphill battle?
I came as a professional — wearing a suit and everything! — but the journalist part of my brain kicked in when I saw the highball corner…you gotta get free cocktails when you can in this world.
I made this tweet back in October…and then that same afternoon I found out the company I work with landed the job. Life is full of surprises!
I don’t really have my finger on the pulse of the yoof these days, but isn’t the MAMA Awards already trying to be the Asian Grammies? You could argue that it's too Kpop-focused to do that, but I suspect that something called MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN (the shouting!) will also be weighted somewhat toward domestic artists.
Maybe this is something ASEAN or something should do as a group venture—it’s easy to imagine men in suits from a single country saying “Wait, we spend HOW many billion dollars-equivalent to officially declare other countries’ artists better than ours?”