The duo YOASOBI defined the sound of 2021. Their unique concept of turning novels into music yielded mega-hits like "Yoru ni Kakeru," which dominated the Billboard Japan charts through innovative algorithmic curation on Spotify and Apple Music.
In 2021, Japan's entertainment content and popular media landscape continued to evolve, driven by technological advancements, changing consumer behaviors, and the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper provides an overview of the trends, developments, and key players in Japan's entertainment industry, focusing on music, film, television, and digital media.
2021 saw the closure of iconic Sega arcades in Akihabara (specifically Sega Building 2 and 3), which became a global news event. While arcades are not dead in Japan, 2021 marked a permanent consolidation—surviving arcades pivoted to e-sports arenas and redemption games (UFO catchers) rather than competitive fighting game cabinets.
2021 was the year Virtual YouTubers (VTubers) became a billion-yen industry. japan xxx hd 2021
The rest of the top 10 was dominated by domestic J-pop acts, many from talent agency-backed idol groups. The top 10 was as follows:
The "listening on the move" (train, commute) died in 2020-21, replaced by "listening while creating" (home, study, gaming). This favored high-BPM, lyrically dense music.
While South Korea’s Squid Game was the global juggernaut of 2021, it brought renewed international interest to Japan’s long-standing "death game" genre. The duo YOASOBI defined the sound of 2021
: Titles like Chainsaw Man and Tokyo Revengers achieved massive backlog sales as anime adaptations drove viewers to purchase the original manga.
: Developed by Cygames, this multimedia mobile game featuring anthropomorphized racehorses became a cultural phenomenon in Japan. It topped the domestic revenue charts, generating billions of yen within months of its February launch.
: VTubers from agencies like Hololive Production and Nijisanji consistently topped global YouTube Super Chat (tipping) charts. Talent like Usada Pekora and Houshou Marine pulled in millions of concurrent viewers. This paper provides an overview of the trends,
However, the report also revealed underlying stress. While the market size grew, many animation production studios continued to struggle. Approximately 40% of animation studios were operating at a loss, and the industry faced significant challenges with rising production costs and a shortage of skilled animators. The financial success of a blockbuster film like Jujutsu Kaisen 0 was not necessarily translating into profits for the studios that made them, as profits are instead largely controlled by production committees, highlighting a persistent and troubling economic imbalance in the industry.
You cannot discuss Japan 2021 entertainment content without dedicating a section to VTubers. By mid-2021, the total YouTube superchat revenue (fans donating money during streams) for VTubers exceeded $200 million USD. (from Nijisanji) became the first VTuber to reach 1 million YouTube subscribers purely from domestic Japanese support.
Netflix aggressively expanded its production of original Japanese live-action content in 2021. Following the global success of Alice in Borderland (late 2020), Netflix greenlit a massive slate of live-action adaptations and reality shows, recognizing Japan as a key hub for global subscriber growth. The Evolving Variety Show Landscape
Source: Oricon via Bandwagon Asia
: Directed by Mamoru Hosoda, this musical science-fantasy film was a critical and commercial hit, grossing . Live-Action Success : Top live-action films included Tokyo Revengers (¥4.50 billion) and Rurouni Kenshin: The Final