In connection with my desire to fully keep up with the J-pop industry, I’m planning to do a weekly round-up of any new releases that have caught my ear. Some of these may have been covered on the blog already, but my hope is that this will become a one-stop shop for anyone interested in what’s new in J-pop.

With that in mind, here’s where you come in: I’m one person with one set of musical preferences, so please embed any other new J-pop tracks you’ve enjoyed in the comments so we can get a fuller spectrum each week.

*And just like I do with my reviews, I’ll wait until full versions of songs are available before posting them in this round-up. This will mostly apply to Johnny’s groups, who still limit the majority of their YouTube uploads to shorter, edited versions.

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2023-2024 Index

2025 Index: Dec 29 – Jan 11 // Jan 12 – Jan 18 // Jan 19 – Jan 25 // Jan 26 – Feb 1 // Feb 2 – Feb 8 // Feb 9 – Feb 15 // Feb 16 – Feb 22

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THIS WEEK: February 23 – March 1

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=LOVE – Tyoutokkyuu Tousoutyuu

Very standard chirpy girly idol pop if that’s your thing.

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ICEx – Utopia (song of the week!)

I wrote about this song weeks ago and now it has an mv. It’s still one of their best tracks. I love the synths.

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imase – Friends!!!

I wrote about this last week and now it has an mv.

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IS:SUE – Love Myself

I like this better than their last song, but it’s still very generic.

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Kyosuke Fujimaki (INI) – Pay Back

Kyosuke was the member I most supported on Produce 101 so it’s nice to hear him get a solo. The song is just okay but his voice is fantastic and it’s nice to hear something that’s not a ballad.

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L.E.I. – Delete

The Rampage’s Kawamura Kazuma makes his solo rap debut. The song’s fine but not my thing at all.

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LEØNAGE – Never Go Back

Decent but very generic.

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Little Glee Monster – For Decades

They’re good at this uplifting, inspirational sound.

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MYERA – Busy

The song isn’t quite there for me yet (it needs an actual chorus), but I hear a lot of potential. The brassy sound reminds me of mid-2010’s girl groups.

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One N’ Only – Map Of The Mind

This kind of surging anthem is right up my alley, though I’ve heard much stronger.

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Ooochie Koochie – Gold

The group name is more entertaining than the song.

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Queen Bee – Purple

I wrote about this last week and now it has a music video. Unfortunately, it’s still not doing much for me.

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Re:name – Baby Boy

Kind of chill and anthemic at the same time, weirdly. The heavy vocal warping actually works well here.

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Royal Novice – Laugh Away

It’s certainly perky!

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Sandaime J Soul Brothers – What Is Your Secret?

A slow burn mid-tempo for those who like that kind of thing.

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SKY-HI – It’s OK

This feels more like a showcase of skill than an engaging song on its own.

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SUPER★DRAGON – Dreamland

Boilerplate boy group material.

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Timelesz – Rock This Party

I’m curious how they’ll fare as an eight-member group. This is not the strongest start, but I’ll try to remain optimistic. If nothing else, their digital compilation this week finally made the 10-out-of-10 classic Run available on streaming (see below)!

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TM Network – Carry On The Memories

The J-pop legends return with a nostalgic ballad-with-a-beat.

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UN1CON – Jump

This sounds a lot like K-pop. The chorus is like a bad version of House Of Pain’s Jump Around (which is already kind of a bad version of itself).

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w-inds. – Who’s The Liar

I really like the beat but I wish the song was stronger and more melodic.

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zenbukiminoseida. – Coyubi

I’ve never heard of this group before but this has potential. It looks like they’ve got quite a big catalog, too.

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This week’s old favorite:

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Sexy Zone/timelesz – Run (2020)

It took nearly five years, but the song of the decade is finally available on streaming!