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 Starto 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 // Feb 23 – Mar 1 // Mar 2 – Mar 8 // Mar 9 – Mar 15 // Mar 16 – Mar 22 // Mar 23 – Mar 29 // Mar 30 – Apr 5 // Apr 6 – Apr 12 // Apr 13 – Apr 19 // Apr 20 – Apr 26 // Apr 27 – May 3 // May 4 – May 10 // May 11 – May 16 // May 17 – May 24 // May 25 – May 31 // Jun 1 – Jun 7 // Jun 8 – Jun 14

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THIS WEEK: June 15 – June 21

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Bi-ray – Butterfly (song of the week!)

Yoshiki has to be one of the worst music managers in the business. I mean, look what happened to his boy group XY! However, he can still write a killer song – even though they all kind of sound the same. This is his new girl group, and if history is any precedent this may become their one and only song.

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BOKUAO – Cowardly Crow (song of the week!)

Oh! They shortened their incredibly long name into an acronym. Honestly, I don’t care what they call themselves if they’re going to release a banger like this. Easily their best song yet in my opinion!

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Def Class – Do Or Die

I appreciate the raucous rock energy but the song doesn’t feel particularly notable.

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Fantastics – Shake It Off

This is decent but nothing they’ve released since 2023 has hit the same with me for some reason. Prior to that, I used to love pretty much everything. What happened??

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Fudanjuku – To Future Me

A classic J-pop sound. Pretty forgettable, though.

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Gang Parade – Gang Rise

I like the energy, but the song doesn’t do much for me.

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Genic – Don’t Give Up (song of the week!)

I like everything about this except those plodding, momentum-killing pre-choruses. It’s still better than most releases this week, though.

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Hiromitsu Kitayama – HAMON (song of the week!)

I wrote about this already but now it has a music video. The song’s definitely growing on me.

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Kis-My-Ft2 – Cheat

I really wish this song had an actual chorus that wasn’t just them talking.

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M!LK – wan

Insert cringe emoji here.

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m-flo – EKO EKO (ft. Zico & eill)

We’ve got some K-pop representation on this one. The song is just okay.

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Maki Goto – Chekera (ft. Da-iCE’s Sota Hanamura)

I like the punchy chorus better than the verses, but overall this is a bit too happy clappy for me.

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One N’ Only – Blast

More pots and pans production and boring sing-talk. Will this style of song ever fall out of favor? We have so many of them.

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One Or Eight – 365

Well, this is definitely better than the boring Rihanna interpolation of their last single, but it still doesn’t quite achieve liftoff. It needs to go faster and harder.

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PG – IMA

A big ol’ ballad.

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PLAVE – Hide And Seek

It was only a matter of time before they released a Japanese single, I guess. Japan is way ahead of Korea when it comes to this type of act, making this more difficult to stand out. The song is pleasant but uneventful.

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Sakurazaka46 – Shindafuri

This one isn’t doing much for me. It’s a shame, because they had a very strong 2024.

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Tora Project – AtoZ

Pretty boring song.