The following is an overview of the year 2011 in Japanese music. It includes notable awards, lists of number-ones, yearly best-sellers, albums released, groups established and disestablished, deaths of notable Japanese music-related people as well as any other relevant Japanese music-related events. For overviews of the year in music from other countries, see 2011 in music.
Events May 31 – July 18 – The First Japan Arena Tour (Girls' Generation) December 31 – 62nd NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen
Awards June 25 – 2011 MTV Video Music Aid Japan December 30 – 53rd Japan Record Awards
Number-ones Oricon number-one albums Oricon number-one singles Hot 100 number-one singles RIAJ Digital Track Chart number-one singles
Best-sellers Artists The following is a list of the 5 best-selling music artists in Japan in 2011 by value of sales, including sales of records and of DVDs and Blu-rays, according to Oricon. Rank Artist Value 1 AKB48 2 Arashi 3 Exile 4 Kara 5 Shōjo Jidai
Albums The following is a list of the top 10 best-selling albums in Japan in 2011, according to Oricon. Rank Album Artist Copies 1 Beautiful World Arashi 907,589 2 Koko ni Ita Koto AKB48 829,645 3 Exile 743,242 4 Born This Way Lady Gaga 658,554 5 Girls' Generation Shōjo Jidai 642,054 6 Checkmate! Namie Amuro 484,336 7 Super Girl Kara 450,595 8 Keisuke Kuwata 414,725 9 SMAP 413,943 10 Ikimonobakari: Members Best Selection Ikimono-gakari 397,459
Albums released The following section includes albums by Japanese artists released in Japan in 2011 as well as Japanese-language albums by foreign artists released in the country during this year. January 19 – Eight by Do As Infinity January 26 – Go by Girugamesh February 9 – I Wanna Go to Hawaii. by Alexandros February 23 – by Keisuke Kuwata March 2 — Dejavu by Koda Kumi March 9 – by Exile March 23 – Brand-new idol Society by BiS March 30 – 7 Berryz Times by Berryz Kobo April 27 – Checkmate! by Namie Amuro June 1 – Cherish by Seiko Matsuda June 1 – Girls' Generation by Girls' Generation June 8 – Echo by Nothing's Carved in Stone June 8 – Koko ni Ita Koto by AKB48 July 6 – Beautiful World by Arashi July 20 – Luv Songs by Che'Nelle July 27 – C'mon by B'z August 3 – Dum Spiro Spero by Dir En Grey August 10 – Baby Action by Scandal August 17 – by SMAP September 21 – After Eden by Kalafina September 28 - DocumentaLy by Sakanaction November 17 – Fight by Kanjani Eight November 23 – Super Girl by Kara November 30 – Republic of 2PM by 2PM December 7 – Memories by Garnet Crow
Debuting artists
Deaths Yoshiko Tanaka dies on April 21 from Breast Cancer. Joe Yamanaka dies on August 7.
See also 2011 in Japan 2011 in Japanese television List of Japanese films of 2011
References