2009 Japan Record Awards

[Uemarasan]

^True, if you concentrate on the major awards and J-pop nominees ALONE, the awards look like a joke. But I will argue for the importance of an award show that tries to give equal weight to J-pop and enka as both relevant to the overall make-up of Japanese music even today. "Tries" being the operative word here, as it was thirteen years before they awarded the Grand Prize once more to an enka artist (Kiyoshi Hikawa in 2006). It's pretty shortsighted to imply that J-pop = Japanese music. What about enka? That's like pretending country music doesn't exist.

And look at the nominees for the album award! Sayuri Ishikawa! A classical album! It's a great list!

Anyway, I usually don't have a problem with the ultimate winner. They have a pretty good track record as the choice for the Grand Prize is usually deserving. It's the other J-pop nominess that boggles the mind. Compare the nominees this year to the nominees ten years ago. Now that was a year of quality!

"Ano kamihikoki kumori-zora watte" - 19
"Winter, again" - Glay
"Automatic" - Hikaru Utada
"Kita kaigan" - Toshimi Tagawa
"Suzuran" - Miyuki Kawanaka
"Dango san kyoudai" - Kentaro Hayami and Ayumi Shigenori
"Tsugaru no hana" - Yuri Harada
"Boys & Girls" - Ayumi Hamasaki
"Last Chance" - Something ELse
"Love Machine" - Morning Musume

Winner: "Winter, again" - Glay

Best Singer: Hiromi Go
Best Album: "First Love" - Hikaru Utada

Not to mention the less "newsworthy" awards that they hand out. Over the past few years, GREAT artists such as Rimi Natsukawa, Chitose Hajime, Kaori Mizumori, Kyogo Kawaguchi, Hiroshi Itsuki, Miyuki Nakajima, and Yo Hitoto have won the "smaller" awards.

It all depends on your perspective.