Korean Idols Dominate Oricon’s 2025 Year-End Charts, Accounting for Half of the Top 100 Albums

Japan’s largest music statistics website, Oricon, has released its 2025 year-end charts. This year, K-pop groups and artists under K-pop agencies (such as NewJeans from JYP Entertainment) made up half of the entries in Oricon’s top 100 album chart. The strong performance of K-pop idols was particularly evident. Stray Kids had five songs appear on this year’s top 100 chart, with their Japanese mini-album “Hollow” reaching position 5 — the highest rank for a K-pop album in 2025. Following that, ENHYPEN’s “Back to Life” came in at position 6, while SEVENTEEN’s “HAPPY BURSTDAY” secured position 7. On the album chart, various groups including TWICE, THE BOYZ, PLAVE, ATEEZ, TREASURE, BOYNEXTDOOR, NewJeans, IVE, BTS Jin, LAY, Jihan, Wish, Dey, Hankook, and Y also occupied spots within the top 100. The performance of K-pop artists was notable even on the single chart. K-pop and K-pop-affiliated artists had 12 songs listed on Oricon’s 2025 year-end single chart. ENHYPEN’s “YOI” reached position 8, and ENHYPEN’s “Go in Blind” took position 9 among the higher-ranked tracks. BOYNEXTDOOR, PLAVE, SEVENTEEN, THE BOYZ, LE SSERAFIM, AOEN, ILLIT, and SEVENTEEN Voice&Style Squad also made it onto this single chart. These results demonstrate that Korean idols’ influence in Japan’s music market continues to grow. By securing top positions on both album and single charts, K-pop artists have established themselves as a major force in Japan’s popular music industry.