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60 free J-Pop trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
J-pop trivia for anime fans, Japan-heads, K-pop converts who want to know what came first, and anyone who has ever had 'PonPonPon' stuck in their head. The quiz starts with the roots: 'Sukiyaki' topping the US charts in 1963, the Beatles at the Budokan, Happy End proving rock could be sung in Japanese, Yellow Magic Orchestra inventing technopop, city pop and Seiko Matsuda's run of number ones. It then covers the 1990s boom - Tetsuya Komuro's hit factory, Namie Amuro, B'z and Mr. Children, Glay's record-breaking Review, Hikaru Utada's First Love becoming the best-selling album in Oricon history - and the idol era of SMAP, Arashi, Morning Musume and AKB48's 'idols you can meet', through Perfume and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Kenshi Yonezu's 'Lemon' and 'Kick Back', and Yoasobi's 'Idol' topping global charts. Questions are about the artists, records and history rather than lyrics. Roughly a third are easy and the rest are for people who know their Oricon from their Billboard Japan. Every answer has been checked against a reference page and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is J-pop an abbreviation of?
Japanese popular music
The term entered the mainstream in the 1990s, replacing kayokyoku as the label for Japanese pop, and was first used by the radio station J-Wave for Western-style acts.
Q 02Which 1961 Kyu Sakamoto song became the first Japanese number one in the US, under the title 'Sukiyaki'?
'Ue wo Muite Aruko'
It spent three weeks atop the Billboard chart in 1963 and earned a gold record for a million copies sold.
Q 03At which Tokyo venue did the Beatles become the first rock band to perform in 1966?
The Nippon Budokan
The public feared the band would cause juvenile delinquency; the visit inspired the home-grown 'group sounds' genre.
Q 04Which band's proof that rock could be sung in Japanese is held to be one of the origins of modern J-pop?
Happy End
Their debate with Yuya Uchida over singing in Japanese or English is remembered as the 'Japanese-language rock controversy'; bassist Haruomi Hosono became one of Japan's most influential producers.
Q 05Which trio, formed in 1978 by Hosono, Takahashi and Sakamoto, pioneered technopop?
Yellow Magic Orchestra
Their 1979 album Solid State Survivor topped the Oricon chart and sold two million copies worldwide.
Q 06Which early-1980s Japanese pop genre, tied to car stereos and Tokyo themes, collapsed with the 1990 bubble?
City pop
Its musical traits were inherited by 1990s Shibuya-kei acts like Pizzicato Five and Flipper's Guitar, and it enjoyed an internet revival decades later.
Q 07Which 1980s Japanese idol became the first artist to score 24 consecutive number-one singles?
Seiko Matsuda
Dubbed the 'Eternal Idol', she has appeared on NHK's Kohaku Uta Gassen 25 times and closed the show in 2014, 2015 and 2025.
Q 08What is the late-1980s Japanese rock movement of made-up, big-haired male bands like X Japan and Buck-Tick called?
Visual kei
X Japan's 1989 album Blue Blood sold 712,000 copies and 1991's Jealousy over 1.11 million.
Q 09Which guitarist formed the rock duo B'z with singer Koshi Inaba in 1988?
Tak Matsumoto
B'z went on to release 50 consecutive number-one singles and were the first Asian act with handprints on Hollywood's RockWalk.
Q 10Which TM Network producer's 'Gravity of Love' broke an idol's 25-single number-one streak in 1989?
Tetsuya Komuro
After TM Network split in 1994 he became the dominant hit-maker of the mid-1990s with TRF, Globe and Namie Amuro.
Q 11Which act's 1992 album The Swinging Star became the first album to sell over 3 million copies in Japan?
Dreams Come True
They remain among the top five best-selling artists in Oricon history alongside B'z, Mr. Children and Southern All Stars.
Q 12Which duo's singles 'Say Yes' (1991) and 'Yah Yah Yah' (1993) each sold more than two million copies?
Chage and Aska
They started recording in late 1979 and took part in MTV Unplugged in 1996.
Q 13Which 1999 Hikaru Utada album sold 7.65 million copies, the most in Oricon history?
First Love
It shifted two million units in its first week and was Utada's Japanese-language debut after an English album under another name.
Q 21AKB48 is named after which Tokyo district, where the group's own theater is located?
Akihabara
The 'idols you can meet' concept means rotating teams perform daily at the theater and hold handshake events with fans.
Q 22Which lyricist and producer created AKB48 and its 'Idols You Can Meet' concept?
Yasushi Akimoto
He earlier masterminded the 1980s girl group Onyanko Club and expanded the 48 concept to China, Indonesia, Thailand and beyond.
Q 23What is the name of AKB48's Shanghai-based sister group, announced in 2012?
SNH48
JKT48 in Jakarta came first; SNH48 later split from the AKB48 family and became independent.
Q 14Which band's 1997 compilation Review sold a record 4.87 million copies, beaten only by B'z's Pleasure?
Glay
Japan's physical music market peaked in 1998; Glay's 1999 concert at Makuhari drew a reported 200,000 people.
Q 15The May 1998 funeral of which X Japan guitarist drew a record 50,000 mourners?
hide
His posthumous single 'Pink Spider' and album Ja, Zoo were both certified million-sellers.
Q 16What does the name of the boy band SMAP stand for?
Sports Music Assemble People
Created by Johnny Kitagawa in 1988, the group started as a six-piece and became so ubiquitous it was called a 'national treasure'.
Q 17Which SMAP member became a hugely popular actor known to the public as 'Kimutaku'?
Takuya Kimura
SMAP's weekly variety show SMAPxSMAP ran from 1996 and the group disbanded on December 31, 2016.
Q 18Which 2003 SMAP song is Japan's best-selling single of the 21st century?
'Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana'
It sold more than two million copies and topped the Oricon yearly chart; SMAP released 55 singles, every one a top-ten hit.
Q 19Which former Sharam Q leader produced Morning Musume and composed most of their songs until 2014?
Tsunku
The group's success gave birth to the Hello! Project collective and spin-offs like Mini-Moni and Tanpopo.
Q 20Which 1999 Morning Musume single was their first Oricon number one and sold over a million copies?
'Love Machine'
Morning Musume held the Oricon record for most top-ten singles by a female group, with 64 by 2012.
Q 24AKB48's 'Sayonara Crawl' (2013) broke a female-group sales record held since 1997 by which group's 'White Love'?
Speed
'Sayonara Crawl' sold more than 1.9 million copies in its first month; Speed had disbanded in 1999 and returned in 2008.
Q 25Arashi's formation was announced in September 1999 aboard a cruise ship off the coast of which city?
Honolulu
The five-member group debuted that November and went on hiatus at the end of 2020.
Q 26Which label did Johnny & Associates set up in 2001 specifically for Arashi's releases?
J Storm
Arashi later became the first act to hold the top two spots on the Oricon yearly singles chart, doing it in both 2008 and 2009.
Q 27Which 'Empress of Pop', debuting in 1998 with 'Poker Face', is Japan's best-selling solo artist?
Ayumi Hamasaki
Her 2001 compilation A Best sold over four million copies, at which point she represented more than 40 percent of Avex's income.
Q 28Which Korean singer signed to Avex is credited with opening the 'Hallyu door' for Korean acts in Japan?
BoA
Avex's Ai Otsuka, Kumi Koda and Exile also broke through in the mid-2000s under chairman Tom Yoda.
Q 29For which video-game series did Hikaru Utada write and perform 'Simple and Clean' and 'Sanctuary'?
Kingdom Hearts
Utada later added 'Don't Think Twice' and 'Face My Fears', a collaboration with Skrillex, to the series.
Q 30Hikaru Utada is the child of which enka singer, a star of the 1970s?
Keiko Fuji
Utada was born in New York to Fuji and record producer Teruzane Utada and shuttled between the two countries as a child.