Marcel Winatschek

The Charts, Direct From Tokyo

For a while this journal ran a weekly segment on the Japanese charts—short clips, current hits, a small window into what was actually playing over there. Nobody cared about it except me, which was more or less the point. If I was going to be obsessive about J-pop, I might as well be systematically obsessive about it.

The Top 30 is back. My picks this week: KANA-BOON, the Osaka four-piece who somehow make jangly post-punk sound like the most urgent thing in the world right now; Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, who at this point is less a pop star and more a recurring hallucination in pastel; and AKB48, because of course AKB48—denying them is like denying the weather.