2025 Year-End Billboard Japan Charts Unveiled: Mrs. GREEN APPLE Dominates as Snow Man & Creepy Nuts Top Album, Global Lists

Billboard Japan has unveiled its 2025 year-end charts, tracking the period from Nov. 25, 2024, to Nov. 23, 2025.

The No. 1 Song of the Year on the Japan Hot 100 is Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s “Lilac.” Released April 12, 2024, the track serves as the opening theme for the anime Oblivion Battery. It placed at No. 5 on the 2024 year-end list, but renewed attention from the end of that year into this one propelled the song back to the top of the Japan Hot 100, logging five weeks at the summit during the 2025 chart year.

The three-man band dominates the top 2 year-end slots, with “Darling” finishing at No. 2. The song was written as the theme for NHK’s television special featuring the group collaborating with teenagers called Mrs. GREEN APPLE 18 Fes that aired on NHK Dec. 25, 2024.

No. 3 goes to ROSÉ & Bruno Mars’ “APT.” Amid these long-running hits, Kenshi Yonezu’s “IRIS OUT,” released in September 2025, breaks through at No. 4. Mrs. GREEN APPLE rounds out the top 5 with “KUSUSHIKI.” The hitmakers place three songs in the year-end top 5 and five in the top 10.

Commenting on Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s year-end accomplishments, frontman Motoki Omori shared, “I’m happy. Simply happy, and I really feel the weight of it. I’m going to keep working hard so we live up to what this represents. At the same time, I don’t want to carry it so heavily that it becomes a burden. I want to keep enjoying the process of making music.” Guitarist Hiloto Wakai adds, ‘Lilac’ came out in 2024, so having it recognized like this in 2025 makes us truly grateful that it’s been loved for this long. We love the song ourselves, so it’s a real joy.” Keyboardist Ryoka Fujisawa noted, “Part of why we push so hard with Mrs. GREEN APPLE is to get Omori’s lyrics and music out into the world, so it makes me really happy to see ‘Lilac’ being enjoyed for so long and that it’s reaching people. It means a lot to us that people are enjoying the various songs we’ve been releasing as a band.”

For the second year in a row, the Album of the Year on Billboard Japan’s Hot Albums chart goes to Snow Man, with their best-of collection THE BEST 2020 – 2025. The hugely popular J-pop boy band becomes the first act ever to take the title three times, the other two works being Snow Labo. S2 in 2022 and RAYS in 2024.

“We’re grateful to have received this award thanks to the many people who support us every day,” says Snow Man leader Hikaru Iwamoto. “We hope THE BEST 2020 – 2025, which we released to mark the fifth anniversary of Snow Man’s debut, will continue to serve as a way for people to discover us in the years to come.”

Mrs. GREEN APPLE sweeps the slots from No. 2 to No. 4, with ANTENNA, Attitude and 10, respectively. At No. 5 is Vaundy’s first album strobo. Since streaming was added to the Hot Albums chart methodology late last year, long-running hits have become more prominent on the tally.

And the Artist of the Year on the Artist 100 ranking compiled from the results of the Japan Hot 100 and Hot Albums charts is Mrs. GREEN APPLE. The band becomes the first act to top this list for two consecutive years. Veteran band back number follows at No. 2 on the strength of “Blue Amber,” and hitmaker Kenshi Yonezu places at No. 3 with “Plazma,” which rules the year’s Top Download Songs list. HANA, the breakout girl group that made its major-label debut in April, comes in at No. 5, while the group’s producer, rapper-singer CHANMINA, appears at No. 10.

With Japanese artists expanding their touring overseas and the launch of the international music awards show MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN, momentum toward a more global music market continues to accelerate in the country’s music industry. On the year-end Global Japan Songs Excl. Japan chart — which ranks songs from Japan that are being listened to internationally — tracking the period from Nov. 22, 2024, to Nov. 20, 2025, Creepy Nuts’ “Otonoke” finishes at No. 1. The song also claims the top spot in five countries and regions on the Japan Songs charts that list songs by each country and region.

“Traveling with our own headlining shows really made us feel just how many fans we have in each country,” says Creepy Nuts rapper R-Shitei. “We toured Asia this time around, but it made me think how great it’d be to do the same in countries we haven’t toured yet.” DJ Matsunaga adds, “Bringing Japanese as-is to listeners overseas — preserving the quality of the language — really depends on the sound acting as a hub, so we’ve got to keep taking in new ideas and refining what we do. What defines us most is the language. That’s the biggest thing for us.”

Billboard JAPAN Hot 100 of the Year 2025

1. “Lilac” / Mrs. GREEN APPLE

2. “Darling” / Mrs. GREEN APPLE

3. “APT.” / Rosé & Bruno Mars

4. “IRIS OUT” / Kenshi Yonezu

5. “KUSUSHIKI” / Mrs. GREEN APPLE

6. “ROSE” / HANA

7. “Kaiju” / sakanaction

8. “Que Sera Sera” / Mrs. GREEN APPLE

9. “Bitter Vacances” / Mrs. GREEN APPLE

10. “Plazma” / Kenshi Yonezu

Billboard JAPAN Hot Albums of the Year 2025

1. THE BEST 2020 – 2025 / Snow Man

2. ANTENNA / Mrs. GREEN APPLE

3. Attitude / Mrs. GREEN APPLE

4. 10 / Mrs. GREEN APPLE

5. strobo / Vaundy

6. replica / Vaundy

7. No.Ⅰ / Number_i

8. Hello! We’re timelesz / timelesz

9. BAD HOP / BAD HOP

10. LOST CORNER / Kenshi Yonezu

Billboard JAPAN Artist 100 of the Year 2025

1. Mrs. GREEN APPLE

2. back number

3. Kenshi Yonezu

4. Vaundy

5. HANA

6. Snow Man

7. Official HIGE DANdism

8. Fujii Kaze

9. YOASOBI

10. CHANMINA

Billboard JAPAN Global Japan Songs Excl. Japan of the Year 2025

1. “Otonoke” / Creepy Nuts

2. “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” / Creepy Nuts

3. “TOKYO DRIFT(FAST & FURIOUS)” / TERIYAKI BOYZ

4. “IRIS OUT” / Kenshi Yonezu

5. “Shinunoga E-Wa” / Fujii Kaze

6. “Mayonaka no Door / Stay With Me” / Miki Matsubara

7. “Idol” / YOASOBI

8. “KICK BACK” / Kenshi Yonezu

9. “NIGHT DANCER” / imase

10. “Yoru Ni Kakeru” / YOASOBI