How Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s dominance in Japan is driving a global breakthrough for the UMG-signed band
Mrs. GREEN APPLE have featured on Universal Music Group‘s list of global top sellers in each of the company’s past four consecutive quarterly earnings reports – the only Japanese act to do so.
The three-piece rock group, comprising vocalist/guitarist Motoki Omori, guitarist Hiloto Wakai, and keyboardist Ryoka Fujisawa, were highlighted alongside global superstars including Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, Sabrina Carpenter, and Morgan Wallen throughout 2025.
In February, the IFPI confirmed why. Mrs. GREEN APPLE placed at No.13 on the Global Artist Chart for 2025, the organization’s list of the best–selling recording artists worldwide. It’s the highest position a Japanese act has achieved on the annual ranking.
The band’s anniversary greatest-hits album, 10, placed at No. 10 on the IFPI’s Global Album Chart, having sold over 1 million copies.
What’s remarkable about these global chart positions is that they were achieved almost entirely through domestic consumption in a single market (Japan), with no dedicated international marketing campaign.
Mrs. GREEN APPLE sat between Tyler, The Creator (No. 12) and SEVENTEEN (No. 14) on the IFPI Global Artist chart, a list otherwise made up of Western superstars and K-pop acts. They were the only Japanese artist to appear, and the highest-charting non-Korean, non-Latin international act.
“I’m so thrilled to see Mrs. GREEN APPLE delivering such massive hits and watching their fan base continuing to grow,” UMG Chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge tells MBW.
Photo: Austin Hargrave
“They are a band in the truest sense, and we are eager to bring their music to more fans across the globe.”
Sir Lucian Grainge
Added Grainge: “I’ve had the opportunity to get to know them during their trips to the US, and their commitment, passion and drive is so impressive,” he adds.
“They are a band in the truest sense, and we are eager to bring their music to more fans across the globe.”
Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s domestic success, which is propelling them globally, arrives against a backdrop of Japan’s recorded music market returning to growth in 2025, expanding 8.9% year-on-yearafter a flat 2024, according to the IFPI’s Global Music Report 2026.
Japan remains the world’s second-largest recorded music market after the US, and the largest globally for physical music, with Asia accounting for 45.1% of global physical revenues.
Physical revenue growth outpaced digital globally for only the second time on record last year, and Japan’s rebound was a primary driver behind that recovery, the IFPI said.
UMG confirms that Mrs. GREEN APPLE were Japan’s No.1 top-selling act last year, and the No. 2 act in Asia behind only South Korea’s Stray Kids, who IFPI confirmed were the second biggest-selling global recording artist in 2025.
Mrs. GREEN APPLE are central to both sides of Japan’s market: the enduring strength of physical sales and the accelerating growthofstreaming.
In July 2025, the band became the first act in J-pop history to surpass 10 billion cumulative domestic streams, according to Billboard Japan. By early 2026, that figure had passed 16 billion – again, the first Japanese artist to reach that threshold.
Their single Lilac, released in April 2024 as the opening theme for the anime Oblivion Battery, became the fastest song in Japanese market history to reach 100 million streams, doing so in 10 weeks. It finished as the No. 1 song on both the Oricon and Billboard Japan year-end charts for 2025, and was the most-streamed song on Spotify Japan for the year.
Elsewhere, Mrs. GREEN APPLE occupied the entire top five of Billboard Japan’s year-end Streaming Songs chart.
The band now holds 34 songs that have each surpassed 100 million domestic streams – more than any other artist in Japan, according to Billboard Japan.
At the same time, they remain a major physical seller. Their greatest-hits album 10 shifted over 770,000 copies in its first week, according to Fujikura, speaking with MBW last year.
“In Japan, physical accounts for 60% of revenue. Streaming co-exists alongside this,” Fujikura told MBW. “Mrs. GREEN APPLE is the first artist in Japan whose songs have broken a total of 10 billion streams, but their best-hits album, 10, sold over 770,000 copies in its first week.”
He added: “People have pointed out that Japan has been slow to adopt streaming, but attending global conferences, what I’ve seen is that people aren’t looking at the Japanese market as some sort of anomalous far-Eastern market, but instead they’ve started talking about it as a business model that offers valuable insights for the rest of the world.”
Universal Music Japan manages Mrs. GREEN APPLE, releases their music, runs their official fan club (“Ringo Jam“), and handles their merchandising.
The company also books their live shows, and the band’s live business is thriving.
Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s 2025 dome tour, BABEL no TOH, drew an estimated 550,000 fans across five venues in Japan between October and December. An anniversary outdoor event at Yokohama’s Yamashita Pier in July 2025 attracted 100,000 fans over two nights.
In 2026, Mrs. GREEN APPLE have six sold-out stadium shows, including four dates at Tokyo’s MUFG Stadium (Japan’s National Stadium) and two at Yanmar Stadium Nagai in Osaka.
Four of those shows are fan-club-only events, ticketed exclusively through the Ringo Jam membership. Tickets for all six dates sold out immediately upon release, according to UMJ.
The band held a 10th-anniversary exhibition, “MGA MAGICAL 10 YEARS EXHIBITION ‘Wonder Museum’,” which toured multiple Japanese cities between December 2025 and March 2026.
Mrs. GREEN APPLE entered what they call “Phase 3” on January 1, 2026.
Their first Phase 3 single, lulu. – the opening theme for Season 2 of the anime Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – recorded the highest first-day streaming numbers by a domestic artist, according to Oricon, and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100.
A new single, Kaze to Machi, was released on Monday (April 13). The band’s sixth studio album, their first original full-length record in approximately three years, is planned for fall 2026.
At a fan club event on April 6, the band outlined a multi-year live performance roadmap extending through the end of the decade.
In addition to their six sold-out stadium dates this spring and summer, they will embark on a fan club-exclusive arena tour in fall 2026, titled “Ringo Jam Tour ‘SHADOWS’,” spanning 13 cities and 28 shows.
That will be followed in 2027 by an expanded run of their orchestral-style live series Harmony, a new conceptual live production called ELYSIUM in 2028, and a planned tour titled “The White Lounge 2” in 2029.
“Mrs. GREEN APPLE reaching No.13 on the IFPI Global Artist Chart is a remarkable achievement, particularly given that their full-scale international expansion has yet to begin.”
Naoshi Fujikura, UMG
It is rare for any artist to publicly map out a touring schedule four years in advance.
That Mrs. GREEN APPLE have done so, with several of those runs ticketed exclusively through their fan club, speaks to the scale of demand they have cultivated and UMJ’s confidence in the infrastructure behind it.
Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s IFPI chart positions were achieved almost entirely through domestic consumption in a single market. No international touring dates have been announced, no English-language material is planned, and UMJ’s Fujikura describes the band’s full-scale global expansion as something that has “yet to begin.”
“Mrs. GREEN APPLE reaching No.13 on the IFPI Global Artist Chart is a remarkable achievement, particularly given that their full-scale international expansion has yet to begin,” says Naoshi Fujikura, President and CEO of Universal Music Japan. “This milestone clearly reflects the strength of their music and the remarkable passion of their fan base in Japan.”
He adds: “Since signing the band a decade ago, we have had the privilege of supporting their journey and witnessing their continued artistic growth. It is truly inspiring to see such an exceptional artist reach this level of global recognition.”
What the band’s success illustrates is the sheer scale of what Japan’s market can now produce on its own, and what a superfan-driven model, with a single label managing every aspect of the business from recordings to fan-club ticketing, looks like when it’s working.
Looking ahead, Fujikura tells us that UMG remains “committed to further elevating the band’s potential and continuing to share their outstanding music with audiences around the world”.
