OK, so I want you to take a second and just transport
yourself back to May 2011. Oh, wow. Taking it
back a bit. Yeah. I mean, think about where you
were. What were you listening to? Because if
you were in the US or Europe at the time, the
music industry felt like it was basically in
a free fall. It really was. It was. an absolute
funeral procession for the plastic disc. Everyone
knew the future was digital. Right. iTunes was
totally dominating. Spotify was just kind of
starting to stretch its legs in Europe. And the
physical CD, it was essentially on life support.
Exactly. If you looked at the sales curves for
CDs in the West, I mean, they were pointing straight
down. The idea of buying a physical album felt
almost quaint. Like buying a vinyl record in
the 90s. Yeah, exactly like that. The headline
in basically every trade magazine was all about
the death of physical media. It was inescapable.
But then you look at one specific archipelago.
If you pull up the data from Japan on May 25th,
2011, reality just, it kind of breaks. It absolutely
breaks. On that single day, one CD single released
by a girl group didn't just sell well. It sold
942 ,475 copies. Nearly a million physical discs.
Right. in 24 hours. It's wild. That is a staggering
statistic. I mean, it defies gravity. It completely
defies the market trends of the entire world
at that moment. It really does. And the song
responsible for that anomaly is what we are digging
into today for our deep dive. It's the 21st single
from the Japanese idol juggernaut AKB48, and
it's titled Every Day, Katusha. And I'm really
glad we have the full production notes and the
Orican sales charts for this source material.
Because our mission today isn't really to review
a pop song. No, not at all. We aren't here to
critique the melody or the choreography or anything
like that. We are dissecting a cultural engine.
That's a great way to put it. When you look at
the logistics behind this release, you realize
this wasn't just a song. It was a master class
in crown psychology, strategic marketing, and
as we'll see, crisis management, all wrapped
up in cellophane. It really is like the moneyball
of pop music, but just with way more sequins.
So we have the spreadsheets. We have the history.
Let's unpack how this actually happened, because
every day, Katusha didn't just buck the trend.
It obliterated history. It did. And to really
understand the scale here, we have to look past
that first day. You mentioned the 942 ,000 figure,
which is mind blowing on its own. It's totally
bonkers. But by the end of the debut week, The
single had shifted 1 .334 million copies. 1 .334
million. Just to give you some context listening
at home, in 2011, a gold record in the US was
500 ,000 units. Right. They did nearly triple
that in one week. And here's the comparison that
really matters to the Japanese industry watchers.
That figure set a brand new all time sales record
for singles in Japan. A brand new record. Yes.
And the previous record holder was the legendary
rock band, Mr. Children, with their song Namanaki
Uta. And Mr. Children are essentially royalty
in Japan. I mean, they aren't an idol group.
They're a serious rock band. Absolutely. They
are the organic rock gods over there. And their
record had stood since February 1996. Wow. 1996.
Think about that date. 1996 was the absolute
peak of the CD era globally. You had those huge
tower record stores. People were buying physical
media because there was literally no other option.
Right. Streaming wasn't a thing. Mr. Children
set the record when the wind was completely at
their backs. And then AKB48 comes along 15 years
later in 2011 when the wind was blowing strictly
in the other direction streaming piracy digital
downloads. And they just smashed it. Exactly.
It's a total outlier. It's like seeing a steam
engine outrun a Tesla. It just shouldn't happen
based on the market trend. No, it shouldn't.
And for AKB48, this wasn't even a fluke. By this
point, they were operating on a completely different
industrial scale. Every day, Katusha became their
third million -selling single, joining Sakura
Nokin, Ninarshu, and Beginner. So they had already
cracked the code. They knew exactly what they
were doing. They had. But this track put the
code on steroids. It crossed the 1 .5 million
sales mark incredibly fast. It was the first
single to hit 1 .5 million since 2005. Wow. And
it made AKB48. only the fifth female group in
history to reach that milestone. So it represents
the absolute peak of the idol genre in terms
of physical muscle. But this is where I get a
little skeptical. I listen to the song and it's
a banger. It's a catchy summer pop tune, very
high energy. But is it 1 .3 million copies good?
That is exactly the right question to ask. How
does a CD sell a million copies in a day? Is
the music just that undeniable or is there some
mechanic under the hood that we aren't seeing
right away? Because normal people don't buy CDs
in 2011. There is absolutely a mechanic. The
music is the vehicle. But the engine driving
those sales is something else entirely. If you
look at the release information in our sources,
the answer is hidden in the phrase first press
limited edition. The first press bonus. What
was inside the jewel case? A ballot, a ballot,
specifically a ticket to vote in the AKB48 22nd
single Senbatsu election. OK, we need to stop
and really explain the Senbatsu election or Sosenkyo
because this is the genius part of the whole
operation. This isn't just a fan club poll where
you click a button on a website, is it? No, it's
a democratic process. or perhaps a highly capitalist
democratic process that determines the actual
career trajectory of the performers. Right. See,
AKB48 isn't a static group like the Spice Girls
or Destiny's Child where you have three or four
members and that's it forever. Right. It's a
massive roster. Exactly. Dozens and dozens of
girls. But for the next single, the one coming
out in the summer, only a select few get to be
on the cover. Only a few get to be in the music
video. And usually, in the traditional music
industry, a producer or a label exec decides
who the star is. They pick the face of the group,
and that's that. Right. But in this system, the
fans decide. The word senbatsu literally translates
to selection. And it is decided by the number
of votes a member receives. OK. And the way you
cast a vote is by entering a serial number found
inside the everyday So let me maximize this logic
so I understand it completely. If I am a die
-hard fan of a specific member, let's say she's
a rookie, she's sitting on the back bench, she
doesn't get any TV time, and I want her to be
a star, I need to vote for her. And if I want
to guarantee she beats her rival, I can't just
vote once, can I? If you want to cast 10 votes,
you buy 10 CDs. If you want to cast a thousand
votes, you buy a thousand CDs. That completely
changes the value proposition. You aren't really
buying music anymore, you're buying influence.
Precisely. It's the ultimate gamification of
consumption. You are not just a listener, you
are a stakeholder. You essentially become a campaign
manager. A campaign manager, wow. The purchase
of the music is tied directly to the hierarchy
of the group. The fans feel a profound sense
of responsibility. Like, if I don't buy this
CD, my favorite member might drop in the rankings.
That perfectly explains the explosion in sales.
It explains why one person might walk out of
a store with a box full of the exact same CD.
The disc itself is almost irrelevant at that
point. It's just the container for the ballot.
Yes, exactly. It's like buying a chocolate bar
just to get the golden ticket inside. It's a
brilliant economic model. But it only works if
you have a roster big enough to generate that
kind of fierce competition. You need rivalries.
Right. You need different factions to root for.
And looking at the credits for every day, Katusha,
this isn't a quartet. It's practically an army.
It really reads like a corporate organizational
chart. I was looking at the contributing members
list and the source notes and the sheer scale
is overwhelming. Break down the structure for
us. Who are these people? So at the very top
of the pyramid, you have the center. For this
specific title track, the center position was
held by Atsuka Maeda. The absolute face of the
group at the time, the ace. She was the focal
point. But backing her up, you have the Senbatsu
team, and they are drawn from multiple internal
factions. You have Team A, Team K, and Team B.
And these aren't just random letters, right?
They have different identities and vibes. They
definitely do. Team A was the flagship, the original
team. with heavy hitters like Minami Takahashi
and Mariko Shinoda. Team K was known for being
more energetic, powerful, maybe a bit edgier,
featuring members like Yuko Ushima and Tomomi
Itano. Got it. And then Team B was the more traditional,
idol -like, cute team with Yuki Kashiwagi and
Mayu Watanabe. So you already have these internal
tribes competing against each other, but looking
at the production notes, it actually goes way
beyond just the main AKB group in Akihabara.
Right. This is where the real Empire expansion
comes in. They brought in reinforcements from
the sister groups. Sister groups. Yeah. You see
members from SKE48. That's the group based in
Sakai, Nagoya, specifically T -MAS with Jirina
Matsui and Rina Matsui. And you also have members
from NMB48 based in Namba, Osaka. like Sayaka
Yamamoto. It's basically like the Avengers assembling.
You're pulling the top talent from Tokyo, Nagoya,
and Osaka all onto one track. It signals to the
consumer that this is a major event single. It's
a national festival, not just a localized Tokyo
release. But what I find really fascinating is
the depth of the roster. How so? Well, even if
a member wasn't popular enough to make it into
this Avengers group for the main song, they were
still working. They were still helping to sell
the CD. Ah, because of the B -sides. Exactly.
It's a beautifully tiered structure. The source
lists a song called Hito no Chikara that wasn't
performed by the stars. It was performed by a
group branded as the Undergirls. Undergirls.
They aren't very subtle with the naming conventions,
are they? No, it's brutal honesty. It implies
they are literally under the main selection fighting
to get up. Right. And then you have the track
Anti, which was performed by Team Kankisai. And
kinkies means trainee or research student, right?
Yes. This track featured the 9th, 10th, and 11th
generations of trainees. So you have a single
product that showcases the megastars, the mid
-tier idols grinding their way up, and the absolute
rookies all in one package. It creates this vibe
of a massive living organism. If you follow the
rookies, you buy the CD for the anti -track.
If you love the Nagoya group, you buy it to support
Jirina Matsui. It essentially covers every possible
demographic within the fandom. It maximizes the
surface area for sales. There is zero wasted
talent in the system. Everyone is monetized.
Now, even with the voting system and the massive
roster, you still need exposure. You can't sell
a million units in a vacuum. And in May 2011,
you basically couldn't walk down a street in
Tokyo without hearing this melody. The multimedia
tie -ins were incredibly aggressive. This is
what the industry calls a media mix strategy.
Okay, tell me about that. The song was attached
to major visual media releases that created a
constant feedback loop. First, every day, Katusha
was the theme song for the film Moshi Dora. Moshi
Dora, that's the movie with the incredibly long
title, right? Something like, what if a female
manager of a high school baseball team read Drucker's
management? That's the one. It was a huge pop
culture moment all by itself, mixing high school
baseball with corporate management theory. And
crucially, it starred Atsuka Maeda and Minami
Yamagishi. Oh, I see. So the movie promotes the
song, and the song promotes the movie. It's a
perfect loop. And it wasn't just the cinema either.
There was a TV drama tie -in too, right? Yes,
for one of the B -sides. The track, Yankee Soul,
served as the opening theme for Majisuka Gakumen
2 on TV Tokyo. Which is a drama about delinquent
schoolgirls fighting for supremacy cast almost
entirely with AKB members. Exactly. So if you
watch TV, you heard the songs. If you went to
the movies, you heard the songs. And the quality
control was incredibly high throughout all of
this. The lyrics for all these tracks were written
by the producer, Yasushi Akimoto. The mastermind
behind the whole project. And the music for the
title track was composed by Yoshimasa Inoue,
who really defined that high energy, orchestral
pop sound that AKB is known for. It was designed
from the ground up to be an earworm. It wasn't
thrown together. It was meticulously crafted
to stick in your head. We also need to talk about
the physical packaging again. Because it wasn't
just about the voting ticket hidden inside, the
actual product on the shelf had variations. This
is pretty standard practice now in K -pop and
J -pop, but it was executed perfectly here. You
had type A and type B versions of the single.
So if I'm standing in a record store in Shibuya,
what's the difference? Why do I pick one over
the other? Well, Type A included a DVD with the
music clips and a special drama version of the
everyday Katusha music video. Okay. Type B had
a dance version of the video focusing heavily
on the choreography and a completely different
audio track, which was Hito no Chikara. So if
I'm a hardcore fan and I want the drama video
and the dance video. You have to buy both. And
if I want the undergirl song and the trainee
song we talked about. You need to go find the
theater edition. which included the track, Anti.
So to get every song and every piece of video
content, a fan is heavily incentivized to buy
at least three distinct copies. And that's before
you even factor in buying extra copies for the
voting tickets. It's a machine designed to multiply
the transaction value of every single customer.
It really is. But. And I think this is a really
important pivot we need to make here. If we just
view this as cold, calculated capitalism, we
kind of miss the emotional reality of the time.
We have to look at the date again, May 2011.
Right. This is only two months after March 11th,
the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami.
The country was in a state of deep national trauma.
There was this mood called jishoku or self -restraint
that was completely dominant. What did that look
like? People felt guilty about having fun. Concerts
were canceled left and right. The lights in Tokyo
were literally dimmed to save power. The recovery
was just barely beginning. That is an incredibly
heavy context for a bubbly, upbeat pop song about
summer and headbands. Did the release acknowledge
that reality at all, or did they just ignore
it and push forward? It did acknowledge it, and
this is crucial. The sources note that it was
announced that a portion of the proceeds from
this album would be donated to help victims of
the disaster. Oh, wow. AKB48 had launched the
no tame knee or for some unsake project. That
adds a completely different layer to those massive
sales figures. It really does. When you see 1
.3 million copies sold, yes it's about the voting,
yes it's about the catchy tune, but there is
also an element of collective effort there. Fans
knew that their purchase was contributing in
some small way to the relief efforts. It bridges
that gap between a commercial product and social
responsibility. It almost gives people permission
to enjoy something fun and pop -oriented during
a really dark time because they know it's also
helping. Preficely. It allowed the idol genre
to be an active part of the recovery narrative.
It signaled to the public that it was okay to
be energetic again, that Genki energy and health
was needed for the country to bounce back. So
we have the brilliant sales strategy, the Avengers
-style roster, the multimedia dominance, and
this very specific historical moment of national
recovery. Given all that, it's no surprise that
the industry critics and the award shows had
to pay attention. You can't just ignore a cultural
object this big, even if it is manufactured pop.
You really can't. The trophy cabinet for this
single is pretty full. Run us through the accolades.
Did it get actual respect from the industry or
just raw sales numbers? It got both, actually.
At the Billboard Japan Music Awards in 2011,
it completely cleaned up. It won Hot 100 of the
year and Hot 100 single sales of the year. A
double win. And Billboard uses a complex metric,
right? It's not just CD sales. It incorporates
Airplay and other data. Exactly. So it wasn't
just super fans buying boxes of CDs to vote.
the song was genuinely being played everywhere.
Right. Then moving into 2012, it took single
of the year at the Japan Gold Disc Awards. And
significantly as late as 2013, it won the bronze
award at the J's Rack Awards. J's Rack tracks
royalties and copyright usage. So that means
the song was being used in karaoke, on TV, in
local businesses. It shows serious longevity.
A quick sales burst doesn't win you a J's Rack
Award two years after release. And if we look
at the charts summarized in the source material,
it's just a solid wall of number ones. Let's
hear them. Number one on Oricon Daily. Number
one on Oricon Weekly. Number one on Oricon Monthly.
Number one on the Billboard Japan Hot 100. What
about digital? Because we said physical media
was the focus of the voting, but were everyday
people downloading it too? Yes, they were. It
hit number one on the RIAJ digital track chart.
So people were definitely downloading it too,
not just buying the CD for the ticket. The song
had real legs. It really was total domination
across every metric. And impressively, on the
Oricon yearly singles chart for 2011, it held
the number two spot. Wait, if it was number two,
who was number one? Another AKB48 single. Flying
Get, which came out later that year. And that
one was actually driven by the results of the
election we just talked about. So they were literally
just competing with themselves at the top of
the charts. They owned the podium. They didn't
just participate in the market. They were the
market. So when we step back and look at every
day, Katusha as a whole, it really feels like
a perfect storm. It is the absolute convergence
of several powerful forces. You have the idol
culture reaching its peak mass appeal. You have
the strategic brilliance of the Senbatsu election,
turning passive fans into active participants.
You have the multimedia synergy with the movies
and dramas, keeping the song in the public consciousness.
And the somber reality of the 2011 earthquake
providing a backdrop where people perhaps needed
that collective connection and a way to donate
while also needing an escape from the news. all
anchored by Atsuko Maeda, and a roster of talent
that was, frankly, unmatched in size and scope
anywhere else in the world. It proves that in
this specific industry, the CD became something
far more than just a music delivery format. It
became a key. A key to a community, a key to
voting power, and a key to exclusive content.
That's the big takeaway for me. The music is
obviously central. It has to be catchy to work.
But the true product is the experience of being
an AKB48 supporter. Every day, Katusha is the
ultimate example of selling that experience.
It certainly is. And it leaves me with a thought
I want to throw out there for you listening.
We so often romanticize the art of music. But
when you look at Everyday, Katusha, which created
such a massive economic footprint through voting
tickets, multiple versions, and media tie -ins,
does the music drive the sales or do the sales
and the intricate system designed to generate
them actually drive the music? That is the million
copy question. It sure is. Thanks for joining
us on this deep dive into the phenomenon of Everyday,
Katusha. It was a pleasure to be here. We'll
catch you on the next one.