Three New Seats, Slipped Into a List of 78
On June 13 this year, the results of "MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN 2026," an international music award hosted by CEIPA, were announced. With roughly 5,000 "music people" voting across a sprawling 78 categories, it is one of the largest awards in Japan. The headlines went to the glamorous winners—Mrs. GREEN APPLE for Artist of the Year, Sakanaction's "Kaiju" for Song of the Year. But for anyone who loves film scoring, the thing you cannot overlook sits quietly deeper in that long list of categories: three newly created awards.
Best Original Score. And it was split into three divisions—Film, Drama, and Anime. Theme songs and "anime tracks" have long enjoyed the spotlight at many awards, but for a major domestic award to set aside such clearly defined seats for the score itself—the music that keeps sounding behind the picture—is a real milestone. It looks modest, but I think it is quietly a big deal.
The Three Winners (and Three Acts)
In the Film division, the winner was Marihiko Hara for the film "Kokuho." The same work also took Best Soundtrack Album, effectively a double win. A score that quietly held up the terror and karma of "art" through piano, electronics, and chamber-like textures was recognized on both the scoring and the album yardsticks.
The Drama division went to Kensuke Ushio for NHK's morning serial drama "Bakebake." That a composer known for delicate, electronica-rooted sound design was chosen for that most central of seats—the "national" morning drama—is symbolic. And the Anime division honored Kamasi Washington, Bonobo, and Floating Points for the original anime "Lazarus," a trio of overseas jazz and electronics heavyweights. Japanese anime pulls in the sounds of the world, and those sounds are then praised at a Japanese award—the dissolving of borders shows up directly in the lineup.
In related categories, Joe Hisaishi's "Joe Hisaishi Conducts" took Best Classical Album and Kan Sano's "Kamisama no Melody" took Best Instrumental Song, making this a year where music-without-vocals lined up in force.
Choosing by "Numbers" and "Ears" at Once
What's fascinating is the selection design. Each Best Original Score category draws up to 45 entries. The breakdown is a two-stage structure: a "quantitative" pick of the top 15 works by Video Research viewership data, plus a "qualitative" pick of 15 works recommended by member publishers of the Music Publishers Association of Japan and by scoring experts. Gathered by numbers, and gathered by ears—it is designed to rely neither on hit scale alone nor on connoisseur taste alone.
The final round is ranked voting: four points for first, two for second, one for third. And the award explicitly targets not the singer but "the creator of the original score (writer, arranger, composer)." In other words, it is not "this song was a hit" but "how deeply did this music enrich the picture," scored by multiple sets of ears. It feels like a yardstick quite faithful to the nature of scoring work.
These new categories are also set to be revisited as a feature at "Soundtrack Pub" Mission #51, hosted by Haramaki Neko on August 29. More than the award simply existing, what matters is that a place to talk about scoring—using that award as its centerpiece—keeps going. Music that was once the crew behind the picture is now called by name, front and center. We are witnessing its very first edition right now.
