The single was a success in many countries, including West Germany, Sweden and Switzerland. It was also the group's only UK Top 75 hit, reaching #8 on the UK Singles chart. The song also reached #1 on the Hot Dance Club Play in December 1984.
Recording
"Big in Japan" and the single's B-side "Seeds" were two of the first three tracks recorded for Forever Young and was released as a single before Alphaville had finished recording the remainder of the album.[3]
The group employed a Roland System-100M to create the bassline. The timing of the song was influenced by "The Safety Dance", changing the speed to double-time halfway through the song. The melody was developed by all three members of the band, working in their home studio.[4]
Marian Gold developed most of the lyrics while visiting a dentist. The theme was based on two friends who were involved in the sordid drug scene of Berlin's Zoo station. The refrain "big in Japan" symbolises the idea of being successful in another world, a fantasy about being drug-free. Gold said: "That line has a certain meaning. It means that if you're a complete loser, you're telling other people, 'I'm not a loser because in Japan I'm really big.' It's the lie of the loser and it fitted perfectly into the story of these junkies, which the song is about, in a very tragic way."[4] Gold later explained: "We originally weren’t sure whether we should put it on the album, because it’s a bit autobiographical in that it reflects my time in West Berlin in the late 70s, with the drug scene around the train station and the zoo, and all the underground things. It has nothing to do with Japan."[5]
The phrase was inspired by the name of the band Big in Japan. Gold said: "As you know, there's a considerable musical market in Japan. If you wanted to become famous, what you should do was to form a hard rock group and then release an album over there; it would definitely sell well ... so the story went ..."[6]
In a 2022 interview, Gold said that it's "a great privilege" to have "Big in Japan" and "Forever Young" in "their luggage" when touring, and that he is grateful to be able to perform the songs.[7]
Release and promotion
In reaching #1 on the German singles chart, the song displaced "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, whose lead singer Holly Johnson had been a member of the band Big in Japan. Gold considered this a remarkable coincidence[4] and later said that "we never got to speak with him but he must have wondered 'who is this German group with a song named after my band?'"[5]
An accompanying music video was directed by Dieter Meier from the band Yello.[8] The cover art for the single is by Ulf Meyer zu Kueingdorf [de].
In 2000, Guano Apes released a cover version of "Big in Japan" as the lead single for their second album Don't Give Me Names[37] on 12 April 2000. The music video shows the band performing in an empty arena, followed by a fan trying to locate them.
