The Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) (日本レコード協会, Nihon Rekōdo Kyōkai) is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved in the music industry. It was founded in 1942 as the Japan Phonogram Record Cultural Association, and adopted its current name in 1969.
The RIAJ's activities include promotion of music sales, enforcement of copyright law, and research related to the Japanese music industry. It publishes the annual RIAJ Year Book, a statistical summary of each year's music sales, as well as distributing a variety of other data.
Headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, the RIAJ has twenty member companies and a smaller number of associate and supporting members; some member companies are the Japanese branches of multinational corporations headquartered elsewhere.
In 1989, the Recording Industry Association of Japan introduced the music recording certification systems. It is awarded based on shipment figures of compact disc or cassette tape which was reported by record labels. In principle, the criteria are limitedly applied to the materials released after January 21, 1989.
Certification awards
Currently, all music sales including singles, albums, digital download singles are on the same criteria. Unlike many countries, the highest certification is called "Million".
Thresholds per award
Gold
Platinum
2× Platinum
3× Platinum
Million
Multi-Million
100,000
250,000
500,000
750,000
1,000,000
2,000,000+
Old criteria (until June 2003)
Before the unification of criteria and introduction of music videos category in July 2003, a separate scale had been used for certification awards.[1]
Certifications for songs and albums released digitally began on September 20, 2006, using download data collected since the early 2000s.[2] From 2006 until 2013, there were three categories for certifications: Chaku-uta (着うた（R）, "Ringtone"), Chaku-uta Full (着うたフル（R）, "Full-length Ringtone") (i.e. a download to a cellphone) and PC Haishin (PC配信, "PC Download") for songs purchased on services such as iTunes. On February 28, 2014, the Chaku-uta Full and PC categories were merged to create the Single Track (シングルトラック) category.[3]
While digital album certifications are possible, only a few albums have received this certification since the RIAJ began awarding it, including the 2011 Songs for Japan charity album,[4] and Hikaru Utada's sixth studio album Fantôme. In 2021, Ayumi Hamasaki's A Complete: All Singles (2008) became the first album released in the 2000s to receive digital certification.
As of April 2020,[5] RIAJ has begun to certify songs for streaming, just how it does for physical shipments and digital download sales.
Unlike physical shipments and digital download sales, the streaming certifications have their own levels, due to the higher amount of streams compared to the other formats.
^ ab"The Record - August 2003 - Page 15"(PDF) (in Japanese). Recording Industry Association of Japan. Archived(PDF) from the original on December 23, 2010. Retrieved December 23, 2010.
^レコード協会調べ 8月度有料音楽配信認定 [Record Association Investigation: August Digital Music Download Certifications]. RIAJ (in Japanese). September 20, 2006. Archived from the original on August 12, 2014. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
^ ab音楽配信認定の基準 [Digital Music Certification Criteria] (in Japanese). Recording Industry Association of Japan. February 28, 2014. Archived from the original on March 6, 2014. Retrieved March 6, 2014.
^レコード協会調べ 5月度有料音楽配信認定 [Record Association Investigation: May Digital Music Download Certifications]. RIAJ (in Japanese). June 20, 2011. Archived from the original on September 15, 2013. Retrieved February 4, 2014.
^ストリーミング認定 [Streaming Certification] (in Japanese). Recording Industry Association of Japan. Archived from the original on June 6, 2020. Retrieved June 26, 2020.
^ストリーミング認定 [Streaming Certification] (in Japanese). Recording Industry Association of Japan. Archived from the original on February 27, 2023. Retrieved March 15, 2023.
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