But For Most Fans, Western Pop Rules

Forget about the Rolling Stones and Madonna--The best-selling Western music today in Japan is something the Japanese call buraku-con .

What, you might ask, is buraku-con ?

“It’s black contemporary music, and it’s extremely popular in Japan,” says Matt Kaufman, a Billboard Magazine spokesman who follows Japanese music trends.

Buraku-con includes artists such as Bobby Brown, Janet Jackson and Bell Biv Devoe. Earlier this month on J-Wave, a popular Tokyo music station, Prince’s “Thieves in the Temple” was the No. 1 single; “Praying for Time” by George Michael stood at No. 2. “Manatsu No Kajitsu” by the Southern All Stars, a Japanese band that blends elements of Billy Joel and the Beatles, was No. 5.

Japan is the second-largest music market in the world after the United States, generating music sales of $3.9 billion last year, according to the Japan Phonograph Record Assn. Kaufman says it is also the glittering land of Oz to many Western performers, including Madonna, who launch tours there and rake money to finance the rest of their trips.

British as well as American stars capitalize on their popularity by releasing special records in Japan or adding extra tracks that aren’t available in the West. The Japanese version of Duran Duran’s newest album includes three songs not available on the U.S. version, Kaufman says.

But while the fascination with all things Western continues, the Japanese are turning more and more to their own artists. In the 1960s, 50% of all music sales were foreign recordings. Today, that figure has dropped to 25%, as Japanese bands mushroom and consumers switch to indigenous rock by bands like the Blue Hearts and female vocalists like Yumi (Yumming) Matsutoya and Seiko Matsuda.

Currently, pop-rock artist Senri Oe’s new album “Apollo” is No. 1 on the Japanese charts. Don’t be deceived by the Elvis Costello-like pose on the cover; there’s nothing wry, manic or angry about this music.

Then there are the “idols,” cute teen-age girls and boys whose images and careers are carefully controlled by record companies. Even the record companies themselves admit that the “idols” can’t sing, but they look photogenic on TV and sell millions of records each year.

One of the most popular such bands today is the gimmicky Hikari Genji, whose music was described by one Western industry observer as “New Kids on the Block meets Menudo, on roller skates.” Yes, they really do perform on skates.

All these bands benefit from the increasing affluence of young Japanese, who often live at home until marriage because they can’t afford the astronomical real estate prices. This leaves them lots of disposable income to spend on clothes and entertainment. LaToya Jackson concert tickets recently went for $80 each, and that was the over-the-counter price, Kaufman said.

But the ability of America to export various members of the Jackson Family and other top musical acts to Japan is not reciprocal.

We may drive Toyotas and pop our CDs into Sony decks, but not since the late Kyu Sakamoto scored with “Sukiyaki,” a campy hit released in 1963, has a Japanese pop song been hummed en-masse by American throats.

Sure, New Age-inspired Kitaro, the Yellow Magic Orchestra and Ryuichi Sakamoto have found followings in the United States, but those are instrumentalists, not mainstream rock artists.

Easy-listening Japanese pop and teen idols simply don’t go over well here. Take Seiko Matsuda, a best-selling female vocalist in Japan who has released more than a dozen No. 1 albums in Japan and sold millions of records.

Earlier this year, Sony, which owns CBS Records, put Matsuda in the studio for six months with Miami Sound Machine producer Emilio Estefan and fine-tuned her looks in anticipation of her U.S. debut, “Seiko.”

“In Japan she has this really cutesy image, like a Barbie doll, but the A&R; people in New York said, ‘You’ve got to lose that image and start wearing leather jackets,” says Jeff Murray, a Los Angeles-based consultant for Epic/Sony Records.

Matsuda was then teamed up on a duet with Donnie Wahlberg, one of the New Kids on the Block, in a move that Sony hoped would crack open the U.S. market. But the single, “The Right Combination,” stalled at 74 on the charts.

“They put a lot of money into it and I don’t think anyone took it seriously, it was a rip-off on Madonna,” Kaufman said.

In Japan however, the album went to No. 1.

Another Japanese rock-punk band, the Blue Hearts, sells out Budokan, one of the country’s largest stadium, but played to a crowd of 50 people recently at New York’s China Club.