Through scandal and stellar sales, AKB48 dominated the past decade in Japan www.japantimes.co.jp

That’s when AKB48 released its first chart-topping single, “River.” I’d like to argue that the J-pop decade ended early, too.
And between Oct. 21, 2009, and March 14, 2019, the pop group largely dominated the discourse surrounding Japanese music and pop culture, both positively and negatively.
This caused a lot of people inside and outside of Japan to view AKB48 as a musical oddity.
AKB48 isn’t officially over, but its decade of dominance has left music fans questioning their confidence in the once-dominant Oricon charts.
It’s the one time AKB48 members have had romantic interests on screen, but because of the “Inception”-worthy idea they’re pretending to be in movies, the whole thing gets a pass.