Mrs. GREEN APPLE Talk Topping Billboard Japan 2024 Artist 100 Chart & Look Back on Busy Year: Interview

Billboard Japan unveiled its year-end charts for 2024, and Mrs. GREEN APPLE is Artist of the Year, based on the Artist 100 ranking compiled from results of both the Japan Hot 100 and Hot Albums charts. Additionally, frontman and principal songwriter Motoki Ohmori (vocals and guitar) dominated the year-end Top Composers and Top Lyricists charts for the second year in a row.

This year, the three-man pop-rock band released a new song every month from April to August. “Lilac,” the opening theme song for the anime series Oblivion Battery, stayed at No. 1 on the Streaming Songs tally for 18 consecutive weeks, becoming popular as the trio’s new signature number. “Ao to Natsu,” the group’s hit from 2018, broke its personal record for most weekly streams on the Streaming Songs chart released Aug. 14 with 6,969,716 weekly streams, coming in at No. 4 for the week. Now in its 11th year as a band, Mrs. GREEN APPLE continues to expand its reach.

The group consisting of Ohmori, Hiloto Wakai (guitar), and Ryoka Fujisawa (keyboards) also kept busy doing live shows, including collaborative concerts at the Yokohama Arena with other acts in May, a domestic stadium tour entitled Zenjin Mito to Weltraum in July that drew about 150,000 people in total, and a ten-show mini-residency at K-Arena Yokohama that ran from October to November. In recent news, the band released a new song called “Bitter Vacances” written as the theme for the upcoming live-action movie Saint Young Men, due in Japanese theaters Dec. 20. And to make the upcoming 10th anniversary of their major debut a magical year, they have just announced numerous plans, including a 100,000-person outdoor live concert over two days, the release of their best album ’10’, and their first solo performance in Korea. What were the band members feeling as they faced their music while racing through a super-busy year? Ohmori, Wakai, and Fujisawa chatted with Billboard Japan, looking back on a fruitful 2024 and sharing some visions for the new year.  

Mrs. GREEN APPLE is No. 1 on Billboard Japan’s year-end Artist 100 chart for 2024. How do you feel about this result?

Fujisawa: I’m very grateful. I was so surprised that I teared up a little.

Wakai: We released a lot of songs this year, so I’m genuinely grateful that they’ve reached so many people in a proper way.

Ohmori: I topped the year-end Top Lyricists and Top Composers charts last year, and those results allowed me to believe in the things I create and the things we think are interesting, and work on them in a positive way for the past year. I’m happy to have received this kind of recognition in what was such a fun year. I hear from people that our songs are being used at sports days in schools ranging from elementary to high school, and that really gives me a sense of how well our songs are known and how they’re being received. I don’t really feel it when I’m going about my daily business, but when I hear that [the songs] are close to someone’s everyday life, it really hits home.

Wakai: They’re also being sung as choral pieces [in schools].

Fujisawa: From the end of last year to this year, we had a lot of opportunities to enjoy ourselves with our fans, like going on our own tour, performing live with other acts, and doing more headlining shows in the summer. It kind of surprised me that so many people knew about us.

There must have been many first-time visitors to your concerts.

Ohmori: Looking out from the stage, I did notice that people of all ages were in the audience. Like grandmothers bringing their grandchildren. It gives us confidence to know that we’re doing shows that families can feel safe and enjoy together.

The band has been busy touring and releasing new music this year. If you were to sum up the year, how would you describe it?

Ohmori: It was fun. Last year, it was like saying hello for the first time [after becoming a three-man band], but this year, I think we were able to reaffirm our unchanging relationship and stance on songwriting as we tried to live up to expectations and adapted to our changing surroundings. I was writing songs for our five-month consecutive release, but it wasn’t like I was pushing myself too hard and I can say that it was a very meaningful and enjoyable year.

Wakai: We really did a lot of things and it was really fruitful.

Fujisawa: Each member had more opportunities to flourish this year, and there were many moments when I saw the other two working hard and was like, “They’re so cool” and “I’m so proud of them.”

Wakai: There are a lot of YouTube videos of people covering “Lilac” on guitar, and personally, it felt like there were more instances where I felt like I was being recognized as a guitarist and that made me happy.

You added some original arrangements at your residency shows (Mrs. GREEN APPLE on “Harmony”) and they were awesome.

Wakai: The crowd seemed to enjoy it, so I was glad.

Fujisawa: While watching Ohmori working hard writing songs at a tremendous pace for the five consecutive releases, we also played those songs at that speed, adding our own arrangements as we went along, and also performed them live again and again. How each member has been able to face things with responsibility shows the growth of our band this year.

Ohmori: Speaking of growth, or something I’ve discovered, is that I’ve come to realize once again that writing songs isn’t something I do for something or someone, but only for myself, even though I’m the type of person who thinks it’s better to enjoy fun things together with everyone. Now that more people are listening to my music, there’s greater responsibility, but in the end I only release things that I feel are good, so I don’t feel any crazy pressure or stress and really enjoy making music naturally. Being able to reconfirm that was a personal growth for me. I’d be lying if I said I don’t feel pressure, but I still feel like I’ve been able to stay natural.

Are there any other motivations that drive the three of you?

Wakai: What we talk about a lot among the members is live performances. I feel that the main source of our energy and motivation is to do something that we can genuinely enjoy ourselves and have the audience also enjoy that, too.

Ohmori: That was notable in our The White Lounge tour.

Fujisawa: Like Wakai said, when we do something we find interesting and new, and see that the people on the receiving end are enjoying it, we want to update ourselves even more. Personally, there are a lot of things I find difficult and set me back, but seeing Ohmori and Wakai working hard gives me power.

So your bandmates are friends you can rely on and also rivals you can compete with.

Ohmori: They’re really important to me. In a good way, I don’t really have the sense that Mrs. GREEN APPLE is being burdened with expectations from the public. The three of us are just having fun making music together. That’s really all there is to it. We’ve been doing this since we were in junior high school, and I think that’s what makes us Mrs. GREEN APPLE.

Lastly, what are your prospects for 2025?

Ohmori: We celebrated our 10th anniversary [since formation] in 2023 and next year will be our 10th since our debut. It’s our anniversary year, so I hope we can be close to our JAMs [Mrs. GREEN APPLE fans]. We hope to keep challenging ourselves individually, and to make the ship that is Mrs. GREEN APPLE even bigger. We also want to do lots of shows.

Fujisawa: It’ll be ten years since our debut, so I want to express our gratitude to everyone next year.

Wakai: It’ll be the last year in our twenties for Ohmori and me, so I want to make the final year one without regrets and enjoyable.

—This interview by Takuto Ueda first appeared on Billboard Japan