The following is an overview of the year 2008 in Japanese music. It includes notable awards, lists of number-ones, yearly best-sellers, albums released, groups established and disestablished, deaths of notable Japanese music-related people as well as any other relevant Japanese music-related events. For overviews of the year in music from other countries, see 2008 in music.
The best-selling music artist in Japan in 2008 by value of sales, including sales of records and of DVDs and Blu-rays, according to Oricon, was Exile, with .[1]
The following is a list of the top 10 best-selling albums in Japan in 2008, according to Oricon.[2]
| Rank | Album | Artist | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Exile | ||
| 2 | Best Fiction | Namie Amuro | |
| 3 | 5296 | Kobukuro | |
| 4 | Exile | ||
| 5 | Heart Station | Hikaru Utada | |
| 6 | Exile | ||
| 7 | B'z The Best "Ultra Pleasure" | B'z | |
| 8 | Ayumi Hamasaki | ||
| 9 | Dreams Come True | ||
| 10 | Ā, Domo. Ohisashiburi Desu. | Greeeen |
The following section includes albums by Japanese artists released in Japan in 2008 as well as Japanese-language albums by foreign artists released in the country during this year.