Japan is a part of Asia. What I meant is that even though Japan is small compared to all other countries in Asia, Japan has bigger music market. Even if we combined all music markets of other Asian countries, they might not stand a chance to take down the music markets of Japan. And, Japan's music industry is so ALIVE and powerful (even though it's not as alive as 5 to 6 years ago)
For example, Utada Hikaru's First Love sold more than 10 million copies in Asia. From the total sales number, 9.5 million copies sold in Japan alone. Her second album, Distance sold nearly 5.5 million copies across Asia and nearly 5 million copies sold in Japan alone. And also, Distance's first week sales was not less than 3 million copies{which, I think, the biggest I've ever seen so far. Please correct it if this is wrong or whatsoever okay}. An album in Asia{except Japan} has to take, maybe like, 1-1 and a half years to reach over a million copies, compared to Japan, an album only need only like, a week ot 2 to reach a million mark. Just take a look at Utada first four album's first week sales and some of Ayumi's album too. Pretty staggering compared to other music markets in Asia. No wonder Japan is one of the top 3 music markets in the world. Another possible is, the piracy in Japan is not as big as those in other Asian countries. {USA is facing an extremely terrible piracy right now but still, an album could sell pretty well. Hmmm......maybe because USA is the largest music market on this Earth.
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And the first week sales of an album in Japan is much bigger than USA{but when the second week comes, the sales fall pretty miserably. Instead, an album still sell consistantly in USA
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This is my logical explaination of why Japan is not a part of Asia when it comes to music and why Japan is the second biggest music market in the world behind USA. Please don't say anything hash okay.