Made in Japan (Ayumi Hamasaki album)

Background and composition

In April 2015, Hamasaki released her sixteenth studio album named A One. To promote the album, she commenced two concert tours throughout 2015 in Japan; the Final Cirque de Minuit Arena Tour, and an annual live New Years countdown show name Made in Tokyo. During both concert tours, Hamasaki begun writing material for her seventeenth studio album; an announcement about the album was then publicly made in January 2016 via Instagram. Through early to mid May 2016, Hamasaki used social media services, such as Facebook and Instagram, to show lyrical teasers of songs for her seventeenth studio album; these songs were "Mad World", "Survivor", "You Are the Only One", "Today", and "Flower". Then on May 11, 2016, Hamasaki released the album via streaming service AWA Japan.

Made in Japan is Hamasaki's seventeenth consecutive studio album, since her debut album A Song for ×× (1999) to be fully written by her. It is also the seventeenth studio effort that was produced by Japanese musician Max Matsuura since her debut. Musically, the album contains a variety of genres including hard rock, ballad, and electronic dance music, as described by Patrick St. Michel at The Japan Times and Hamasaki. The album consists of nine original new tracks, with one of them being an opening instrumental track, and one cover; the cover is "Many Classic Moments", which was originally recorded by Japanese group Globe and appeared on their tribute album, #Globe20th in 2015. St. Michel stated that "Made in Japan" "finds Hamasaki jumping between sounds, hop-scotching from driving rock numbers featuring arena-ready guitar solos to surging ballads... all familiar ground to her."

Release

Made in Japan was released through the streaming service AWA Japan on May 11, 2016, and was eventually released physically and digitally on June 29 in six different formats. The first release is the CD format, which included the ten tracks. The next formats are the DVD and Blu-ray bundles; this included the ten tracks on one CD, and the music videos to the songs "Flower", "Mad World", and "Winter Diary" on a second disc, where the latter track was recorded and promoted with her remix album Winter Diary: A7 Classical (2015). Both formats including the "behind the scenes" of all three videos. The next two formats are double DVD and a second Blu-ray, that were released exclusively through Hamasaki's TeamAyu membership website; both formats include the ten tracks on one disc, 15 live videos from her Limited TA Live concert in Zepp, Tokyo, and the three music videos and three "behind the scenes" videos. The sixth and final format is the digital download, which includes the ten tracks. The artwork for the first four all formats, including the digital release, has Hamasaki holding rope, while the TeamAyu editions are close-up's of her face.

Critical reception

Upon its release, M(a)de in Japan has received positive reviews from music critics. Patrick St. Michel, writing for The Japan Times, gave the release a positive review. He stated, "For Hamasaki, though, this is her best work in years, thanks primarily to a play-time clocking in at under 40 minutes." He commended the tracks "Tasky" and "Flower" for emphasising traditional Japanese music, and highlighted "Summer Love" as a stand out. However, he did select the "cheesy" cover of "Many Classic Moments" as the albums worst track.

Commercial performance

Five days after the albums release on AWA services, it accumulated over one million streams in Japan. M(a)de in Japan debuted at number two on the Daily Oricon Albums Chart, just behind the compilation album The IdolmM@sters Cinderella Master Cool Jewelries! 003. Hamasaki's album sold 19,898 units on June 29, her second lowest daily count behind sixxxxxx than her previous studio album A One with 20,025 sold units. It fell to number four the following day, selling under 4,500 units. On its third day it claimed up to number three, selling 2,032 units. The album then debuted at number two on the Weekly Oricon Albums Chart, selling 30,269 units.

Promotion

To promote the album, Hamasaki started her 2016 Arena tour that shares the same name as the album. The tour opened at NGK Insulators Hall, Nagoya on May 17, 2016, and finished on July 17 at the Osaka-jō Hall in Osaka. She also performed the song "FLOWER" on July 29, 2016 on the Japanese TV show Music Station.

Track listing

All lyrics written by Ayumi Hamasaki, except for track 10 written by Tetsuya Komuro.