February 24, 2010

By By Rob Schwartz, Tokyo

The Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) has handed out its Gold Disc Awards, with boy band Arashi and the Beatles among the winners.

The Feb. 24 awards, the 24th edition of the ceremony, celebrated the artists that have sold the most in sales categories including singles, downloads, albums and total sales.

On the strength of their re-mastered box sets, the Beatles snatched the Japan Gold Disc Award for international artist of the year. Michael Jackson picked up the international album of the year for the Sony Music CD release of "This Is It."

Johnny & Associates' boy band Arashi took home the Japan Gold Disc Award for artist of the year, the category based on combined sales across all platforms. They also grabbed album of the year for "All the Best! 1999-2009." The group is on management stable Johnny & Associates' J-Storm record label.

Johnny & Associates' groups also swept the best five singles category, with Arashi placing four and Johnny's other superstar boy band Kat-tun picking up one. The category is based on physical sales of singles.

GReeeeN won the song of the year for "Haruka," largely thanks to its success in the digital music realm, continuing Universal Music Japan's dominance in this arena. The track sold 2 million digital units across all digital platforms.

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