Billboard has had music ranking charts in Japan for a few years, but it held its 1st Billboard Japan Music Awards in Tokyo on Sunday. The big winner was the group EXILE, who were named Artist of the Year 2009.

Like the other artist category awards, the Artist of the Year was determined by internet and mobile phone voting, with the nominees consisting of the artists who topped the Billboard charts last year. The rest of the artist category winners were:

• Top Pop Artists 2009: EXILE, Kobukuro, AI, Remioromen
• Jazz Artist of the Year 2009: akiko
• Classical Artist of the Year 2009: Nobuyuki Tsujii
• Independent Artist of the Year 2009: HY
• New Artist of the Year 2009: Yusuke
• Rising International Artist 2009: VAMPS
• K-Pop New Artist of the Year 2009: After School
• US Billboard Publisher's Award 2009: Judith Hill, BoA

The chart-based awards were also presented:

• Hot 100 of the Year 2009: B'z, "Ichibu to Zenbu"
• Album of the Year 2009: EXILE, "EXILE BALLAD BEST"
• Hot 100 Single Sales of the Year 2009: Junko Akimoto, "Ai no Mama de"
• Hot 100 Airplay of the Year 2009: ROCK'A'TRENCH, "My SunShine"
• Classical Album of the Year 2009: Nobuyuki Tsujii, "debut"
• Jazz Album of the Year 2009: Hiromi Uehara, "Place To Be"
• Adult Contemporary of the Year 2009: Black Eyed Peas, "I Gotta Feeling"
• Overseas Soundtrack Album of the Year 2009: Michael Jackson, "This Is It"
• Independent of the Year 2009: flumpool, "Unreal"