Official HIGE DANdism's "Pretender" ended 2019 and begins 2020 at the top of the Billboard Japan Hot 100, ruling the chart for the fourth consecutive week (sixth in total).

On the chart dated Dec. 30, 2019, to Jan. 5, 2020, the four-man pop band's long-running streaming favorite rules this metric along with karaoke and video views, breaking its own view-count record at 6,948,726 weekly views from last week's 6,339,124.

All metrics for "Pretender" have continued to improve since late December, with downloads making a noticeable jump from 25,748 last week to 43,886 units this week. With songs like Gen Hoshino's "Koi" and Kenshi Yonezu's "Lemon" becoming lasting hits and ruling the year-end charts after reaching a wider audience through the year-end Kohaku Utagassen music extravaganza, "Pretender" could be on its way to becoming the next big annual chart-topper if it can continue to outperform its rivals in the following weeks.

As can be seen in the figures for HIGE DAN's "Pretender," the effect of appearing on terrestrial TV in Japan manifests in great part in downloads. Most songs that climbed the Japan Hot 100 this week due to downloads did so because of the artist's appearance on Kohaku on New Year's Eve.

At No. 1 for the metric this week is Masaki Suda's "Machigaisagashi," which nearly tripled from 16,175 to 47,375 units this week, and King Gnu's "Hakujitsu" also doubled from 20,451 to 43,605 units (No. 3 for the metric).

The main difference from last year's Kohaku effect is the surge in Twitter mentions. While Kohaku performers and songs were mentioned in tweets to a certain extent last year as well, the volume soared this year. The song at No. 1 for the metric is LiSA's "Gurenge," while Arashi's new Kenshi Yonezu collab "Kite" comes in at No. 2. This song was unveiled during the program, and debuted on the Japan Hot 100 this week at No. 25.

Keyakizaka46's 2017 hit "Fukyouwaon" also jumped to No. 5 for the metric, outperforming some major Twitter players from the past month such as SixTONES' "Imitation Rain" and Snow Man's "D.D.," both new boy bands with loyal fans doing their best to promote the groups' upcoming singles on social media.

Whether or not these songs continue to dominate the upper ranks of the charts after gaining widespread recognition through one of Japan's most prestigious music programs remains to be seen, so keep an eye on Billboard Japan's weekly updates to stay on top of what's currently popular in J-pop as the new decade begins.

The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, radio airplay, Twitter mentions, YouTube and GYAO! video views, Gracenote look-ups, audio streams from Amazon Music Unlimited, Apple Music, AWA, Google Play Music, KKBOX, LINE MUSIC, Rakuten Music, RecMusic provided by Gfk Japan, dHits, Uta Pass and Spotify, plus karaoke data from Daiichikosho and XING.

Billboard Japan Hot 100 Top 10 (dated Dec. 30 to Jan. 5)

1. [1] Pretender / Official HIGE DANdism (none / 43,886 downloads / 6,561,501 streams)

2. [4] Hakujitsu / King Gnu (none / 43,605 downloads / 5,669,509 streams)

3. [6] Machigaisagashi / Masaki Suda (none / 47,375 downloads / 4,296,475 streams)

4. [5] Gurenge / LiSA (4,796 copies / 34,816 downloads / 3,835,429 streams)

5. [11] Paprika / Foorin (5,627 copies / 20,336 downloads / 2,503,326 streams)

6. [10] Uma to Shika / Kenshi Yonezu (2,764 copies / 34,445 downloads / none)

7. [65] Ai no tame ni - for love, for a child - / EXILE (40,276 copies / 5,794 downloads / none)

8. [7] Shukumei / Official HIGE DANdism (none / 12,696 downloads / 3,755,446 streams)

9. [9] Marigold / Aimyon (none / 9,633 downloads / 2,454,008 streams)

10. [8] Yesterday / Official HIGE DANdism (none / 7,838 downloads / 3,567,046 streams)

[ ]: Position last week

( ): Physical sales / downloads / streams (Top 50 only)