YouTube has, without a doubt, been dominating the world in this day and age. Every year, it grows in users who log in religiously to watch their favourite YouTubers — both locally and internationally. It’s a wonderful platform for anyone to garner a huge following for something they’re passionate about — not only does their content circulate around audiences of their own region but it also reaches other parts of the world as well. Japanese YouTubers are no different; they have gained quite a following of not only Japanese audiences but also the international ones, thanks to the likes of YouTube’s worldwide accessibility. Some of these Japanese YouTubers are so successful, they have their views and subscription numbers in the millions! Everything from comedy and entertainment to food and music, these Japanese YouTubers have got them covered. Here’s a list of the top 10 Japanese YouTubers you should definitely check out — if you haven’t already.

1. Hajime Shacho

First on the list is definitely Hajime Shacho. This YouTuber has been holding the title for the largest number of subscribers in Japan for a very long time — he has almost 9 million subscribers with a rough estimate of 7 billion views in total! Hajime Shacho is originally part of the multi-channel network called UUUM that’s created by another YouTuber. Joined the YouTube community in August 2012, he has since achieved milestones in his YouTube career. While this YouTuber has three different channels that focus on various entertainment — including Q&As, product reviews, lifestyle videos, experiments and hidden camera videos — this channel focuses all-around comedy; that is his main act, after all. He even has YouTube movies that are released for YouTube premium members. Not convinced yet that Hajime Shacho is worth watching? Tell that to his Twitter followers, where he is known to have the fifth-largest Twitter following in Japan!

2. HikakinTV

Another famous YouTuber that you cannot ignore is HikakinTV, with about 8.6 million followers — not far behind Hajime Shacho! — and also almost 7 billion views collectively. Co-founder of the Japanese multi-channel network UUUM, Hikakin is considered one of the pioneers of Japanese YouTubers! Hikakin rose to stardom in 2010 when his “Super Mario Beatbox” video went viral, reaching almost 4 million views. Since then, his channel is dedicated to beatbox covers as well as tutorials. Hikakin is quite a successful Japanese YouTuber, especially since he has collaborated with popular named acts like Ariana Grande and Aerosmith — these collaborations did quite a solid for his career. He’s not only a beatboxer; Hikakin also has a gaming channel called Hikakin Games. It has almost 5 million subscribers and takes you on adventures through different gaming programs — all the while making you laugh and keeping you entertained.

3. Fischer’s

Onto our next YouTuber — who is not only one single person, but a group of seven individuals. Fischer’s is run by a group of good friends who met and created the group in high school in 2012, and went on creating comedy content like skits, vlogs, food and gaming related videos. They have about 6.5 million subscribers that garnered around 9 billion views! One of the most impressive achievements of the team that runs Fischer’s is breaking the Guinness World Record for the largest game of tag — the group of YouTubers gathered almost 11,000 people to play the biggest game of tag in the whole world! The group initially aimed for just 10,000 people to break the previous world record, but they’ve exceeded their own goal.

4. Yuka Kinoshita

The fourth YouTuber on the list is the number one female YouTuber in all of Japan! Yuka Kinoshita is not only kawaii (かわいい, cute), but she is also surprisingly a big eater. Her channel, with about 5.5 million subscribers, is all about food product reviews and eating videos — known as “mukbang” where she films herself eating while answering some questions asked by her viewers. Even though she speaks Japanese in her videos, Yuka has quite an international following as all her videos are accompanied by English subtitles. She is not only entertaining on YouTube; Yuka also stars in a Japanese TV program called Ogui (大食い), which means “heavy eater”.

5. Tokai OnAir

Tokai OnAir is a YouTube channel that is also run by a group of individuals — this time, it is by six guys from Okazaki City in Aichi. The group formed when they were in high school and, similar to Fischer’s, went on YouTube to create comedic content. With about 5.5 million subscribers, Tokai OnAir became their hometown city’s official tourism ambassadors — a huge achievement for them. Even though the channel was created in 2013, it took them a few years before successfully garnering a following. What made them rise to fame was their human bowling video in 2017 — not only was the video a huge hit, the group also came out on top of the Japanese YouTube charts when it comes to subscriber growth and view count in that year.

6. SUSHI RAMEN (Riku)

You might think that this channel is about the Japanese noodle dish, ramen (ラーメン), but it isn’t. SUSHI RAMEN (Riku) is a channel run by the YouTuber known as Riku Horiuchi — active since 2013 with just over 5 million subscribers. SUSHI RAMEN (Riku) is all about experiments. His videos cover content like stunts and extreme challenges that you wouldn’t normally participate in but curious about. But don’t worry, that’s where Riku comes in and does it for you. He also has a second channel with about the same name, Sushi Ramen 2nd. This channel has about a million subscribers and quite similar to the first one — so why not subscribe to both?

7. Seikin TV

This YouTuber is the brother of another famous YouTuber that appeared earlier on this list: HikakinTV. Seikin is the older brother of Hikakin and created his own channel, SeikinTV, which boasts almost 4 million subscribers. You may even see videos of the two brothers singing together on Seikin’s channel. Most of the time, SeikinTV’s content revolves around music creation, comedy and vlogs like DIY project tutorials. In fact, these videos are the popular ones that gained a large following for Seikin. There are even product review videos, everything from chocolate molds to strollers — he’s so popular for those videos that he has a nickname for it: “the master of product reviews”.

8. Mizutamari Bond

Focusing on comedy with an emphasis on the dramatic, Mizutamari Bond is made up of Kanta and Tommy, two good friends that started the channel whilst studying at university. With about 4.3 million followers, this comedy duo takes the Japanese YouTube scene by storm. One of the videos went viral when Kanta flips a massive pan of fried rice — the rice wasn’t real, though — as part of pranking Tommy. Did I mention the emphasis on the dramatic? All of Mizutamari Bond’s videos have such a variety style of content, with overemphasized subtitles and superimposed images. It’s nothing short of entertaining when it comes to these Japanese YouTubers.

9. Hikaru

This Japanese YouTuber takes a twist on the comedy genre that’s such a big hit in Japan. Hikaru’s channel has just over 4 million subscribers with videos that are unconventional and original — a breath of fresh air in the community of comedic YouTube. Through his style of dark humour, he retells stories of urban legends, supernatural experiences and anything similar to the likes. Hikaru also has another channel called Hikaru Games where he walks his viewers through some of the most famous Japanese video games — and being the country that invents a reputable amount of video games, there are quite a few.

10. JunsKitchen

Last, but definitely not least, is JunsKitchen. This YouTube channel has short of 5 million subscribers and has captured the hearts of many cooking enthusiasts as well as cat lovers — that’s because JunsKitchen combines cats and cooking, all in one video! You won’t get enough of his cute furballs. Junichi also has another channel where he manages it with his wife, called Rachel and Jun. There, you’ll get more than just cat and cooking content — but once in a while, those furballs will make an appearance!

Conclusion

These are just the top 10 Japanese YouTubers with a huge amount of following — that’s not to say that the ones with smaller numbers are less respectable. The Japanese YouTube community is full of entertaining content where some are even yet to be discovered but deserve more attention. So hop on the Japanese YouTube entertainment — starting off with these top 10 Japanese YouTubers!