BTS wins big at major Japan music awards

K-pop boy band BTS scooped up five prizes at the annual Japan Gold Disc Award on Tuesday, a major music awards ceremony hosted by the country's Recording Industry Association.

BTS won Best Asian Artist at the 33rd Japan Gold Disc Award, while its 3rd full-length Japanese album, "Face Yourself," released in April last year was given awards for Album of the Year and Best 3 Albums, according to the list of this year's awardees. 

The septet scored another Best 3 Albums award for its latest album "Love Yourself: Answer" and the Best Music Video award for a video covering their first tour of Japanese dome arenas in October 2017.

The awardees are chosen based on record and music video sales in the previous year.

"We are happy to release good news at the beginning of the year ... We will always do our best to respond to your love with better music," BTS' management agency Big Hit Entertainment quoted the band as saying.

Four other K-pop bands also clinched awards from the music award event, solidifying the presence of K-pop in the Japanese market.

Girl band TWICE received a Best 3 Albums award for their first full-length Japanese album "BDZ" as well as Song of the Year by Download for their song "Candy Pop."

Three other K-pop bands -- GFriend, Seventeen and Momoland -- took all three awards in the Best 3 New Artists category, with Seventeen named New Artist of the Year.

The top prize, Artist of the Year, went to Japanese pop diva Namie Amuro for the second year in a row. (Yonhap)