This Year’s MAMA Will Be Held in Osaka, Japan... “2026 MAMA AWARDS” Confirmed for November in Osaka, Japan

MAMA AWARDS (MAMA Awards), which kicks off the year-end music awards season, has confirmed this year’s venue and begun preparations in earnest.

CJ ENM announced that it will hold “2026 MAMA AWARDS” in Japan’s Kyocera Dome Osaka on November 20 and 21. By choosing Osaka again for the second year in a row, the strategy is to once more gauge the intensity of K-POP fandom within Japan.

The key themes for this year’s ceremony are “digital expansion” and “experience.” CJ ENM will focus on narrowing the sense of physical distance through real-time global live broadcasts using its own platform, Mnet Plus. Rather than simply letting viewers watch the stage, the plan is to arrange a variety of events connecting online and offline, so that global fans can enjoy the awards week as if it were one big festival.

Kicking off in 1999 as the “Video Music Awards,” the MAMA Awards—now in its 27th year—has worked to reshape its identity into a global awards show beyond Asia. In particular, last year it also received the Grand Entertainment award at AACA (Asian Academy Creative Awards), Asia’s largest content awards ceremony, demonstrating the production capabilities of the awards itself. After expanding its reach with a relay-style event last year that connected Los Angeles in the United States and Osaka in Japan, this year is expected to put even more emphasis on interconnected programs designed to strengthen the event from within.

With Visa, a global payments company, participating as the title sponsor, this awards ceremony is expected to serve as a way to wrap up the trends of the K-POP market toward the end of this year. CJ ENM says it will present its own distinctive stage directing and production style, grounded in the know-how it has built over many years. The specific lineup and detailed programs for the ceremony to be held at Kyocera Dome Osaka will be revealed in stages at a later time.