Misaki Iwasa -- Aikagi（合鍵）

By Daderot via Wikimedia Commons

I've encountered a number of tropes within Japanese pop music over the years of doing "Kayo Kyoku Plus". Another one has to do with aikagi or duplicate key/passkey.  I've noticed that there are quite a few songs with the title "Aikagi". One was by Hatsumi Shibata（しばたはつみ）which happened to be her debut single in 1974 and there's another one by Mayumi Itsuwa（五輪真弓）that I have yet to cover. 

The whole rigamarole regarding passkeys has to do with the illicit affair which is a common lyrical plot in the various romantic ballads, enka and Mood Kayo numbers. Fans have loved to listen vicariously and dangerously as men and women throw caution to the wind and have those romances in their special hotels or homes...of course, accessible by that guilty duplicate key. 🔑

It was just last weekend on NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）when I heard enka singer Misaki Iwasa（岩佐美咲）perform her latest single titled naturally enough "Aikagi". Released in February this year, her 12th single is a bittersweet ballad about the aftermath of an affair in which the heroine has kept the titular key although there is no longer anyone to meet in the secret love nest. Written by AKB 48 mastermind Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and composed by Saburo Takada（高田三郎）, I guess it's safe to say that this could be considered a Neo-enka or New Adult Music with some Latin and sophisticated pop mixed in with the traditional stuff.  Strangely enough, Akimoto weaves a very similar story to the one concocted by Fumiko Okada（岡田冨美子）for Shibata's "Aikagi", so I guess that anything titled "Aikagi" isn't going to be necessarily very happy.

I've also come to realize that this is only the second Iwasa article that I've written with her name on the byline after my first posting of her 4th single "Hatsuzake"（初酒）back in 2015. The scary thing is that my articles on "Hatsuzake" and Shibata's "Aikagi" were posted within a day of each other in February of that year. Cue spooky music. Anyways, Iwasa's "Aikagi" broke through the Oricon Top 10 to peak at No. 7.

Nami Shimada -- Pastel Blue no Tameiki（パステル・ブルーのためいき）

 

Welcome to another KKP weekend. It's a little chillier if also a little humid, so I'm more than happy to be typing this while the windows are open.

1980s aidoru Nami Shimada（島田奈美）hit her peak in terms of Oricon when she released her May 1987 single "Uchiki na Cupid"（内気なキューピッド）. It hit No. 7 and so did the follow-up single "Pastel Blue no Tameiki" (Pastel Blue Sighes) which came out a few months later in August. Written by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, composed by Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）and arranged by Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）, it's a soaring aidoru tune with Shimada's high-toned vocals and it feels like it's describing a fantastical scene involving the lass herself. Couldn't ask anymore from songwriters when it comes to an aidoru song, and heck, she even looks like a chiffon cake in the video below.😁

Yuka Noda -- City Girl

 

This is going to age me even more considerably but when I read or see the phrase "City Girl", I think of Marlo Thomas in "That Girl" or Audrey Hepburn in "Breakfast at Tiffany's", although both ladies have their differences in looks and personality.

It was back in 2024 when I noted keyboardist Yuka Noda（野田ユカ）through a couple of tracks on her 1989 album "Carib no Yume"（カリブの夢）. I covered the title track, which was some fine Caribbean fusion, and the funk-and-jazz "Manhattan Blue". Well, from this album, we now have "City Girl" which was composed by Eriko Tsukayama（塚山エリコ）who had also created the title track and continues with the funk and jazz from "Manhattan Blue". "City Girl" sounds like the perfect theme song for Barney Miller's wife as she's shopping around The Big Apple while her husband is out fighting crime.

Mikiko Noda -- Awai Kisetsu no Sunglass（淡い季節のサングラス）

 

During that trip to the hospital yesterday, I was warned by my mother that the wait until my father completed the examination could be a long one. I didn't think it would be that bad (and it wasn't), but I still brought over my copy of "Obscure City Pop CDs 1986-2006" to peruse.

Singer Mikiko Noda（野田幹子）popped up a fair bit among the pages of "Obscure City Pop CDs", so technically, she wasn't really all that obscure. But all that aside, I decided to check out some more of her discography since it was from the book that I discovered a few of her delights. One was her "Awai Kisetsu no Sunglass" (Sunglasses of the Fleeting Season) from her 7th album of November 1991, "Rose C'est La Vie".

That song title sounds quite French New Wave which would make it an appropriate track to include into an album titled "Rose C'est La Vie". However, it isn't brooding jazz at all here. Keyboardist Masao or Hatao Kusuba（崩場将夫）was the composer while Masami Tozawa（戸沢暢美）was the lyricist for this song (and probably all of the other tracks on "Rose C'est La Vie") that has been described as residing in the area between City Pop and Girl Pop. There is a certain amount of panache and innocence combining within "Awai Kisetsu no Sunglass" and with those synthesizers of the time crashing in, I get reminders of what Miki Imai（今井美樹）was like in the same year. Just a young lady having her time out on the town.

Penthouse -- Ichi, Ni, San（一二三）

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I'm not sure how the Spring 2026 season for anime has been accepted by fans so far, but I have to say that in terms of handling the theme songs, there have been some interesting and fun choices. "Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!!"（ガンバレ!中村くん!!...Go for It, Nakamura!）not only has funkster Yasuyuki Okamura（岡村靖幸）back on the dance floor but it's also gone for bringing back the oldies for each ending. Then there is Keisuke Kuwata's（桑田佳祐）mix of his signature style and some European pizzazz for his contribution to "Akane-banashi"（あかね噺...Akane's Story）.

Then we have the fourth season of the anime adaptation of the fantasy manga "Mairimashita! Iruma-kun"（魔入りました!入間くん...Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun）. To be honest, I've never seen this in either format but judging from the opening credit sequence and the theme song, they sure make it enticing. I could imagine the first few opening sequences being fairly serious and then with this one, the producers opted to have the characters go for some fun instead.

And that is because of "Ichi, Ni, San" (One, Two, Three) by the City Soul band Penthouse. I've already posted a few articles on them and they really go down to town with this one which was released as their latest single earlier this month. Guitarist Shintaro Namioka（浪岡真太郎）was the composer of the snazzy jazzy melody and he shares co-writing credits with bassist Takuma Ohara（大原拓真）. Namioka and co-vocalist Maho Oshima（大島真帆）threaten to blow the roof off the house here.

Yuuichi Ikuzawa -- Racer

 

I gotta admit that Yuuichi Ikuzawa's（生沢佑一）"Racer" which belongs to his first solo album "Mysterious" from 1983 is one of the more intriguing City Pop songs that I've encountered. Starting off like a romantic tune belonging to a soundtrack on a 1950s Douglas Sirk melodrama, "Racer" then hits the familiar City Pop road with plenty of brass and chorus to fuel the singer's vocals. 

The arrangement, however, also sounds similar to a very languid West Coast take on "Xanadu" as if the characters from the Olivia Newton-John movie decided to take five and hang ten along the California shore. That's quite a bit of style stuffed into a track that's a fair bit less than three minutes. Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）, who helped out on Akira Terao's（寺尾聡）"Reflections", wrote the lyrics while Keiichi Katagiri（片桐圭一）took care of the music.

Meiko Nakahara -- Emotion

 

The weather is looking fine out there for once this week after most of it being gray and drizzly. We're looking at 18-degree C highs and wouldn't you know it...the condo still continues to pump heat into our units. And with our luck, it'll probably stay that way until early May.🥵

Still, let's start our Urban Contemporary Friday off right with something to enjoy on the dance floor. Not sure if those City Pop dance parties are still being held down in the United States, but anyways, I have singer-songwriter Meiko Nakahara's（中原めいこ）"Emotion" from her July 1984 album "Lotos". Written and composed by the singer with Hiroshi Shinkawa（新川博）handling the arrangement, it's a short and sweet brassy funk fest with some vocoder (?)-filled wah-wah adding an interesting angle to the proceedings.