Akiko Kobayashi -- Diary （ダイアリー）

Akiko Kobayashi（小林明子）, whose "Koi ni Ochite"(恋におちて....Fall In Love) became her breakthrough hit in 1985, also had another lovely ballad on her eponymous album. "Diary" was never released as a single and didn't make any hints at possibly denting the Oricon charts, but nonetheless it's one of my favourite songs by her. I guess I'm just a sucker for a Rhodes Piano in a ballad.

Composed by Kobayashi herself, the lyrics were provided by Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）, who has given the words to a variety of kayo kyoku/J-Pop hits over the decades from Takashi Hosokawa's（細川たかし） enka tune "Kita Sakaba"（北酒場...Northern Sake Bar) to Johnny's group TOKIO's "AMBITIOUS JAPAN".

Just one of my observations but it seems like from around the mid-80s to the early 90s, there was a small boom of female singers creating these very mellow ballads. Other artists such as Miki Imai（今井美樹）and Reimy（麗美）come to mind.