While I was just listening to a YouTube recording of an old Japanese radio music program, I heard this tune that I hadn't heard in decades. I had first heard it as one of the songs featured on an episode of "Sounds of Japan" back on CHIN-FM in the 1980s, but as luck would have it, I lost the listing for the playlist so I couldn't find out who sang it or even what the title was.
However, thanks to the DJ of that old radio music program, I have finally been able to resolve the decades-long mystery. It just happened to be 70s aidoru Saori Minami（南沙織）and the song title was "Hito Koishikute" (Missing You). Released as Minami's 16th single in August 1975, it possesses a distinctive introduction which has haunted me all these years, sounding like exotic Asia. And I guess because of the nature of "Hito Koishikute", I couldn't really peg it as a Minami song at first.
It's a sad folk song about a couple breaking up after a major fight and the woman at least regretting every moment that she's now separated from her one true love. With folk singer Masamitsu Tayama（田山雅充）composing the song, Tsuzuru Nakasato（中里綴）wrote the lyrics for which the first line has stayed with me: "Kuresou de kurenai, tasogare doki wa"（暮れそうで暮れない黄昏どきは...This twilight time when I can despair but I won't）. It resembles a chant. According to Minami's fan website, that entire first line was supposed to have been the title, but the producer for the song, Masatoshi Sakai（酒井政利）, changed it to its current title.
"Hito Koishikute" managed to get as high as No. 8 on Oricon and finished the year as the 52nd-ranked single. It also won Minami a Japan Record Award for Best Performance and got her another invitation to the 1975 Kohaku Utagassen. The album "Hito Koishikute" was released in December of that year, and topped off at No. 19.
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