Yumi Matsutoya -- Metropolis no Katasumi de（メトロポリスの片隅で）

(karaoke version)

Miki Imai（今井美樹）is the one singer that I remember getting a shoutout in the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme (JET) manual for new teachers that I received when I was about to head over to Japan to do my 2-year stint in the mountains of Gunma Prefecture from the summer of 1989. The authors were trying to spread the idea of incorporating students' knowledge of pop culture into lessons, and actress/singer Imai was seen as an especially popular celebrity at the time. The one characteristic of Imai that the authors emphasized was that wide-as-the-Mississippi smile of hers. Dang that megawatt smile of hers!

Coming up from the modeling ranks, Imai was just as much into the acting profession as the singing career at the time back in the 1980s, and I just happened to come across the above video for an episode of a TBS short series that she starred in called "Igai to Single Girl"（意外とシングルガール...Unexpectedly Single Girl） that came out in 1988. For quite a while now, I've been reading a lot of comments under those YouTube videos of City Pop songs that mooned about living in the big city in that decade when Japan had been perceived to do no wrong economically. Looking at the opening credits for "Igai to Single Girl" while Imai is striding on the sidewalk footloose and fancy-free, and then checking out bits and pieces of the episode, I can understand those commenters. Those trendy dramas were all about love and the high life where junior staffers were living in huge manshon and had job titles that could only be transcribed in katakana. I'm also happy to say that I did get my own actual experience of Japan in the very early and very late parts of the 80s.

That particular drama not only had Imai but also a couple of other singers, too. Checkers'（チェッカーズ）lead singer Fumiya Fujii（藤井フミヤ）and 60s teen idol Teruhiko Saigo（西郷輝彦）played their parts in "Igai to Single Girl". However, aside from the fact that Imai had her own song inserted into the 6-episode series, Fujii and Saigo's contributions were strictly thespian in nature.

In fact, it was Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）who not only provided the theme song for the show but was also responsible for the overall music which seems to consist of a lot of her other songs. Imai was probably tickled all shades of pink since according to her J-Wiki bio, she had been a passionate fan of her since junior high school. "Metropolis no Katasumi de" (In One Corner of the Metropolis) was actually not specifically created for "Igai to Single Girl" but was a track that was recorded on Yuming's 17th album "DA・DI・DA" from November 1985, another No. 1 hit for her. But the song about a young woman doffing off any regrets about a now past romance and striding ahead positively with her career in Tokyo seems to fit the premise of the series hand-in-glove. Plus, although it was indeed Yuming behind the words and music, "Metropolis no Katasumi de" has that Omega Tribe/Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）big city vibe with the choice of synths and bass. Overall, it screams "Look out world! Here I come!".

As for the single, it broke into the Top 10 at No. 8. Originally, it was used as the campaign song for a Shiseido commercial with 145,000 copies sold.