Kami Fusen -- Ashita no Sora（朝の空）

From time to time, I've talked about some of the morning news shows that I used to see as a resident in Japan. During my years there, I caught NTV's "Zoom In!! Asa!"（ズームイン!!朝!）, later switching over to Fuji-TV's "Mezamashi Terebi"（めざましテレビ）, and I remember their theme songs very well. However, one morning show that I never caught was TV Asahi's entry "Ohayo Asahi desu"（おはよう朝日です...Good Morning, Asahi） which started its run from 1979 and is still going on today.

As with the other two morning shows that I did see, "Ohayo Asahi desu" has had its long line of theme songs, and the first one happened to be "Ashita no Sora" (Tomorrow's Sky), specifically made for the program by folk duo Kami Fusen（紙ふうせん）, who are famous for their 1977 hit, "Fuyu ga Kuru Mae ni" （冬が来る前に）.

Written and composed by Etsujiro Goto（後藤悦治郎）, one-half of the duo which also included his wife, Yasuyo Hirayama（平山泰代）, I'd say that "Ashita no Sora" is a nice mix of folk and pop that's kinda along the lines of Kami Fusen's sister group, Hi-Fi Set（ハイ・ファイ・セット）, a pleasant aural version of orange juice. And I gather that everyone involved must have enjoyed the song since this very first theme song lasted for 15 years until 1994!