Namie Amuro -- Never End

With the return of regular programming on TV Japan after the Holidays, Friday nights are once again alive with alternating episodes of "VS. Arashi" and "Sekai no Hate made Itte Q!"（世界の果てまでイッテQ!）.

Of course, one of the main presenters on the latter show about tarento going all across the globe and within Japan on their own exploratory missions is Ayako Imoto（イモトアヤコ）, the young lady with the magic marker eyebrows and sailor-suit uniform. In addition to her steely willingness to take on all sorts of challenges, she is also known as the biggest fan of recently retired Okinawan singing superstar Namie Amuro（安室奈美恵）. On tonight's episode, she performed Amuro's "Never End".

Completely forgot about this Amuro single, her 17th from July 2000, and its background. According to its Wikipedia article, it was then-Prime Minister Obuchi who had commissioned songwriter Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）to come up with a song to commemorate the G7 Summit that was taking place in Okinawa that year.

To be honest, when it first came out, I wasn't particularly all that excited about "Never End" although I remember hearing it on television through programs and commercials. I think by that time, my interest in Amuro had waned somewhat. But now that years have passed, Amuro has retired, and I've been given my sense of nostalgia through this blog, it's poignant to hear this one again after two decades.

In the J-Wiki article for "Never End", it's mentioned that Komuro, along with his many visits to Okinawa to get a feel for the culture and music after getting that request from the Prime Minister, incorporated a Ryukyuan minyo melody into the song and recruited Okinawan singers such as Sadao China（知名定男）and the group Nenes（ネーネーズ）to participate along with thirty junior high school girls as a back chorus. 

Not sure when exactly he had requested Komuro to create what would become "Never End", but sadly, Prime Minister Obuchi would never get a chance to hear it officially since he suffered a stroke in April 2000 and then died a couple of months later. However, about a week after the song was released on July 12th, Amuro and Komuro performed it in front of the G7 Summit dignitaries hosted by Prime Minister Mori.

Going Double Platinum, "Never End" peaked at No. 2 on Oricon and ended the year as the 32nd-ranked single. Amuro would appear for a 6th consecutive time on the Kohaku Utagassen to perform it. It was also placed as a track on her 5th original album "break the rules" which came out in December 2000; that also hit No. 2 on the album charts and finished 2001 as the 69th-ranked album.

The one other thing that I remember about the 2000 Summit is that the special 2000-yen bill was issued. I did handle a few of those bills around that time but I believe those are now extremely rare to find. In fact, I recall one friend humorously telling me that when he tried to use of those 2000-yen bills in a Tokyo convenience store recently, the young cashier looked at it (and my friend) with some suspicion thinking that it was a fake.