That zany comedy duo from the 1980s, Tunnels（とんねるず）, could do no wrong for the kids back then: Knock down a TV camera during a performance? Sure! Take some good-natured swipes at the venerable genres of enka/Mood Kayo? All right! Perform on the Kohaku Utagassen only dressed in tight undies and coloured body powder? Check!
Before I even got to see the duo's mainstay Thursday-night show on Fuji-TV when I went to Gunma, I found out about Takaaki Ishibashi and Noritake Kinashi（石橋貴明・木梨憲武）through the pages of "Eye-Ai" in the CD section back in Canada since one of their albums was being sold. That's where I discovered about their supposed disdain for enka, and so I knew them for their music before I saw their outlandish antics on the telly.
However since the days of their shots for/at enka with songs like "Ame No Nishi Azabu" (雨の西麻布), Tunnels made the leap into more uptempo and let's-take-on-the-world fare including their 1991 hit "Nasakenee"（情けねえ）. And the trend continued. In September 1992, Ishibashi and Kinashi released their 19th single "Ichiban Erai Hito e" (To the Most Important Person) as this pop/rock tune with feelings of Motoharu Sano（佐野元春）.
According to J-Wiki, "Ichiban Erai Hito e" was a bit more different, though. Apparently, it was one of their rather rare message songs in that it was addressed (probably tongue-in-cheek) at the Prime Minister of Japan as a question or an indictment of where the nation was heading: a period of post-Bubble malaise.
The song was also an exhortation of sorts for the young generations not to get sucked into the vortex of corporate droid-ness and make a difference. Not sure whether it sparked a revolution, but "Ichiban Erai Hito e" did hit No. 1 on Oricon and finished 1992 as the 29th-ranked single. Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）, the same fellow behind "Ame no Nishi-Azabu", provided the lyrics while bassist/composer Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）took care of the melody and arrangement. Considering the times that the Japanese (and the rest of us) live in now, perhaps the song might make a resurgence.
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