Not sure if the above is a caricature of Southern All Stars（サザンオールスターズ）frontman Keisuke Kuwata（桑田佳祐）or a Japanese Tony Stark, but I'll let you decide.
This song, "Shiroi Koibito tachi" (White Lovers) created and arranged by Kuwata, is something that I remember getting tons of airplay on various shows and channels for months although from his lyrics and the music video, it's quite the seasonal song (his previous single, "Naminori Johnny", is quite the summery one). In fact, although there is no mention of Christmas at all in "Shiroi Koibito tachi", it apparently has gotten a lot of heavy rotation whenever the Yuletide arrives, so I gather that at the very least, it gets honourary status as a Christmas tune.
Dividing "Shiroi Koibito tachi", which was released in October 2001 as Kuwata's 7th single as a solo artist, into three aspects: the melody, the lyrics and the video, there are some interesting observations. Kuwata's melody doesn't sound particularly Xmas-y but there is hope in there, whereas his lyrics are frankly him mourning his lost Lenore one winter's evening. Meanwhile, the video is off on a very different tack as Kuwata seems to be playing a ghost playing a piano which gains a lot of old-style reporter attention and causes some changes in some callous behaviour among the downtrodden citizens in the neighbourhood. There are a couple of celebrity cameos in there: entertainers Yusuke Santamaria（ユースケ・サンタマリア）reading the paper and Teruyoshi Uchimura（内村光良）trying to push through the media horde with his camera.
As well, the video seems to echo the style of the one done for Misia's "Everything" which came out the previous year. For that Xmas-y feeling, there are those three rules that have to be followed: 1) kids....lots of kids, 2) snow and 3) slow motion. Well, I only saw one kid in "Shiroi Koibito tachi" but I can waive that to a certain degree (there was a cute deer).
"Shiroi Koibito tachi" hit the top spot on the charts lickety-split after its October premiere and considering debuting in that month, it pulled off quite the feat in becoming the 6th-ranked single for 2001 with sales reaching over half a million copies in its first week. It went Triple Platinum and even hung around for another year to reach No. 37 in the Oricon yearly charts for 2002. As well, "Shiroi Koibito tachi" won Kuwata a Gold Prize at the Japan Record Awards for that year. The song has remained Kuwata's highest-selling single as a solo artist. It has also been used in a couple of commercials, one for Coca-Cola and the other for Uniqlo.
I think that "Shiroi Koibito tachi"does capture one of the faces of the Japanese version of Christmas for adults at least. There is snow, there is romance, and soothing melody. Think of the song "Last Christmas" by wham it is a big hit in Japan and all over the place during the Christmas time and I don't recall any deer or children in the video. Then there is also 'Christmas eve' by Tatsuro Yamashita (mind you it is about Christmas eve not Christmas) but close enough and I think it fits well with "Shiroi Koibito tachi" as being the Japanese romantic version of Christmas.
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