Growing up in Toronto, of course we had our own share of children's programs to choose from. One of the most beloved on CBC was the weekday morning half-hour "Mr. Dressup" (1967-1996) starring the late Ernie Coombs as the titular character and we got to see him and his buddies, Casey and Finnegan, sing and do all sorts of arts and crafts in their home. It also had that friendly and chirpy theme song, too.
Japan's national broadcasting TV station, NHK, also had its own variety of kids' shows as well with one of them being "Dekiru ka na" (Can It Be Done?). The format was a tad different from that of "Mr. Dressup" in that it began its time in 1970 and finished up in 1990, was shown only on Tuesday mornings for about 15 minutes. It did have a friendly and slightly eccentric host in the form of tulip hat-wearing Noppo-san（のっぽさん）with his buddy Gonta-kun（ゴン太くん）but despite the show having its own singing and dancing, one big point is that Noppo-san never spoke a word during its 20-year run.
Well, there was that final episode on March 6 1990 when the kids and parents got a huge shock.
During the run of the show, the theme song remained the same. Basically known as the theme for "Dekiru ka na", it was a kid-friendly jazz tune with some scatting thrown in. Written by Morihisa Yamamoto（山元護久）and composed by Koichi Iwashiro（岩代浩一）, the song was recorded by vocal group The Chirps（ザ・チャープス）and Makoto Yuuki（由起真）. The Chirps have had a long history and already have one article here on KKP.
The above video, uploaded by coro emon, has both the original version and a more contemporized take that was most likely the one used between 1983 and 1985 with just The Chirps singing it. In its remaining years, a third version was recorded with Michiru Maki（槇みちる）and Shin "Peekaboo" Fujishima（藤島新）but I couldn't find that one.
The technopop trio Perfume provided their own 2020 remix version of "Dekiru ka na" with some oomphed-up jazz and even a bit of twangy rock. I was even wondering whether I ought to have categorized it further as a Shibuya-kei take.
Noppo Takami（高見のっぽ）was born Yoshiaki Takami（高見嘉明）in Kyoto in 1934. Outside of his time as the silent host for "Dekiru ka na", he was also an actor and an author, and judging from some of his Gene Kelly moves on the show, he could dance as well. According to his manager, Noppo-san never talked down to his biggest fans and referred to children as young people. He would even use respectful language to them in the form of keigo.
NHK reported this morning that Noppo-san had passed away at the age of 88 last September due to heart failure. He had asked that the announcement of his death be held off for several months so as not to cause too much of a stir. His manager decided that the announcement would be made today, May 10th, which would have been Noppo-san's 89th birthday. My condolences to his family, friends and all of his fans.
Yoshiaki Takami was a cultural icon and two decades of children grew up with Dekiru Ka na making that show very iconic in it's own right.
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