My body simply slumped down in my chair on getting the word from Twitter ten minutes ago although the press reports had begun a few hours earlier. Sadly I have to state that singer Junko Ohashi passed away on November 9th at the age of 73. Although the immediate cause of death hasn't been announced, I knew that she had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 2018. When I saw her on "Uta Con"（うたコン）last year, my impression was that she was hopefully on the mend, but then I read through the "Sponichi Annex" website via her J-Wiki article that the cancer was back in March 2023 leading her to cancel her concert schedule and go into treatment.
Ohashi's name was mentioned just a few hours ago in my article translation of "Tetsuji Hayashi ~ Celebration of 50 Years as a Songwriter: The City Pop Chronicle in Concert at Tokyo International Forum Part 1". She was also given a shoutout in two other recent KKP articles for Fujimal Yoshino's（芳野藤丸） "50/50 Fifty-Fifty" and her classic "Crystal City" in the Yutaka Kimura Speaks series.
The first time I ever heard Ohashi was through her biggest hit, the 1981 "Silhouette Romance"（シルエット・ロマンス）on an episode of "Sounds of Japan". It was a beautiful ballad with a very mystical quality.
However, it wouldn't be for many years that I discovered that Ohashi was an integral part of the City Pop scene. Of course, everyone fell in love with her "Telephone Number", also from 1981.
Speaking of City Pop, one of my personal favourites has always been the 1988 "Nemurenai Diamond" (眠れないダイアモンド）. It just has that feeling of strutting proudly down the Ginza without a care in the world and able to access every store, restaurant or bar.
It's truly a sad day for fans of Ohashi, City Pop and Japanese pop in general. My condolences go out to those fans, Ohashi's friends and family, and particularly her husband, songwriter Ken Sato（佐藤健）who contributed so much to her discography. I will always miss that boomer voice of hers. You can also take a look at my own list of favourites by the singer that I posted in the summer of 2022.
I haven't checked out this website in a while, the last time I did I was still in secondary school but now I'm in university. I really didn't expect to see this today but I guess that's how life works. RIP
ReplyDeleteHello, bonk. Good heavens! Has it been that long since you posted? Hope university is doing well by you.
DeleteI got the news from your tweet. An hour or so later, I was listening to Spotify and spotted a song that I like. Turns out it’s Junko’s Tasogare My Love. I don’t think it’s the first time I heard the song but I didn’t know it’s her. May she rest in peace.
ReplyDeleteHi, Larry. I'd been hoping that she would have been able to come out of her illness OK, but sadly, that wasn't the case. Still, we have her large cache of songs to enjoy for the decades to come.
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