I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
Well, it is a Monday so I gather that a lot of folks out there are brooding about going into another work week. Then again, this is a holiday week for most of North America with my country celebrating Canada Day tomorrow and then the United States partying up the 4th of July in a few days.
Anyways, the setting in this song has none of that. In fact, I'd say that there is a lot of moroseness in a Japanese bar somewhere when it comes to husky-voiced Mina Aoe's（青江三奈）14th single"Anata ni Naita"(I Cried for You). Released in March 1969, once again it's one of those songs that I can't really distinguish between an enka and Mood Kayo. I've always known Aoe as a Mood Kayo expert and the subject matter of heartbreak and loneliness is perfect for a song of that genre but at the same time, the rhythm of that melody also sounds quite traditionally enka. In any case, the songwriters here are lyricist Teruko Takiguichi（滝口暉子）and composer Toshio Miyagawa（宮川としを）.
Just around three years ago, I was made aware of a stylish anime noir called "ODDTAXI" which had an appropriately stylish urban contemporaryopening theme song by the partnership of musician Skirt（スカート）and hip-hop MC/trackmakerPunpee, I didn't add much more than that regarding either fellow.
As for the high-toned Skirt, he is originally Wataru Sawabe（澤部渡）from Tokyo who began his Skirt project in 2006 which has dove into regular J-Pop, guitar pop and City Pop. In 2020, he released a digital EP titled "Extended Vol.1" which includes a snazzy jazz-pop number called "Chikatetsu no Yureru Rhythm" (To the Swaying Rhythm of the Subway). I don't think that would entail any of our subways here in Toronto but I can certainly swing to this song as would Glenn Miller...wherever he is. Helping Skirt out is trumpeter Motoi Murakami（村上基）from funk band Zainichi Funk（在日ファンク）along with a battery of other fine brass musicians. A vinyl version of the EP came out just a few weeks ago.
I decided to make this article a two-for-one post because this second song is so short but also so sweet. "Special" is the title track from Skirt's May 2025 5th album as a major artist, and I gather that this happy tune would qualify as one of his guitar pop tunes. It's still got plenty of groove and swing in its arrangement and the only thing that I was disappointed about was the fact that it cut short so quickly.
Well, as I stated in my previous article, I got to see some new anime for the first time in a long while and the examples happen to be from the spring season this year which is now crossing the finish line. One such show is "Ninja to Koroshiya no Futari Gurashi"（忍者と殺し屋のふたりぐらし...A Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof） , or NinKoro for short, which I consider to be one of those odd-couple anime comedies. The couple here consists of a cute, well-meaning but bumbling ninja warrior and a a stoic and manipulative high school assassin who is brutally effective at her job but cleaning up after the fact is something that she has problems with.
Although seiyuu Haruna Mikawa（三川華月）as the assassin Satoko is unknown to me, her co-star as ninja Konoha is very familiar. I haven't heard from Kana Hanazawa（花澤香菜）in a couple of years, so it's nice to see that she's still active. And Satoko's victims are being played by some major A-lister seiyuu; they are quickly dispatched with a brevity that reminds me of all of those ill-fated special guest stars on the short-lived sitcom "Police Squad".
Hanazawa is also responsible for the opening theme "Yarenno? Endless" (Shall We Do It? Endless) which was written by Hidefumi Kenmochi（ケンモチヒデフミ）of Suiyoubi no Campanella（水曜日のカンパネラ）fame and composed by Taku Inoue（井上拓）. Although I don't think the song will ever approach my top ten anison, it's still catchy enough in a jangly way.
I was out for most of the day today with my anime buddy in a special one-off return to those old biweekly anime-and-meal Sundays that we used to have back in the 2010s. So we got to have some Taiwanese lu rou fan for lunch and then for dinner, it was some scrumptious lamb dumplings at a Chinese Halal restaurant.
We also got some anime from this spring season to watch and also I got to see a lot of my buddy's footage when he went on his latest sojourn to Japan back in May. One place he visited to apply his photography hobby was Fukushima Prefecture, and he just happened to get off at Aizu-Miyashita Station（会津宮下駅）on the Tadami Line（只見線）since from there he could get a great view of a special train bridge to take shots of. The above is brief footage by YouTube uploader jo “JO68” oku of that station from a few years ago.
Pretty quiet back then but when my friend left the station early last month, he heard some strangely familiar music and it turned out that a music plaque memorial or kahi（歌碑）as it's said in Japanese had been erected across from the station only last November. It turned out that it was a memorial for the late Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng（テレサテン）.
What was playing from the plaque was Teng's 8th single in Japan, "Furusato wa Doko desu ka"(Where is Your Hometown?), which was released in February 1977. It's been categorized as an enka and a kayo kyoku although I think in terms of its arrangement, it sounds more toward the latter genre. The tenderhearted song was written by Daisaburo Nakayama（中山大三郎）and composed by Yoshinori Usui（うすいよしのり）and it managed to peak at No. 42 on Oricon.
Now as for why Teng's music plaque was placed at Aizu-Miyashita Station can be explained by where the station is located which is the town of Mishima in Fukushima Prefecture. Back when the single was released, Teng visited Mishima to do a concert and was so moved by the kindness of the residents there that she considered it to be her Japanese hometown. The town also made the singer an honorary resident.
But all joking aside, I also have to inform readers that FILMS vocalist Chuuji Akagi（赤城忠治）passed away in July 2023 at the age of around 69 or 70 due to illness. Unfortunately, I hadn't checked up on his J-Wiki page for updates when I posted the most recent FILMS article just last month.
My first article on FILMS centered on the New Wave band's first single "T.V. Phone Age" but this time, I'm talking their second single from 1981, "Girl". It's another synth-thrummy and bouncy number but with a bit more rock added to the arrangement. Akagi was responsible for both words and music and although "Girl" hadn't been attached to any album during FILMS' heyday, it was included as a bonus track onto a 2009 CD re-release of their 1980 album"Misprint".
On a recent episode of "Asaichi"（あさイチ）when they were holding their Friday "Premium Talk" segment, the interviewee was model/actress/singer Elaiza Ikeda（池田エライザ）who usually goes by her mononym of ELAIZA. I've heard the name before but never saw what she looked like. As the interview went on, we discovered that back in 2018, she'd gotten the gig as host of the NHK BS show "The Covers" where singers of all stripes give their own twist on cover versions of their favourite songs. And apparently, ELAIZA herself got to perform some of her own covers a few months into her time and people found out that she has a pretty good set of smoky vocals. Above you can hear her take on Miyuki Nakajima's（中島みゆき）"Jidai"（時代）although that was on a different program.
A few years later, ELAIZA released her own debut single and album, and then recently, I came across this digital single released in September 2024 which has her collaborating with the fluid collective known as Jazztronik with organizer Ryota Nozaki（野崎良太）providing the melody while ELAIZA and Sonomi Tameoka took care of the lyrics. The Neo-City Pop and club music vibe reminded me of those early 2000s when bird and Misia held centre court for J-R&B.
Jazztronik has worked with other singers such as Miki Imai（今井美樹）and Giovanca. In a way, there's a parallel between ELAIZA and Imai in that both ladies started out in the modeling and acting field only to fall into singing a few years into their career.
I've finished off the Yutaka Kimura Speaks file (for now) since Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）was the final person in "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" to be profiled. So, in the meantime, I'll just be going with a fifth article on any Urban Contemporary tune to finish up the Friday.
As such, why not go with someone a little different? A couple of years ago, I introduced Norwegian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Ole Børud onto the pages of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" because he just impressed me so much with his history and breadth of genres. He's totally at home with both doom metal and West Coast AOR...and I don't mean the west coast of Norway but of the United States and its old creamy soft rock from decades ago.
His 2023 "Find a Way" was just the bee's knees and a welcome and thrumming throwback to 1980s AOR. Plus the fact that he had Bill Champlin, Jay Graydon and Michael Omartian helping him out in the song and the music video firmly implanted in my mind that Børud was the real deal. I still listen to "Find a Way" when I want to fulfill that need for a jolt of happiness and energy.
I also wanted to see what else Børud had done in the AOR part of his discography and so I found this rollicking tune from his 2014 album"Stepping Up". "Maybe" strikes me as his tribute to the sounds of Stevie Wonder, one of the musical legends that informed the overall feeling of "Stepping Up" according to his profile on Wikipedia. But the arrangement also reminds me somewhat of stuff that Bobby Caldwell had done, and so perhaps not surprisingly, I can imagine the Japanese band Sing Like Talking covering "Maybe"...maybe.
I found this instant Go Fan rice dish at a Hokkaido-based food fair at Shin-Kiba Station in Tokyo as I was heading over to Odaiba one day years ago. All it needed was a little boiling water and a few minutes later, I was able to have a fairly hearty meal. Never saw it again though on store shelves so I guess it never left the northernmost main island of Japan.
Yes, I do realize that it wasn't the smoothest segue into this song since a rice version of Cup O' Noodles wouldn't really strike anyone as hearty. Roast beef, roast chicken, jambalaya...those are hearty. But to be fair, I did say fairly hearty.
Regardless, this is "Hearty" from Kei (or Kay) Ishiguro's（石黒ケイ）1982 album"Yokohama Ragtime" (love that cover, by the way). Written and composed by the singer, it's quite the languid sunset tune that kinda straddles the line between City Pop and straight pop. Quite refreshing, like a tall drink of cocktail. Not sure about the heavy breathing, though. Maybe he's having something hearty. Hearty what, I don't know. Anyways, you can also listen to another track from "Yokohama Ragtime", "Find Me".
Last month, I was surprised and delighted to discover that microphone-reticent singer-songwriter Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）, who had basically only made her lovely vocals known through her contribution to Tohoku Shinkansen（東北新幹線）in 1982, had released a digital single about a year ago in July called "Do Yah!". The song was a bouncy reflection of what Bubble Era City Pop was all about.
Well, about a month after that release, the lady released another single online called "UTOPIA". As provided by lyricist Yukako Niizuma and composer/arranger Yamakawa, it's more of a woozy midnight stroll along a park. Perhaps that late-night walk in Tokyo is perhaps a utopia indeed. There's a combination of Burt Bacharach-friendly bossa nova and Kirinji（キリンジ）enveloped in a Neo-City Pop film when I listen to this smooth-as-Baileys song. Of course, Yamakawa's kittenish vocals are still the chef's kiss.
Man, do I remember these old Japanese phones of different colours and shapes when I first visited the nation in 1972. They all had their purposes but for the life of me, I can't remember what they were.
Yesterday I was talking about airports being a popular subject for kayo kyoku. Well, another object that's also been quite the target in the old Japanese songs has been the good ol' telephone whether it be for romantic continuation or dislocation, often the latter.
This time around, I have "Naga Denwa"(Long Phone Call) which was the final track on Yukari Ito's（伊東ゆかり）October 1981 album "Aisuru Uso wo Shittemasuka. Onna ni Kansuru 10-shou"（愛する嘘を知ってますか。女に関する10章...Know Any Loving Lies? Ten Chapters About Women）. And it was a good choice to finish things up on because it is a slow and lush 1970s-style ballad that seems to have been done with some inspiration from folks such as Barry Manilow, Boz Scaggs and Carly Simon. I would place it as an AOR tune but there is that middle part which dives right into classical, so I've also thrown in the Fashion Music tag, too.
Yoko Yamaguchi（山口洋子）was responsible for the lyrics while Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）took care of the melody. The arrangement was handled by the City Pop duo DEW. Some years ago, I also wrote about another track on "Aisuru Uso wo Shittemasuka. Onna ni Kansuru 10-shou" titled "Gigolo", so give that one a try as well.
Welcome to Urban Contemporary Friday on KKP. Compared with the early part of the week when the weather gave us for a few days what the Japanese go through for a few months, it's gotten pleasantly cool here in the GTA. However, I'm sure that the sun worshippers are a bit disappointed, but I'm also certain that some of those hot and hazy days will still be coming.
Back in 2022, I wrote an article about a not-particularly-well-known R&B singer by the name of Aki Koike（小池映）and her groovy song "Ichi Byo"（1秒）. Well, from the same 1997 album "Pure Touch of White", I give you "Naked Natural" which is also another slice of fine Japanese R&B thanks to the songwriters: Koike herself and Satoshi Kadokura（門倉聡）. Love the piano chords, the bubbly bass and the singer's sultry delivery. Perfect since Koike is inviting some fortunate man for a roll in the hay, so to speak.
When it comes to the works of singer-songwriter Asami Kado（門あさ美）, I usually think of her as one of the prime examples behind Japanese Baroque Pop or as I've put it, Fashion Music. Certainly, that's what I've hearing when it comes to her early works in the late 1970s going into the 1980s.
This is about as late as I have gotten into her career. Her 10th and final studio album to date is "La Fleur Bleue" which came out in April 1988 and the first track from it is "Koko ni Iru no" (I'm Right Here). It's basically a coquettish and delicate pop piece that was written by Kado and composed/arranged by Yellow Magic Orchestra's Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）(well, the whole album was produced and composed by the fellow), but I can also hear some of the synthpop and some faint hints at reggae in the underlying rhythm. I assume that is also Takahashi handling the background chorus. The album reached No. 58 on Oricon.
For Japanese music listeners, especially those who like their Mood Kayo, enka and general kayo kyoku, you probably are well aware that airports have been the go-to settings for romantic endings and reminiscings, a place where songwriters have loved to establish their songs. I guess some broken hearts just need to go to their local terminals as much as they need to head out to the countryside resorts to drown their sorrows. Mind you, some of those airports have top-notch restaurants.
Strangely enough, in the past several weeks, I've been able to find a couple of songs with similar titles that are forms of airport kayowith the only difference being the airport in question. And the two airports are right in the Tokyo area.
One is "Narita Hatsu"(Departing from Narita) which describes one woman's wistful need to visit the international airport out in Chiba Prefecture (and it used to be the airport of choice whenever I returned to Canada on vacation) to remember the last time she saw her now ex-paramour. Sung by South Korean singer Cheuni（チェウニ）, this was her 13th single from January 2008 and it was written by Ichizo Fukuda（福田一三）and composed by Kazuya Amikura（網倉一也）. It's quite the classy and dignified example of New Adult Music or Mood Kayo; with those strings in there, I was almost convinced to even throw in the Fashion Music label. There was even something quite Teresa Teng（テレサテン）about the song.
Now, the whole reason that I decided to do this double take on airport kayowith two different South Korean singers was that I saw Park Junyoung（パク・ジュニョン）on an episode of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）several weeks ago as he sang his 6th single from August 2016, "Haneda Hatsu" (Departing from Haneda). Haneda Airport, right in the middle of Tokyo, has been my airport during my visits to Japan in the 2010s, and yep, they've got some pretty fancy and delicious fare in those restaurants.
But getting back on track, Park's song, which hit No. 21 on Oricon, has the protagonist taking a somewhat more disdainful and embittered view as she is the one who's getting on the plane and taking off forever. Her old boyfriend hasn't even shown up to say goodbye so she's giving him the kiss off in absentia. The music by veteran Keisuke Hama（浜圭介）is pretty folksy and whimsical considering Shinichi Ishihara's（石原信一）lyrics, and listening to that mandolin-esque instrument playing throughout the song, I was rather wondering about it being a modern-day Exotic Kayo.
Welcome to the weekly Reminiscings of Youth! I remember when I saw "Ghostbusters" at the theatre over 40 years ago, there was that one scene with nebbishy accountant Louis Tully (played by "SCTV" cast member Rick Moranis who excelled in playing such characters) holding a party for his clients. Just to show how out of touch he was with most things, The Trammps' "Disco Inferno" was playing all too loudly on his stereo during a time when disco was considered way out-of-date in the new age of New Wave, synthpop and breakdancing music. Plus even the term "Disco Sucks" itself was pretty much a cliché at that point.
But I remember when "Disco Inferno", along with a lot of other similar songs back in those 1970s, was the bee's knees in the record shops, dance clubs and radio. I also heard it a lot on those disco LP compilation commercials on TV. It was released on December 28th 1976 and though it didn't make too much headway up the charts in its initial release, it was given rocket boosters once it had been included onto the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack in its nearly 11-minute version. In the following year of 1978, "Disco Inferno" even scraped the Top 10 by reaching No. 11 in America while in Canada, it actually penetrated the Top 10 on RPM by scoring a No. 6 ranking.
Never had a chance to dance to this, but after seeing John Travolta incinerating the floor at the disco, I wouldn't dare. Anyways, what was at the top of the Oricon charts on December 27th 1976?
As much as sound producer and songwriter Yasutaka Nakata（中田ヤスタカ）has been associated with Perfume and capsule, I only discovered just in the last few weeks that he also belonged to a very short-lived duo.
From what I've read on the Japanese Music Wiki, Nakata had seen model Nagisa Ichikawa（市川渚）in a fashion magazine and just decided then and there that he had to see whether they could collaborate on something musically. Ichikawa agreed and the result was the duo Nagisa Cosmetic with the one-and-done album "Nagisa Cosmetic" which was released in July 2004.
The second track is "Cosmetic Happy", a light and bouncy techno-Shibuya-kei ditty with Ichikawa's frothy vocals making things even airier like the best soufflé. If it had anything to do with anime, then I could have heard it as an Akibshibu-kei tune. Once the album was released, Ichikawa decided to focus on her college studies and so Nagisa Cosmetic quietly ended its time in the recording booth.
Because I was never a huge drinker, I never really frequented a bar where everyone knew my name either in Japan or Canada. In the former country, my students took me and the teachers to a whole variety of izakaya and drinking establishments all over Tokyo whereas in the latter country, the closest that I ever got was Kuri, the karaoke bar of my university years, or the Madison Ave. Pub in the Annex, a neighbourhood right by the University of Toronto. And for that matter, The Mad was a place where I noshed more on the chicken wings and fries while drinking a Coke or coffee. I did have the odd Guinness, though.
To be honest, I was looking through the song list in the 1981 Kohaku Utagassen, just to see what else I may have not covered although I did feature a number of songs from that 32nd edition on the pages of KKP. And sure enough, there was one by a venerated and venerable enka singer, Masao Sen（千昌夫）.
"Bokyo Sakaba" (In a Bar Longing For Home) was Sen's 31st single from September 1981, and just from seeing the title, it rather grabbed my attention. I remember from reading up on some of Noelle's articles that the 1950s and 1960s were the decades for bokyo kayo（望郷歌謡）, the songs of nostalgia and homesickness that hit the airwaves to much success. At the time, many young Japanese were encouraged to leave their homes in the far-flung regions to head to the big cities to power the economic revitalization of the nation. Of course, many of those people probably did miss their hometowns and families.
So, it was interesting to see that as late as 1981, there was a song with the title of "Bokyo Sakaba", sung tenderly by Sen as the protagonist in Ryuichi Satomura's（里村龍一） lyrics waxes wistfully about becoming much like his own father as he looks upon his own life and drinking habits. The karaoke-friendly enka melody was provided by Seiichi Sakurada（桜田誠一）.
Supposedly, we're in the final day of what has been a short heat wave here in Toronto. The public swimming pools are now open, but on the first day of the tropical temperatures and humidity, several of them weren't, much to panting people's chagrin due to sudden staffing issues which got the mayor in some hot water. But things are much more copacetic now.
About a month ago, I introduced a duo by the name of Sonic Coaster Pop which put forth their brand of technopop for a few years between 1999 and 2002. However, maybe that time frame is mistaken since they also put out an album in 2004 titled "Super Miracle Circuit".
In any case, one track from this album is "Summer in the Pool". My first article on SoCoPo dealt with their "Usagi-chan Dancin'!"（ウサギチャンダンシン!）which brought together their technopop, some Shibuya-kei and maybe even some Precure theme excitement. "Summer in the Pool" is more attenuated in that it sounds like a very pure and crystalline synth number, something that one would hear in a video game. The pool water would be pink and the sky would be orange.
Touching upon my old amity toward the "Star Trek" franchise, I knew about Brent Spiner's singing ability (heck, I even bought his "Ol' Yellow Eyes is Back" album) and so I enjoyed the above video by Lena Kingsleigh who spliced together a few scenes from the episodes "Data's Day" and "Datalore" from the fourth and first seasons of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" respectively with a scene involving Spiner's turn as nasty cruise director Gil Godwyn in the 1997 movie "Out to Sea".
The thing is though that I don't think it was the above that first got my attention about the song "Oye Cómo Va"originally recorded by Latin jazz great Tito Puente in 1962. I had heard it before though I didn't know of the title and something else led me to the "Out to Sea" scene with Gil's mechanical delivery. However, it was enough to check out its origins.
Then I read that the band Santana blew the doors off with their Latin rock rendition of "Oye Cómo Va" in 1971 on their venerated album "Abraxas".
I'm sure that there have been many other covers of "Oye Cómo Va" over the decades, but I just didn't expect one from Chisato Moritaka（森高千里）. But I heard from KKP co-administrator and friend Marcos V. that the singer-songwriter did her own rendition of the Puente original for her October 1990 album"Kokontozai"（古今東西...All Times And Places）. With Hideo Saito（斉藤英夫）providing the arrangement, I read on J-Wiki that it's supposed to be a bossa nova take but all I can hear here is Moritaka and company basically following the Santana model. In any case, it's been placed on the album just before her "Ame"（雨）.
Just for trivia's sake, although the version on "Kokontozai" was titled "Oye Cómo Va", the song first came to Japanese ears as "Boku no Rhythm wo Kiitokure"（僕のリズムを聞いとくれ）which is a direct translation of the title. In English, it's translated as "Listen how it goes".
My parents have been wondering about where enka legend Harumi Miyako（都はるみ）has been over the past few years. Well, through one newspaper and one magazine via J-Wiki, I found out that she's basically been retired from the geinokai over the past decade with her final concert being at the end of 2015. At last report, she was living with just-as-retired actor Shigeru Yazaki（矢崎滋）in a hotel somewhere in the Tohoku region.
Last night, while we were watching NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新・BS日本のうた）, I encountered a song that I had never heard by Miyako (performed by someone else, of course) titled "Ara Miteta no ne" (Ah, You Were Watching Us) which was released as her 12th single in January 1966. Written by Shinichi Sekizawa（関沢新一）and composed by Shosuke Ichikawa（市川昭介）, it's a coquettish little enka featuring Miyako as this young lady in a small town who has been experiencing a thrilling affair with a guy. Unlike other couples who would want to keep their relationship on the QT, it seems as if young Harumi isn't exactly hiding her glee at being found out. The jauntiness of the melody hints pretty loudly that the revelation is just as thrilling as the affair.
As I mentioned in my previous article, Toronto is at the beginning of its first heat wave since 2023. It was indeed hot out there when I went out for grocery shopping and the air conditioning in the supermarket was very welcome. However, I have to say that summers in Japan helped to heatproof me to a good extent; I faced weeks upon weeks of very hot and humid weather day and night until mid-September. Of course, there were times when I really didn't want to actually heat something up during a roasting-hot day so I often bought a package of hiyashi chuuka（冷やし中華）to nourish myself and keep cool to the best of my ability. You can take a look at the above video by Japanese Cooking 101 to see how it's prepared.
Of course, I wrote the above to provide a fairly smooth segue into this particular song which made up the soundtrack for this particular "Heart Cocktail"（ハートカクテル）vignette called "Cool Lunch Time" some time in 1987. Now, the vignette is not referring to a cold meal such as hiyashi chuuka but the fact that some young fellow in the throes of the wonders of the Bubble Era of Japan is enjoying a spectacularly kakkoii noon hour.
Leaving your Ralph Lauren suit on a branch while you surf during your lunch hour?! Living life large, my friend! Would like to see your life insurance coverage as well. Anyways, the song that adorns "Cool Lunch Time" is another Ken Shima（島健）concoction with the same title that is powered by Nobuo Yagi's（八木のぶお）romantic and saucy harmonica. I always love a good bluesy-jazzy harmonica so you can imagine that I'm also getting some wonderful Toots Thielemans vibes as I listen to this. Now if the name Nobuo Yagi sparks a memory, then you may know about his group Curtis Creek Band.
Originally, "Cool Lunch Time" belonged to Shima's contributions to "Heart Cocktail", "Heart Cocktail Vol. 4" from August 1987, but I gather that from the thumbnail image to the video of the song below, it's also been included on the recent "Heart Cocktail ~ Original Soundtracks" from 2024. Also, have a listen to his "Yakko Ressha"（夜行列車）which is also a part of Vol. 4.
My own cool lunch time back in the day? Well, it wasn't surfing. It was more like hitting Mickey D's and then browsing through Tower Records in Shibuya.
We're having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave! Just like the old standard says, the Greater Toronto Area will be undergoing its first major slamdown of torrid weather for the first time in a couple of years. Until early Wednesday, we'll be getting our 35+ Celsius temperatures. Although I'm not so much of a heat demon myself (and I went through 17 years of melting Tokyo summers), there are a lot of Torontonians who've been aching for some real summer stuff since most of our year is either cold or cool.
Well, let's further emphasize the fact that the Northern Hemisphere is in summer mode with an appropriately summer number. It's been about half a year since we've brought City Pop crooner Tatsuhiko Yamamoto（山本達彦）onto the pages of KKP, so here is his May 1985 single"Natsu no Aijin"(Summer Lovers).
Written by Masao Urino（売野雅勇）and composed by Yamamoto, arranger Jun Sato（佐藤準）created a nice and mildly spicy Latin-tinged tune with a sprinkling of sophisticated pop and jazz thrown in for good measure. Not surprising considering the geography, "Natsu no Aijin" was used for a coffee commercial which reminds me that I do miss my iced coffee in Japan. The song peaked at No. 29 on Oricon, selling a little over 70,000 records.
Yes, I do remember back in the early 2000s when I was living in Japan that there was a major odyssey regarding Tama-chan the bearded seal, so named because it had been first discovered in the Tama River in Tokyo. It was first spotted there in the summer of 2002 and apparently its final confirmed sighting was nearly two years later in the Arakawa River. Between those two time periods, Tama-chan managed to capture the hearts and minds of an entire nation including a weird cult. I'm not sure where Tama-chan is now although I hear that the bearded seal can live up to 31 years, so it may actually be still around somewhere in its old age muttering to its grandpups, "Don't ever get too close to humans! They are nuts!".😬
Tama-chan and this anime reminded me of each other. And I've mentioned the 1995-1996"Bonobono"（ぼのぼの）before when I wrote about its second ending theme "LOVE, TWO LOVE" by Kyoko Suga（須賀響子）back in 2020.
Well, its first ending theme is even more adorable. Also recorded by Suga as her 4th single from June 1995, "Chikamichi Shitai" (I Wanna Take the Short Cut), this was written by the singer with Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）as the composer, and as I've mentioned before, my SOP here is that anything by Yamakawa will usually grab my attention immediately. Indeed, this is another winner which should have had both kids and grownups enjoying the song whenever the end credits popped up. Wouldn't it have been the thing if "Chikamichi Shitai" had been used as the unofficial theme for the Tama-chan saga? But JASRAC would have brought down the copyright hammer.
As kids, my brother and I had a huge toy box but unlike the one above (BleuPaon Bakeshop, Japan) shown by Yoshihito Miki via Wikimedia Commons, our box was merely a very large cardboard box which had everything stuffed into it. Indeed, it was a very humble container that gradually crumbled over time but it did hold what was very dear to us.
Coincidentally enough, it was around this time that singer-songwriter Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）came out with his debut single as a solo artist after years with the famed folk group The Folk Crusaders（ザ・フォーク・クルセダーズ）. "Boku no Omochabako" (My Toy Box) was released in April 1969 and it came out when Kato was a little uncertain about where his career was going after the breakup of his old band, according to the article for the song itself.
Written by his now-former bandmate Osamu Kitayama（北山修）and composed by Kato, the singer had wanted to try something other than folk when making his first solo song. As it is, "Boku no Omochabako" sounds just like the type of languid pop ballad that had been made in America back in those days. There is the gently strumming acoustic guitar, a harmonica and those warm honey-toned horns while Kato delivers his song in a somewhat quivery way which actually works well for it. Lyrically, he is inviting a beloved one to join him on a journey to a happier place while gifting his toy box to her, something filled with tears but hopefully some happy memories, too. The feeling is that the protagonist and his loved one could be of any age.
Kato cited Jimmy Webb and Glen Campbell (another name from my past) as influences for "Boku no Omochabako". The song didn't hit too high...only No. 70 on Oricon but it was the beginning of a successful songwriting career.
When talking about Toshiki Kadomatsu, the fact that he graduated from a Department of Philosophy is quite suggestive.
In 1981, Kadomatsu debuted with the album "Sea Breeze", but it's this and his following two albums that completely positioned him in City Pop embellished with a resort vibe. After that, he would go through a New York-style dance music phase with albums such as "Gold Digger" (1985), but his three albums starting with the 1991 "All is Vanity" up to the beginning of his hiatus in 1993 showed a more personal singer-songwriter side. As well, in 1988, he set up his own label, Om, which is based on a Buddhist term that revealed some influence from Indian philosophy, something that he had majored in.
Putting aside his amiable image from things such as his role as a radio personality, Kadomatsu was basically a deeply thoughtful and philosophical man. Even taking into consideration his early works, they could come across as feel-good love songs at first listen, but they also enveloped a world of truth and proven experience.
Furthermore, his pre-hiatus "Aru ga Mama ni"（あるがままに）and "Kimi wo Kikoeru Hi"（君をこえる日） laid bare personal anguish and isolation, and elicited strong sympathy from at least some of the listeners. As a result, Kadomatsu has possessed this charismatic attraction which hinted at a philosophical spiritualist side within himself. So for this sort of man, what was the message that he was willing to sacrifice himself to convey? You should be able to glean the answer from listening to each of his albums as meticulously as possible.
During his hiatus, Kadomatsu produced his VOCALAND project and was an incognito member of AGHARTA. In 1999, he came out with his "Time Tunnel" album after coming out of his half-decade hiatus and restarted his career and went into a new musical direction, and then in 2016, he welcomed his 35th anniversary.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised"(2020).
Well, I found out early this morning that Summer 2025 will officially arrive today at 10:42 pm EDT. I would say that it arrived a few days ago with the high temperatures and humidity. It already arrived in Japan where it's beginning to tucker millions of residents out. But in recognition of the change in seasons. I'm leaving some summery City Pop stuff for you. Enjoy the beer and your weekend!🍺
Never thought I would see the day that a song about an old handbag would get such the funky City Pop treatment, but as commenter Brian Mitchell has told me, the Japanese will write a song on virtually anything. I can certainly believe it.
Case in point is indeed "Furui Handbag" (Old Handbag) which was a track on singer and seiyuu Mami Koyama's（小山茉美）1985 album"Vivid". Sharing space with "Distance no Manatsu"（ディスタンスの真夏）, the two songs also share the same composer Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）, and my personal SOP has been that whenever I notice a new song that has Yamakawa's fingerprints on it, I investigate it! Sure enough, "Furui Handbag" has the urban funk and stylings of what would become the Bubble Era City Pop a year or so early. Goro Matsui（松井五郎）took care of the lyrics here and I can imagine that a young woman has had plenty of adventures with that handbag all throughout the town.
Around a month ago, I highlighted the late Hiroshi Narumi's（鳴海寛）"Ame Agari"（雨あがり）which first got onto his 2017 album"Boku wa Uta Tsukuri (Early Works 1975-1978)"（僕は詩つくり...I am a Writer of Songs）, although it was obvious that the recording had been done many years earlier. The song also got onto his 2022 "Around the Thru Traffic".
Well, it looks like the same is true with another song, "Oyasumi" (Good Night). Despite the title, Narumi's melody seems to be reflecting a fun night in progress in downtown Tokyo, including some welcome brassiness. Starting off with some mighty fine funky licks, his vocals seem to fly right up into the stratosphere while the arrangement including the chorus reminds me more of the City Pop of the 1970s rather than anything in the 21st century. The title aside, it is indeed a good night for listeners and urban hedonists.
In the first second or so of this song by Naomi Kawashima（川島なお美）, I was getting some vibes from WHAM!'s"Last Christmas", but the interesting thing is that "Thrill Me" had become known to Japanese audiences in February 1984, some ten months before "Last Christmas" made its premiere.
My aural delusions aside, "Thrill Me", which was the B-side to Kawashima's 7th single"Namida ~ Copacabana"（涙・コパカバーナ）, quickly shows off that familiar City Pop descending chord progression before things go into a hazy pop/Resort Pop atmosphere. With a title like "Thrill Me", I'd been expecting something like that samba-infused A-side, but it's actually all very relaxing. Masao Urino（売野雅勇）was the lyricist while Katsuo Ono（大野克夫）took care of the melody. Also, from what I've read of the lineup of musicians in the recording booth according to the writeup on YouTube under the video, it was quite the star-studded affair with Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）on keyboards, Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）on guitar and backup vocals, and even Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）helping on backup vocals as well (among other big names). So, Tohoku Shinkansen（東北新幹線）was in the house!
My previous article was in the form of a tribute to the late screenwriter James Miki（ジェームス･三木）who passed away a few days ago. I learned that, after making the switch from singing to writing, he basically started his new career in 1969 with scripts for movies and television. Perhaps his first foray into the latter medium was an episode in the final season of the cop show "Shichinin no Keiji" (The Seven Detectives) which had its run between 1961 and 1969 on TBS.
I've covered my share of Japanese cop show themes throughout the history of KKP. The theme from the 1970s "Taiyo ni Hoero"（太陽にほえろ）is downtown funky while "Rhythm & Police" from the 1990s "Odoru Dai Sosasen"(踊る大捜査線）is a techno-ized version of an old Mexican song, and another 1960s police cop theme for "The Guardman"（ザ・ガードマン）is cool and jangly. Basically, every cop show theme has its own distinctive DNA.
The theme for "Shichinin no Keiji" is no different. Composed by Takeo Yamashita（山下毅雄）, it's jazzy and moody as if it had been lifted from some film noir taking place in Europe somewhere. What further adds to that foggy atmosphere is the bass humming and scatting by Zek Dechine（ゼーク・デチネ）who sounds like he's been through every alley and dark street on the continent of life with a side trip through the Soviet Union or a Warsaw Pact nation. As it is though, the theme seems to reflect the lonely and tough lives these detectives have to go through in the pursuit of justice.
Speaking of which, who the heck is Zek Dechine? I could only find his katakana reading and so I'm not sure if my romaji for his name is accurate. Secondly, I had never heard of this fellow before. It took quite a search online but eventually I found out through this Japanese blog that purports that Dechine hadn't even been a professional singer. It turns out that composer Yamashita knew this Jewish jeweler in Tokyo who apparently had a side gig singing at this Akasaka club that he frequented. Somehow, Yamashita persuaded Dechine to record the melancholy theme song for "Shichinin no Keiji" which ended up becoming a million-seller hit.
However, there's plenty of irony at the end of this one. It also turns out that Dechine ended up becoming wanted for fraud and fled Japan with an international warrant chasing him. The blog entry doesn't make clear whether he was caught or not. But just imagine: a criminal humming his way through a theme song for a cop show that ends up as a hit and possibly getting away with it.
Screenwriter, writer and former singer James Miki（ジェームス･三木）passed away at the age of 91 on June 14th. For some reason, his name rang a bell when I first heard his obituary on NHK last night. Being the writer behind many many scripts on TV and movies since 1969, I probably did hear his name quite a bit although I've never been all that avid a watcher of Japanese productions.
However, his name has been mentioned among the pages of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" once. He was the writer for the 1985 NHK morning serial drama "Miotsukushi"（澪つくし）which garnered one of the highest average ratings; he was even the lyricist for the sung version of its theme song as recorded by Etsuko Sai（彩恵津子）. A couple of years later, he would also be responsible for writing the script for the NHK historical drama "Dokuganryū Masamune"（独眼竜政宗）, showing the life and times of the legendary feudal lord Masamune Date（伊達政宗）as depicted by a young Ken Watanabe（渡辺謙）.
But as I mentioned up at the top, Miki, who had been born Kiyomoto Yamashita（山下清泉）in what had been Manchukuo, was a singer for a very short while before deciding that he would fare better as a writer. According to J-Wiki and part of an interview during the NHK tribute to him, he was given his stage name by his representative record company along the same lines as more famous singers such as Dick Mine（ディック・ミネ）and Frank Nagai（フランク永井）. When he switched from recording to writing, he simply kept his stage name as a new pen name.
That short while of singing took up the years of 1957 and 1958, and at one point, he was even the warmup act for the aforementioned Nagai and singer Haruo Minami（三波春夫）. His second of three singles released in 1958 was "Sakaba no Katasumi de" (In One Corner of a Bar). Written by Kazuo Negishi（根岸一男）and composed by Kenroku Uehara（上原賢六）, I wasn't quite sure whether to categorize this rather gentle song as a straight kayo kyoku or an enka tune. Despite the titular spot, I certainly couldn't call it a Mood Kayo but in the end, since I see it labeled on YouTube as a ryukoka（流行歌）, the old way of saying kayo kyoku, I've given it the pop label.
It's only the one song I've heard, but I don't think Miki was any slouch at singing at all. However, he obviously found a much more lucrative and fulfilling career handling a pen rather than a microphone. My condolences to his family, friends and fans.
Abram: He once killed three men in a bar with a (expletive) pencil! Who can (expletive) do that?!
Well, some guy named John W. I know another amazing fellow named John W.
Yeah, he once terrified millions of people with two notes! Who could do that?!
It also didn't hurt that these two notes were the musical representation of a hungry Great White shark. I was just a few months shy of becoming ten years old when Steven Spielberg's iconic "Jaws" came out on June 20th 1975...indeed tomorrow will be the 50th anniversary of its release. I remember seeing the TV version of the above trailer as a commercial, and that was enough to have me burrow into the sofa. The following months wouldn't get any easier as "Jaws" thrilled and scared audiences and its fame would lead to more scenes getting shown on the telly. I finally saw the entire movie on VHS years later and yep, there would be plenty of jump scares including the one with poor Ben Gardner. Probably by the end of 1975, people refused to get into the water...even if the water belonged to Lake Ontario (well, mind you, back then people refused to get into the water there for different reasons).
Anyways, back to that John W. Of course, I'm referring to soundtrack maestro John Williams. A couple of years before he would make another iconic soundtrack via "Star Wars", he had really made his mark with those two notes for "Jaws", something that initially had Spielberg laughingly reacting to it as if Williams had wanted to make a joke. Instead, this ostinato (only learned about the musical term recently) has become one of cinema's most recognized and deadly riffs, and folks who listen to it from other people will automatically get that image of a shark in their heads. Seeing the various reaction videos (like the one above) for certain scenes from the movie, a number of the reactors reacted viscerally whenever the two notes began playing again. It's back!🦈
I finally listened to the full version of the "Jaws" theme when I bought "John Williams ~ Greatest Hits: 1969-1999". I had no idea that there had been more to the basic two notes, and yeah, it's dramatic and thrilling, although I was a little surprised by that middle part where it sounds like some kids happily hitting the water at the beach or a buffet at their favourite restaurant...not knowing in the former case that they could become the buffet.
Well, I heard that "Jaws" will be getting that big 5-0 celebration later in the summer with special big-screen releases among other events. Just when you thought it was safe to go into the water...
Incidentally, Japan wouldn't get its first look at "Jaws" until several months later in December 1975. Also, when I was first introduced to the term ostinato, my faulty memory had initially remembered a song by KEDGE that I had thought used the word for its title. However, the song is actually "Sostenuto"（ソステヌート）, named for a musical term which has a different meaning.
What was at the top of the charts on June 23rd 1975 in Japan? I give you Nos. 1 and 2.
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