Mitsuko Nakamura -- Uta da yo! Jinsei（歌だよ!人生）

 

I figure that the scenes like the one above will become even more frequent as we near the end of the year in Japan, and all of those bonenkai start up once more. All of those business workers have got to gush all of that stress from their systems at the year-end parties and subsequent karaoke sessions.

Well, I guess that the karaoke song menus now have one more boisterous tune to get the salarymen and women to scream their lungs out while dousing themselves in beer and other libations. This is "Uta da yo! Jinsei" (Life is Music!), the March 2025 72nd single for enka singer Mitsuko Nakamura（中村美津子）. Written by Reiji Mizuki（水木れいじ）and composed by Chiaki Oka（岡千秋）, this is one charming barnburner of a song celebrating all that is life and music, a philosophy that I can wholeheartedly embrace although the chances of me getting drunk with a necktie wrapped around my forehead while singing out my own lungs are now very remote. Mind you, I can imagine a number of folks throughout the generations sharing the same level of brio that Nakamura does to sing their hearts out. Reserve those karaoke boxes when you can!