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.
I've heard of the manga "Ashita no Joe"（あしたのジョー...Tomorrow's Joe）and know of its anime adaptation which has become iconic for that final scene of the main character leaving this mortal coil in the best way possible. However, I hadn't known about the live-action adaptation that was released in 1970. The man who played the titular boxer was actor/singer Shoji Ishibashi（石橋正次）who hails from Osaka, and he was featured on the big and small screen up to the end of the 20th century, although his time as a stage actor has continued up to nearly the present day.
Ishibashi also had a music career that spanned from 1970 to 1978 with 19 singles and 10 albums under his belt. One of his big hits was his third single from January 1972, "Yoake no Teishajo"(Sunrise Station) which managed to stay at No. 1 for three consecutive weeks, sold 493,000 records and ended up as the 11th-ranking single of the year. Written by Haruki Tango（丹古晴己）and composed by Gendai Kanou（叶弦大）, it's a bittersweet ballad of the times with the boss rhythm and the sorrowful background chorus as Ishibashi sings about a couple having to tragically and reluctantly separate under unclear circumstances although their love for each other is crystal clear. The song was successful enough that it also earned Ishibashi his one and only invitation to NHK's Kohaku Utagassen at the end of 1972.
Spoke with fellow KKP administrator and contributor Marcos V. some days ago, and by the way, the above is a shot of Rio de Janeiro from his camera. Of all the things that have been happening here in my frigid city and around the world, Marcos reminded me that another major event will be starting up once more from tomorrow on the 13th. And that is the annual Carnival in Brazil. Tomorrow also happens to be Friday the 13th so I'm not sure if there is any significance of that day coinciding with the start of Carnival.
Just by coincidence, I came across this song in the last number of days. "Rio no Carnival" (Rio's Carnival) is the latest single by singer Rio Azato（東里梨生）which was released just last month. A combination of Brazilian samba and Okinawan melodies, I was left somewhat surprised that I hadn't heard this natural affinity between the two types of music before. With the very upbeat feeling and the whoops and the cute cover for the single, I wonder if "Rio no Carnival" could even make for an ending theme of some anime. Words and music were provided by Shimon (Jaa BourBonz).
Azato herself hails from Ishigaki City in Okinawa, and with Yu Ishigaki（石垣優）, the two of them formed the pop and folk unit Yanawarabaa（やなわらばー）in 2003. The band lasted until 2020 after which Azato continued on a solo career path.
When I heard this pleasant song on the most recent episode of NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）the other day, I assumed that it was one of the veteran enka singers who had tackled this way back since it had that certain old kayo sound. Not surprisingly, I'm once again having crow for dinner.🐦⬛
Nope, when I looked up this tune via J-Wiki afterwards, I found out that "Shinchi Waltz", a laidback enka about the commercial area of Shinchi in Osaka, had actually been recorded by a comedy trio by the name of Let's Go Sanbiki（レツゴー三匹）. Written by Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and composed by Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）, "Shinchi Waltz" was released as the trio's second single in 1973. From what I can glean from Hashimoto's lyrics, it's all about love gained and lost in the titular neighbourhood. And with the titular dance, there is that rhythmical flow in the melody that almost approaches that of a lullaby. The song was a hit, selling around 100,000 records.
Despite the three fellows, Let's Go Shouji（レツゴー 正児）, Let's Go Jun（レツゴー じゅん）and Let's Go Chousaku（レツゴー 長作）, being shown on the single cover, I only hear one of them singing away. Maybe the other two couldn't sing a note to save their lives but they were there in the recording booth as moral support. Anyways, although I was surprised to find out the identity of the singer behind "Shinchi Waltz", I also remembered that comedy groups in Japan are not unknown to cut records. The manzai duo Saruganseki（猿岩石）and the group Imo Kin Trio（イモ欽トリオ）are just two examples I know that have had their hits.
Let's Go Sanbiki first got started in 1968 when Shouji, Jun and then-member Let's Go Isshuu（レツゴー 一修）had trained within a comedy troupe known as Rookie Bakusho Gakudan（ルーキー爆笑劇団）. Their name came about from a Nagoya yakitori restaurant called Sanbiki that they had frequented but added the phrase "Let's Go" for further oomph. Isshuu would leave the team a year later and was immediately replaced by Chousaku. Let's Go Sanbiki would last until the early 1990s when they would go on indefinite hiatus but with the passing of Jun in 2014, the trio would officially break up.
Although February 11th 2026 has already passed into history in Japan as I'm typing this, it's still February 11th here so allow me to give a belated Happy Birthday to the nation via its National Foundation Day. As such, I was wondering what song I could contribute to commemorate the day and I remember that I had yet to post this one onto the blog.
"Sakura, Sakura" is a traditional folk song that I've known since I was only yea high. I'd assumed that this was a truly ancient creation going back a thousand years or so, but its birth was relatively recent...being sometime during the Edo era (1600-1868). No songwriter was ever identified and actual lyrics for the song weren't included until around 1888.
I guess in a way then that the mystery surrounding its origins fits the mystique of "Sakura, Sakura" since it sounds so hauntingly beautiful with lyrics that talk about how fleeting the existence of things are...illustrated by cherry blossom petals. My early years of listening to the song were only via the instrumental version that I heard often enough whenever my family went to Nikko Gardens, one of Toronto's first Japanese restaurants. Basically, I had thought that "Sakura, Sakura" was the patron saint song of Japanese restaurants. I would always remember whether I should choose the teriyaki set or the tempura set while it was playing on the speakers. The above version, by the way, is performed by the NHK Jido Gassho Dan（NHK東京児童合唱団...NHK Tokyo Children's Choir） while the one below (with a slightly different arrangement) is performed by Miku Hatsune（初音ミク）.
It's pretty safe to say that over the decades, whenever a traditional Japanese music group comes over to the West for recitals, "Sakura, Sakura" is pretty much obligatory performing. As for my initial assumption on the age of the song, I'd thought that I would actually break a new record of how far back I could go in time with a new ancient year in Labels as opposed to 1597, but I guess I will go for the aforementioned 1888.
I never became a dedicated follower of "Lupin III"（ルパン三世）although the music associated with the various shows and movies has interested me over the years because some of it has had roots in jazz and City Pop. But I do have to say that next year will be the 60th anniversary since the original manga was first published in 1967.
Until today though, I hadn't even known of this "Lupin III" flick called "Lupin Tai Clone"（ルパンVS複製人間）which literally translates into "Lupin vs. The Clone" although the English title is"Lupin the 3rd: The Mystery of Mamo" which got into theatres in December 1978. I have no idea what it's all about but I'm sure that it's got the usual Lupin hijinks with Fujiko, car chases and lots of derring-do.
What it also has is a rather interesting insert song called "Lupin Ondo" (The Lupin Song). I never thought I'd see the day that a Lupin song would be a 80/20 mix of traditional festival-friendly min'yo and some of that Lupin jazz created by composer Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）. With "Lupin III" creator Monkey Punch（モンキー・パンチ）and Daisaburo Nakayama（中山大三郎）providing the lyrics, the finishing touch was inviting the legendary Haruo Minami（三波春夫）coming into the recording booth to sing "Lupin Ondo".
I'd expected the characters to be involved in a typical Japanese festival as they danced to "Lupin Ondo", but I guess the producers went with a montage-style ending credit sequence while Minami was singing away.
Not sure if any of the KKP viewers have also been viewers of the current Olympics happening in Italy but I've been catching my fair share of the action including snowboard, ski, hockey and speed skating.
Having posted back number's"Doushite mo Doushite mo"（どうしてもどうしても）which is serving as NHK's official theme song for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina (or perhaps for copyright purposes, I should say NHK's "winter sports" theme song), I decided to see what other past tunes have been used as Japanese television network themes for the Olympic games. Well, I found out that TBS' first-ever Olympic theme was introduced for the 1992 Barcelona Games and it's the coupling song to Hikaru Nishida's（西田ひかる）July 1992 13th single"Ikiterutte Subarashii"（生きてるって素晴らしい...To Be Alive is Wonderful）.
"Truth" is a song that was written and composed by Hiromasa Ijichi（伊秩弘将）and it's got that jumpy and jaunty arrangement that reminds me of much of the discography of Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）. And that shouldn't be a surprise since Ijichi also whipped up tunes for Watanabe as well. Following "Truth", TBS wouldn't punch in another Olympic theme for its coverage until the Nagano Winter Games in 1998 and that turned out to be the hit "UNITE! THE NIGHT!". As for "Ikiterutte Subarashii", it reached No. 24 on Oricon.
Ah, yes...the sandogasa. According to Jisho.org, it's described as a "type of traditional Japanese conical hat", although I can't really see anything conical about the hat itself. However, I have seen this on many a Japanese pate in historical TV shows and movies, and it can be quite the introductory device as a lordless ronin of justice travels the byways of Japan with the sandogasa covering his eyes until it's time to reveal the whole face...and usually a whole ton of sword-flashing kickass.
NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌...Songs of Japanese Spirit） was back on for the first time since the Holidays and I got to see someone sing a Harumi Miyako（都はるみ）song that I hadn't heard before (or at least for a very long time). Apparently, lyricist and composer Shosuke Ichikawa（市川昭介）, one of Miyako's main songwriters in her first decade as a singer, was tickled pink about seeing the young enka chanteuse in a sandogasa that he just went and whipped up her 39th single"Harumi no Sandogasa"(Harumi's Sandogasa) for April 1969.
The whole lyrical premise is that young Harumi wants to go around everywhere wearing that sandogasa so that she's not recognized, although I have to say that even in the latter half of the 20th century, I think she would have still stuck out like a sore thumb wearing that archaic hat. Perhaps if she kept her person in the Asakusa district, she would have a chance...
Well, then again, if she had been able to head back in time to the Edo era via TARDIS and completely submerge herself into a warrior's role, she may just get away with it...of course, while wearing the titular hat. Back in 1969, she got plenty of fame though by scoring a No. 25 ranking for "Harumi no Sandogasa" and even getting her 5th appearance on the Kohaku Utagassen to sing the song at the end of the year. Of course, her high but steely and growly vocals were one of the highlights.
Well, I never thought I would ever see a video combining the hilarity of a "Looney Tunes" cartoon the macabre nature of a particularly sour "Outer Limits" episode. But perhaps I haven't seen a "Simpsons" or "Family Guy" entry recently.
I am referring to the above music video created by YouTuber xchemix for the Plus-Tech Squeeze Box song "Dough-nut's Town's Map", a track on the band's second album"CARTOOOM!" from 2004. The track itself is one friendly ball of looniness that sounds like an especially insane and grand soundtrack to one of those old Warner Bros. cartoons from the 50s or 60s. And apparently, the gaggle of singers, represented by the catch-all group name of The People of Dough-Nuts Town, includes Chinatsu Furukawa from the duo Sonic Coaster Pop.
The melody reminds me a bit of "Heigh-Ho", the famous work song performed by The Seven Dwarfs in the 1937 animated feature "Snow White" by Walt Disney. That makes the "Gotcha" moment in the video all that startling when it arrives at the end. There is something quite "Soylent Green" about that. One-half of Plus-Tech Squeeze Box, Tomonori Hayashibe（ハヤシベトモノリ）, was responsible for words and music.
I'd never heard of Chiemi Kai（甲斐智枝美）before but I saw the above video and decided to check it out. "Ite-za no Kare" (Sagittarius Guy) was the B-side to her 7th and penultimate single"Sasotte Runna"（誘って・ルンナ...Invite Me, Runna） which hit the record shelves in January 1982. Written by Kyoko Matsumiya（松宮恭子）, composed by Tetsuya Furumoto（古本鉄也）and arranged by Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）, it's quite the swinging rock n' roll boogie for an aidoru tune. Considering one of the first words in the lyrics is Harajuku, I can guess that there was a shoutout to the whole rock n' roll scene there.
Kai hailed from Fukuoka Prefecture and got into show business by becoming the 29th Grand Champion on the audition show "Star Tanjo!"（スター誕生!...A Star is Born!）in 1979. She had been seen as one of the up-and-coming aidoru alongside other ingenues such as Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）and Naoko Kawai（河合奈保子）in the post-Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）era. However, among her three albums and eight singles released between 1980 and 1982, the highest ranking that any of her discography attained was No. 103 on Oricon, although she had her other duties as a tarento and actress.
In 1990, she retired from showbiz and got married to Toru Hasebe（長谷部徹）who was a studio musician and drummer for the fusion band The Square after which they had two boys. She became a housewife and helped out at a flower shop but kept in touch with her senpai, former aidoru and celebrity Ikue Sakaibara（榊原郁恵）. However according to a Daily Shincho article, in July 2006, her eldest son who was in high school at the time discovered her hanging in the second-floor room of their house. It was suspected that Kai had committed suicide due to financial worries and health issues. She was 43 years old.
Well, it's been quite a day already although I'm typing this before noon. The Winter Olympics are on, the Super Bowl will probably upstage that later tonight, Japan's Lower House elections have resulted in an LDP steamroller, and our long-awaited and long-suffering LRT here in Toronto finally launched about six years late. All a little overwhelming on a Sunday to be sure and I wouldn't mind a little solace right now.
I haven't posted a Sing Like Talking article for well over a year although Chikuzen Sato's（佐藤竹善）group is one of my favourite bands, and with all of the attention on singers' career anniversaries in last year's Kohaku Utagassen, SLT, which I believe has yet to be seen on NHK's Shibuya stage on New Year's Eve, celebrated its 40th anniversary last year. Unfortunately, any celebrations were probably muted to a great degree due to the passing of SLT guitarist Tomohiko Nishimura（西村智彦）in June 2025.
The other surprise is that I have yet to put up an Author's Picks on my favourite Sing Like Talking tunes. And this one was difficult because the band is so smooth in a number of genres, whether it be funk, AOR, straight pop, etc. and they've had a lot of great songs in my estimation. But I've got my five favourites here...although realistically, they are four favourites by SLT itself and one by Sato from his "Cornerstones" album series (it is too cool to pass up).
Hello! It's hard to believe that we're in February already. I hope this new year's been going well for you guys.
I, though, didn't have the best start to 2026. I'd come down with a horrendous case of the flu since New Year's day. Perhaps it was all the residue fatigue from 2024 and stressors of 2025 compounded with a particularly serious flu season this winter, but I was put out of commission for almost two weeks. My sinuses were the main source of grief; that in turn caused my ears to become rather sensitive, so much so that I couldn't stomach listening to music. The dynamic rhythms and the emotive voices of the singers I ordinarily listened to caused me discomfort. That's saying a lot, because I can't remember a day where I didn't listened to a single song. It was two kayo-less days before I finally had the desire to listen to something. This song was Michiya Mihashi's (三橋美智也)Muteki (Fog whistle).
Yes, onlyMuteki.
Muteki is an 80's enka written by prolific lyricist Hiroshi Yokoi(横井弘) and composed by Toshiyo Kamata (鎌多俊与). According to the J-Wiki, it first surfaced in Michi’s 1982 album, Furusato Zessho (ふるさと絶唱), before being sold as a single in December 1983. Admittedly, I came across this just a few months ago while sampling as many of the Toshi-san-composed Michiya bushi (みちや節). Based on the comprehensive discography in Hiroshi Ogino’s (荻野広)Michiya Mihashi: Sengo kayo ni miru Showa no sesou (三橋美智也: 戦後歌謡に見る昭和の世相), Muteki seemed to be their final collaborative piece.
As for why I could stomach this singular song (I must've listened to it at least 6 times on the day I broke my music fast), it's because it's an extremely easy-listening enka. Toshi-san's melody of a medium-ish tempo is pleasantly jaunty, yet not too intense; the plucky notes of the acoustic guitar and whistling flute making it lively enough. Even the dramatic segments were arranged in such a way that isn't too jarring while still working as intended. Later-day Michi's more subdued delivery still holds a level of despondence that carries the sadness within Yokoi's story - that of an ill-fated pair whose tragic love story began at a foggy wharf. Every aspect of Muteki just melded together so seamlessly, ill me could enjoy it without a shred of discomfort. Even after recovering, I still listen to Muteki fairly frequently since it fits almost any mood I'm in. I guess I found my kayo equivalent to chicken soup, although I wouldn't have foreseen it being a Michiya bushi.
When I first saw this title, I immediately thought that this should be the title for the next Benoit Blanc movie. Yep, my impression of any Colonial Hotel is that it must be located somewhere near the bayous of Louisiana. And yet, there is a Colonial Hotel located right in my currently icy province of Ontario in the community of Grand Bend.
Anyways, moving onto that song, "Colonial Hotel no Dekigoto"(Incident at the Colonial Hotel) is another example on KKP where I start with the B-side of a single before going to the A-side. And indeed, this was the A-side for Seiko Tomizawa's（富沢聖子）1984 single that I'm getting to today more than a year after having tackled the B-side of "Anata to Southern Island"（あなたとSouthern Island）.
For something titled "Colonial Hotel no Dekigoto", one would imagine something rather zydeco in the arrangement, but instead, we get something on the order of jazzy sophisticated pop and Brazilian...namely, bossa nova. This is a nice contrast to the tropical breeziness of "Anata to Southern Island". It's almost the same cast of characters for both songs: lyricist Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）and arranger Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）but for the A-side, it's composer Takuya Takahashi（高橋拓也）. A Benoit Blanc movie is something that I don't hear here...it's more Henry Mancini-esque with dashing romance in this one, and it fits the type of music that Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）and Junichi Inagaki（稲垣潤一）tackled with aplomb in those 1980s.
Really cold out there. The wind chill factor was in the mid-thirties below zero Celsius this morning. Still had to get some errands done but at least, we got our scrumptious lunch at our favourite diner. My double-patty smash burger warmed me up nicely and put me to sleep just as quickly when we got home. If I'd ordered a milkshake, I would have been in a coma for several hours but I settled for multiple cups of coffee instead.
Well, I have to wake up sometime since I still have many more hours to go before I sleep properly. I'd say that the following is a good form of getting those energies up. This is "Mystery Cat", a track on a 1980 album called "Toshiyuki Miyama & New Herd Plays Chikara Ueda ~ Big Stuff" by the jazz-fusion band Toshiyuki Miyama & New Herd（宮間利之＆ニューハード）. I had never heard of these guys before but indeed they can cook on "Mystery Cat" which was originally composed by Chikara Ueda（上田力）. It sounds like something ideal for the soundtrack of a "Lupin III" movie with all of the bold brass.
I had assumed that Miyama and his crew had their origins in the 1970s just like Casiopea and The Square, but I was surprised to read on Discogs that the man had this ensemble since 1950 called Jive Ace which expanded its roster and got renamed New Herd in 1958. I don't know much about how many albums the band put out but they've been performing now for well over half a century even after Miyama's passing in 2016.
It was almost a couple of months ago when I posted Nanako Sato's（佐藤奈々子）"Muse no Koibito"（ミューズの恋人）and I got quite a few complimentary comments about the cover for the source album, her December 1977 "Sweet Swingin'". To use an old phrase: hubba-hubba.💓
Well, remembering all that, I've decided to post an article on another track from "Sweet Swingin'" and that would be her "Cheap Dance". Like "Muse no Koibito", this was also written by Sato and composed by Motoharu Sano（佐野元春）but this time, I wouldn't say that this was a City Pop tune per se. It's more of a good ol' honky-tonk rock n' roll number and I could actually imagine young Sato dancing and singing it up in a farm-fresh summer dress at some dive bar in either America or Japan with those hard-working horns behind her.
On a PS note, I finally got to throw the YouTube link into Sonoteller AI after a few failed attempts, and what I got was rather interesting, to say the least:
LYRICS ANALYSIS:
The lyrics depict a scene of waking up in the afternoon surrounded by a swirling vortex. The imagery is vivid, with references to bright lights and summer activities. The language used is Japanese. The emotions conveyed are energetic and playful. There is no explicit content in the lyrics.
MUSIC ANALYSIS:
Genres
Pop (80), Rock (70), Indie (60), Electronic (50), Dance (40)
Subgenres
Pop rock (80), Indie pop (70), Electronic rock (60), Dance-pop (50), Indie rock (40)
A few months ago, I posted up an article regarding a collaboration between Neo-City Pop singer-songwriter Hitomitoi（一十三十一）and indie rock project Wild Nothing, aka Jack Tatum, which was titled "Like a First Kiss" and included on the singer's March 2025 album"Telepa Telepa". That song had some of that 1970s nostalgia imbued into it.
Well, from the same album is the track "Deja Vu no Blue"(Deja Vu Blue) which was written by Hitomitoi and composed by Dorian. There is no doubt about the time placement for this one. It's the danceable 2020s brand of City Pop as the video shows all that is fun and games in Tokyo. Some wonderful self-harmonizing by the singer and the images of the city and dancing feet may have inbound tourism into Japan rising again. By the way, I heard that last year was a record with over 40 million tourists coming in from abroad. Anyways, there is one piece of nostalgia included in the video for this very skippy song and that is the old-fashioned green public phone, although it looks pretty sauced up (maybe it imbibed too much of the Long Island Iced Tea I'd mentioned in the previous article).
Rum and vodka? Hmmm...sounds like putting together TNT and nitroglycerin. Then again, I was never much of a drinker so I think those two forms of alcohol are fairly lethal for a guy like me. For the purposes of this article, I was trying to look for any cocktail that includes rum and vodka and I didn't have to look far. There is the (in)famous Long Island Iced Tea as you can see above.
Back in my university days in the 1980s, one of my newfound friends after the Japanese-Canadian Students' Association had been formed and I ended up going to either Kuri the karaoke bar or some other drinking establishment in downtown Toronto with the rest of the gang. Of course, I stuck with my dependable Coke but my friend was intrigued by this tall cool cocktail known as the Long Island Iced Tea. Of course, neither of us knew it really wasn't iced tea but something far more potent with a whole plethora of stuff in there including rum and vodka. He ordered it, drank it and enjoyed it to the last drop. By the last subway, he was ready to drop. But before that, he was flying around like an overcaffeinated gibbon on the subway handholds. He was out of his mind, maybe out of his body and the next morning, out of much of his digested food perhaps. Maybe it was that experience that I witnessed but I've yet to have my first Long Island Iced Tea.
Anyways, all that preamble ramble about rum and vodka is up there so that I can introduce "Rum & Vodka", a track by City Pop chanteuse Haruko Kuwana（桑名晴子）from her June 1985 album"Don't You Know". It's great to have Kuwana back on the blog after so long and although the song has a pretty potent title, this tune composed by her brother Masahiro Kuwana（桑名正博）and written by Itsuro Shimoda（下田逸郎）is quite the laidback and groovy product that straddles the line between City Pop and urbane pop although I think the saxophone has it brought over to the former side. I can happily take in this "Rum & Vodka" without fearing any violently deleterious effects.
Yep, as a high schooler, three of my high school friends and I played gin, poker and blackjack for penny ante stuff. I don't recall making it big even with the chips and pennies...which has also informed my luck on lotteries.
Strangely enough, I find this "Black Jack" a whole lot more soul-satisfying. Sung by Yuki Kato（加藤有紀）, for one thing, it's got a great rumble of a rhythm...like taking a good ol' strut around Shinjuku or Roppongi. This was a 1983 single for the singer although I'm not sure whether it preceded or followed her other single "Nazo wa To-ka-na-i-de"（謎はと・か・な・い・で）from that same year. For some reason, there's also something oddly 60s about "Black Jack", as if a potential protagonist could be an adventurous spy who doesn't take himself too seriously like Matt Helm or Derek Flint. Well, Las Vegas had quite the scene back in that decade.
Kato herself was responsible for the lyrics which she delivers in quite the coquettish purr. Meanwhile, Tsunehiro Izumi（和泉常弘）took care of the cool City Pop melody. And according to Hip Tank Records, the fusion band Parachute was backing Kato up in the recording booth.
The above is the famous gyoza statue just outside of JR Utsunomiya Station in Tochigi Prefecture. Utsunomiya City is one of the big places for the cooking and consumption of those plump and delicious gyoza dumplings. I actually transited through the station on my way to other farther places in Japan at the time, but sadly, I couldn't partake in any of the gyoza places there (although I ate a truck's worth of the dumplings during my 17 years in the nation).
Now, the reason that I started out with one of the big symbols for Utsunomiya is that the lady for this article hails from there. I'm talking about singer-songwriter Midori Hara（原みどり）who has been mentioned twice in the blog. One article featured her 1987 debut (and what a debut!) single"Tsugunai no Hibi"（償いの日々）which was also a debut with Tulip lead singer, Kazuo Zaitsu（財津和夫）. If anyone asked me what an 80s power ballad sung by Japanese artists is like, I would point to this one.
I also found out that she had been the first female vocalist for the long-running eclectic band SPANK HAPPY from the early 1990s. And in those days, the band took on a rock flavour with Hara taking on a katakana-ized form of her name（ハラミドリ）and a certain timbre that reminded me of another rock vocalist, YUKI from the band Judy & Mary. And it was then that I assumed that Hara was really about that pop-rock sound.
Well, how wrong I was. I had a bit of a taste of her debut album from June 1987, "MiDo", and the songs sounded like a playful funk-pop. And then for the Holidays, I was able to pick up a few albums, one of which was her second album"KO・KO・RO・NOTE" (Heart Note) which was released in March 1988. If I'm not mistaken, Hara took care of all of the songs' words and music while both Hara and Masahiro Ikumi（幾見雅博）were the album arrangers.
"KO・KO・RO・NOTE" is quite the revelation. If the aforementioned YUKI had been asked to tackle a City Pop or generally adult contemporary project, this album would be what I had envisioned. It all starts with "Pajama no Mama de STEP!"（ぱじゃまのままでStep!...Dance About In Your Pajamas!）which has a battery of synths and horns coming together to provide some of that Bubble Era champagne-and-caviar urban sound. The singer even sounds a bit like Janis Joplin having some real vocal fun with the breathy and propulsive delivery and scatting. I can imagine her dancing in her PJs when she was a teen...and getting yelled at by her parents.
"Uchuu Kuukan Yuuei"（宇宙空間遊泳...Spacewalk） is the second track and this one hit me very hard when I first heard it because of the really smooth City Pop vibes here. The groove and romantic sax solo provided by arranger Ikumi rolls in like a large ripple of velvety-smooth chocolate syrup. There are some big names of the genre helping out as well such as Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）on flugelhorn, Shuichi "PONTA" Murakami（村上ポンタ秀一）on drums, and Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）on piano (you can see the full list underneath the video at YouTube). It's been a while since I've heard something this City Pop and at the same time, I also got those early 80s Manhattan Transfer vibes.
Track 3 is "Kannazuki no Omoi"（神無月の想ひ...October Memories） which is even more laidback and languid than "Uchuu Kuukan Yuuei" but this is more of a Latin-tinged pop ballad. Time for a twirl around the dance floor at 10 pm here.
"Kokoro no Juunan Taisou"（Ko・Ko・Roの柔軟体操...Calisthenics of the Heart） has her bringing more of the old-timey-wimey jazz although the song is more of a fusion effort between it and pop...nice to bring this in when we've completed the first century of the American-born genre. I don't get to hear clarinets so much in jazz anymore so it's nice to have the ol' licorice stick back, especially I used to bring that home almost every night during junior high school.
The last one for Side A and the last one for Part 1 is "Itami"（痛み...Pain） which is a gently lilting ballad with a bit of a gospel blues touch. It makes for a nice contemplative cool-down track to end the side. Speaking of which, I'll bring Side 2 next Friday.
Much as singer-songwriter and actor Gen Hoshino（星野源）has been doing for the past several years, a few decades ago, Senri Oe（大江千里）was the guy making merry with the hook-laden Japanese pop songs. One can almost taste the Oe style in his songs whether they be for some other artist such as Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）or for himself. The songs are so upbeat in an 80s West Coast AOR sort of way.
Case in point: the track "Dear" on his 9th album"Apollo" from September 1990 (well, the song was also his 20th single which had come out a few months earlier). It had been a long time since I listened to an Oe tune but listening to this one had me snapping my fingers and going "Yep...it's an Oe!".
I can just see him standing at the piano while pounding those keys as I listen to "Dear". He may be hitting the black-and-whites very cheerfully but the melody is just like me after a satisfying trip to the buffet table: smooth and content and happy. Helping out Oe on words and music was Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）who arranged everything. By the way, "Apollo" hit No. 1 on Oricon.
Young Mr. Oe was quite the popular guy in commercials, I see. Wasn't aware of that. In the above video, his "Dear" was used to sell the Suzuki Cultus at 2:41.
It's been a while since I posted anything by the dynamic contemporary aidoru (or should I say song and dance?) group TOKYO GIRLS' STYLE（東京女子流）, and I was surprised to realize that it's been a dozen years since I put up their first KKP article for their "Partition Love". They have had the lasting power of any of the alphabet aidoru groups and Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）, but I've just read on their J-Wiki article that their show's going to be ending this year.
Their 35th and most recent single as of this writing was released in June 2025. "Doukasen, Flashback" (Fuse, Flashback) is a fairly smoking and funky tune which sounds like something that was arranged in a K-Pop vein. Written and composed by Umi Kinami（きなみうみ）, there is a certain nocturnal panther-like quality to this one. Strangely enough, I had been under the impression that there were a lot of members in TGS so to see just the four on the cover of the single was a bit jarring, but actually it's only been one member that had dropped out from the original five.
Interestingly for Reminiscings of Youth this week, this particular ballad had been mentioned years before I even decided to start the ROY series. When I wrote up Saburo Tokito's（時任三郎）"Kawa no Nagare wo Daite Nemuritai"(川の流れを抱いて眠りたい）back in 2012, I noted that it sounded just like Michael Johnson's "Bluer Than Blue".
"Bluer Than Blue" hit the record shelves and radio stations back in April 1978 and it's one of the first songs to stick in my head as perhaps a prelude to my opening up to music in general going into the 1980s. I hadn't heard of Johnson before and I haven't really listened to anything else by him since but "Bluer Than Blue" contains this beautiful combination of gently rolling piano and shimmering strings that frankly entranced the heck out of me any time I heard it at home or in the car. Randy Goodrum was the one who created this quiet masterpiece and perhaps I can thank him for planting the seed to enjoy AOR/soft rock ballads. I didn't really pay much attention to the lyrics but I'm rather glad that I'm putting this one up this week rather than next week which gets really close to Valentine's Day as a man tries and fails to rationalize his new existence without his old love.
As I said, I used to hear this on the radio all the time so I was surprised to realize that there had been a music video. In fact, this wasthe eighteenth videoplayed on MTV on its opening day of August 1st 1981. Wow! I know it was the debut day but I hadn't even thought that a video of a 1970s AOR tune would ever appear on the music channel. In Canada, "Bluer Than Blue" hit No. 6 while in the United States, it reached No. 12.
Well, let's see. What was up at the top of the charts on April 3rd 1978?
It is a whimsical Wednesday here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", so to alleviate the usual things about Hump Day, the windmills of my mind rotated rather furiously. As a result, in addition to the internal hemorrhaging, I was able to realize that a fair number of the songs of note in our humble little blog often have titles containing variations of personal pronouns whether in English or Japanese or other languages. Here are just a few of them.
As I mentioned in my thoughts on the most recent Kohaku Utagassen, Japanese rock legend Eikichi Yazawa（矢沢永吉）made his third appearance on the NHK special for the third time (his other appearances were in 2009 and 2012), as he sang his new song before going for that "Kohaku B'z" shot and coming up to the main stage to perform his old hits.
That new song was "Shinjitsu"(The Truth) which was released in September 2025 as part of his 35th album "I believe" which hit No. 1. First and foremost, it's a love ballad and judging from the official music video below, it seems to be addressing the love between a couple that's been around for quite a while. Written by Yukinojo Mori（森雪之丞）and composed by Yazawa, I actually threw the YouTube link for the above video into one of those AI music analyzers which got me the result of folk rock. I know that the 76-year-old is a rocker at heart but I'm not quite sure that "Shinjitsu" would rate as a rock song...more of a pop ballad that sounds like it came from yesteryear; maybe it's even got some blues in there.
"Shinjitsu" was also used as the theme song for a Fuji-TV live-action drama adaptation of the novel "Saigo no Kanteinin"（最後の鑑定人...The Final Appraiser） that had its run between July and September 2025.
I don't think I'll be watching it but there's apparently quite a crazy moon in Markiplier's sci-fi-horror flick "Iron Lung".
That very pencil-thin segue is there to merely introduce musician/composer Himiko Kikuchi's（菊池ひみこ） "Crazy Moon" from her 3rd album "All Right". Considering that this album was released in 1982, I guess my file on Kikuchi is going back in time. Anyways, I don't have any expertise in time signatures so I'll have to quote YouTube commenter Antón Alonso - The IRL Bard: "Love this song because it starts on 11/8 and then goes to a nutty nasty 12/8 divided into 5 and 7 which is so good and then settles for the keyboard solo in a nice 7/8."
We both agree then that "Crazy Moon" is indeed a crazy moon...or since I'm in Canada, a crazy loon. It is a major jam session lasting nearly eight minutes that goes every which way with the drums, horns and keyboards. I'm not surprised that this has probably been a favourite at her concerts and Kikuchi looks so self-contained while hitting the keys.
As much as we Torontonians have been grumbling about how wintry this winter has been with a couple of major snowstorms hitting us in about as many weeks, I don't think we can really compare with certain northern areas of Japan this season. Watching NHK News this morning, Akita Prefecture for example has been walloped with metres of snow compared to the two-thirds of a metre that has collected on our sidewalks. And unfortunately, there have been some deaths due to the snow from elderly people falling off of roofs while trying to push off the heavy snow buildup. I'm hoping that both my area and much of the Tohoku area will see spring soon.
As such, I checked things online to see if I could find a go-touchi（ご当地）song regarding Akita Prefecture whether it be an enka, min'yo, Mood Kayo or just plain ol' kayo kyoku. I was able to find this min'yo titled "Chouja no Yama" that has connections with the prefecture although I couldn't track down either its year of origin or its songwriters.
However, this particular iteration of "Chouja no Yama" was sung by enka singer Kouhei Fukuda（福田こうへい）, who had started out in the min'yo genre. The song was a track on his May 2022 21st single "Furusato Dayori"（ふるさと便り...Messages from Home） which reached No. 15 on Oricon. It's quite the gentle traditional folk song but the title is intriguing since the word "chouja"（長者） can be translated into many English words of varying meaning. According to Jisho.org, it can mean: 1) millionaire, 2) one's superior; one's elder; one's senior, 3) virtuous and gentle person, 4) female owner of a whorehouse in a post town and 5) chief of a post town.
That's quite the myriad of responses. Personally, I'd like to think it can be translated as "The Mountain of the Virtuous" based on definition No. 3 but according to Kotobank, the first lyrics apparently refer to someone striking gold on a local mountain (so, "The Mountain of the Rich Man" perhaps) with the folks represented by the singers hoping to share in the bullion. However, Kotobank also mentions that it may have originated as a grass-cutting song through the farm work of the women in the area before it evolved into something to be sung for guests at the local onsen. If the song has a base in Akita Prefecture, it looks to be the Lake Tazawa area in Senboku City.
This YouTube video was posted about a dozen years ago by 28hb Seiichiro（28hb誠一郎）.
(Admittedly, what's written below may be old news to her fans so please bear with me here.)
In the years that we've been writing on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", we've realized that a few singers got their fifteen minutes of fame only to disappear completely from view. Takako Mamiya（間宮貴子）and Meiko Nakahara（中原めいこ）are two notable examples. Maybe another one was Reiko Takahashi（高橋玲子）who a lot of fans know for her super cheerful City Pop"Sunset Road". She released her two singles in the late 1980s and that was all she wrote seemingly.
Well, commenter Robert B. contacted me last week and informed me that he had found this new Reiko Takahashi YouTube channel established by the singer herself on January 27th last week, which includes a video containing a brief statement of gratitude from her for her fans' support back in the 1980s and currently. The number of comments for it has made a steady line upwards.
Then a few days later, the YouTube channel Kimi no Station: The Home of City Pop posted an English-language version of Takahashi's "Sunset Road" with the added subtitle of "Let me into your place". According to the blurb under the video, this version was only available on the tape cassette form of the July 1st 1987 single.
Also through the blurb, I discovered that Takahashi under the new name of Rayko was a part of an all-Japanese house band that played on Season 5 of "The Eric Andre Show" back in 2020. You can see her at the upper right of the screen at the 8-second mark. Plus, you can check out her Instagram account. Thanks to Robert B. for the tip.
Well, going into the first full week of February 2026, we're not that far away from the next big celebration on the calendar which is Valentine's Day at the end of next week.
It's been over three years since putting up my most recent article regarding singer and future AMAZONS member Yuko Ohtaki（大滝裕子）. In the time that I've known about this lady from Yamanashi Prefecture during her relatively brief solo career in the 1980s, she's delved into a few genres such as country and City Pop.
Ohtaki's fifth and final single to date, "Isei" (The Opposite Sex), was released in March 1981, and it's a song that heartily bounces about with a feeling similar to The Beatles' "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", although I don't consider "Isei" a ska tune the way The Beatles' classic has been classified. Created by some big guns in the Japanese songwriting industry: lyricist Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）, composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and arranger Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）, it's also one of those happy tunes that basically maintains a pop line although at certain points, I did wonder whether it was trying to poke a little bit into country and City Pop.
Lyrically, it deals with a teenage girl dealing with her feelings for a guy and secretly relishing the fact that one rival for his affections has lost the chase. As I said, Valentine's Day is around the corner, and the lass is on the verge of making those homemade chocolates for the fellow.
Because we've been writing "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for fourteen years now, I've been getting interested in seeing some of those B-sides for those famous singles by various kayo performers. To think that it's taken this long just to start plumbing the depths of "the other side" is somewhat astonishing although we have managed to take a look at some of them even before last week's anniversary.
One of the earliest posts that I put up on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" was for Hiromi Ohta's（太田裕美）classic "Momen no Handkerchief"(木綿のハンカチーフ）which was released back in December 1975 as the Tokyo-born singer's 4th single. The cheery kayo kyoku has stuck with Ohta all these decades so that basically whenever she shows up nowadays on some TV show, it's to sing either "Momen no Handkerchief" or "Saraba Siberia Tetsudo"(さらばシベリア鉄道）.
The plot of the A-side involved the relationship between a couple of smalltown lovers in which the guy is now working in the big city while the gal is still in the hometown. Well, the somewhat more melancholy "Yureru Aijou" (Wavering Love), the B-side, seems to be a sequel of sorts for "Momen no Handkerchief". I've only listened to it a few times but the impression I'm getting is that the couple have met up again during the boyfriend's semi-regular visits back home, and maybe, just maybe, things are a little unsteady on the romance front, at least according to what I've gleaned from the title. Perhaps the guy is worried that his girlfriend is losing interest due to the distance and passage of time but she keeps reassuring him that she doesn't need to see a ring or that small house built for her and him...just that occasional but regular "I love you" is fine enough for now.
The same team behind "Momen no Handkerchief" was also taking care of 'Yureru Aijou": lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and arranger Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）. Methinks that if a 2026 single based on the fate of the couple were produced, I would think that the couple are celebrating their 45th anniversary, still in that small house in their hometown, with grandchildren.
Well, welcome to February 2026. It's hard to believe that one-twelfth of the year has already sped by but for those sports fans, there will be a delicious glut of events to look forward to. The one around the corner (as in the end of this business week) is the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.
Interestingly enough, Italy also held the Winter Olympics twenty years ago in 2006 in Turin/Torino. Of course, all Japanese broadcasters for the Games had to have some sort of theme song. I actually wrote about the one for the upcoming Games in Milan-Cortina, back number's"Doushite mo Doushite mo"（どうしてもどうしても）on behalf of NHK's coverage, early last month.
For the 2006 Games, TBS brought in Kazumasa Oda's（小田和正）February 2004 22nd single,"Masshiro" (Pure White) as the station's official theme song. It's not one of those supremely rousing firebrand sort of Olympic tune but it's a relatively quiet and reassuring number for all involved in a "Hey, everything will be alright. It's all in the hips" sort of way. Plus, as usual with Oda's voice, there is that lovely creamy texture to it so I often think of hot chocolate with that big white marshmallow in the middle.
Now, some viewers might be thinking that TBS was just a little too early with the Olympic themes since "Masshiro" was released a full two years before the Torino Games. Well, that was because it hadn't meant to be an Olympic theme initially. It was actually released as a single to commemorate its status as the theme to a TBS drama which was broadcast during that time titled "Sore wa Totsuzen Arashi no you ni"（それは、突然、嵐のように…Suddenly, It Was Like a Storm） starring Makiko Esumi（江角マキコ）. It peaked at No. 4 on Oricon.
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