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.
For all those very dedicated "Kayo Kyoku Plus" readers and fans of singer-songwriter Shozo Ise（伊勢正三）in general, it's probably quite well known that Ise has had appendages in both the folk and City Pop fields. I've often written on his urban contemporary material including "Heart Beat" which was the topic of the most recent article that I wrote about him back in January.
Well, this time around, I'm swerving back to his folk roots via his song "Omoide ga Tsukinai Yoru" (A Night of Endless Memories) which was not only his first single from April 1980, but also a track on his debut album"Hokuto Shichisei"（北斗七星...The Big Dipper） which hit the record store shelves on the same day as that single. It's quite the folksy tune, written and composed by Ise, albeit with a richer sheen of sophistication in the arrangement. Maybe this could have been a transitional song for him from folk to City Pop. I also have to admire the song being played with the backdrop of a sky-view Tokyo at night, thanks to uploader Taka Kash. Would be interested in hearing what the rest of "Hokuto Shichisei" sounds like.
Happy Monday! Well, the third Monday of July has already passed in Japan but they did celebrate a long weekend culminating in the national holiday of "Umi no Hi" or Marine Day (or Sea Day or Ocean Day). I was watching the NHK news footage of kids and grownups hitting the sea and having oodles of fun while the heat wave bombarded on them. And so I figured about whether I actually had done a tribute to the national holiday. As it turned out, I did do a tribute back in 2023, also on the third Monday of July.
But I still wouldn't let the idea of another Author's Picks go. So thanks to a J-Wiki entry called "Umi wo Daizai to Shita Gakkyoku"（海を題材とした楽曲...Songs Themed on the Sea）, I was able to find some more ocean-frolicking-themed tunes that I had already written about way back when. Without further ado then:
Jun Togawa（戸川純）is a singer whose works have popped up periodically on the blog over the years, beginning with KKP writer nikala's article on her "Yumemiru Yakusoku" (夢見る約束) and my own article on Togawa's "Zukei no Koi"（図形の恋）, both from the 1980s. My own impression of the singer was that she was an avant-garde post-punk/New Wave chanteuse who could be seen as a precursor to Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）.
Recently though, commenter YMOfan04 let me in on some information about Togawa. Before all of that post-punk and New Wave tour de force hit my eyes and ears for the first time, the Tokyo native had also been a member of the band Guernica which formed in 1981. Togawa formed it with keyboardist and composer Koji Ueno（上野耕路）and stage designer/costumer and lyricist Keiichi Ohta（太田螢一）. In this particular period of Japanese music culture when the Golden Age of Aidoru, 50s rock n' roll, technopop and City Pop were grabbing for their share of the popularity pie, Guernica was devoted in bringing the sounds of early 20th century kayo kyoku or ryukoka and military marches back to life. Incidentally, Guernica, which was also the title of Picasso's legendary anti-war painting from 1937, wasn't the first choice as a name for the trio; initially it had been Intonarumori which were musical instruments devised by an Italian futurist, but they changed their mind.
Guernica's first and only official single was "Ginrin wa Utau"(Singing of Silver Rings) which was released in December 1982. Backed by a full orchestra, Togawa was the vocalist here and the song sounded just like some of that beautiful music, as it was called a century ago, I heard on the old movies and television shows such as "The Little Rascals". Beautiful music were the melodies that were played at those fancy dance parties or soirees to contrast with the so-called "evil" music known as jazz back in the day. One can imagine Togawa being her melody moppet ancestor singing behind a huge NBC microphone on a New York soundstage, and I think that's where member Ohta brought some more of that yesteryear magic while dressing the others in the finery of the day. Quite the contrast with the type of music that Togawa would sing a few years later. Still, Guernica would release three albums up to the end of the 1980s.
No "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）tonight but that's OK since we've got family coming over for dinner so we can't really be watching TV. Still, that means we haven't had any kayo programming here for a week since we weren't also able to catch "Uta Con"（うたコン）due to some emergency coverage of Japanese government deliberations.
However, last weekend when we could watch "Shin BS Nihon no Uta", semi-regular guests Junretsu（純烈）appeared to sing "Junretsu Damashii"(The Soul of Junretsu). This was the vocal group's 15th single from February 2024.
On the face of it, this might sound rather self-congratulatory but it's really a sweet thank-you song to the fans for their support all the way from their time entertaining guests at hot spring resorts. Junretsu leader Kazuyoshi Sakai（酒井一圭）was behind the grateful lyrics while the Old Man of Enka himself, Saburo Kitajima（北島三郎）under his Joji Hara（原譲二）pseudonym, provided the sweet and laidback melody. "Junretsu Damashii" reached No. 4 on Oricon.
I've had this one on the back burner for a while, so I thought it was time to bring it to the light. It's another obscure song and apparently for Toshiko Tamamushi（玉虫俊子）, this was her one-and-only single to ever come out. There are some sites that talk about the obscurity of "Ochibazaiku (Watashi wa Ima)"(The Craft of Fallen Leaves ~ Me as I am Now) from December 1982 but I couldn't find any information about who the singer was and where she came from.
And that's too bad since I think her vocals are pretty good. Written by Uichi Ohwada（大和田宇一）and composed by Tatsuya Ogino（荻野達也）, "Ochibazaiku" strikes me as being an old-fashioned kayo kyoku most likely about heartbreak (autumn is the perfect season for that when it comes to the Showa Era music) that sounds as if it had been made a decade earlier and it also has a bit of Gallic flavour infused. At the same time, the first several seconds of the song reminds me of Mizue Takada's（高田みづえ）"Ai no Imagination"(愛のイマジネーション）that came out the previous year. Tamamushi has been referred to as an enka aidoru or an enkadol but I really don't get that vibe through this one song. She was apparently just a young lady with that one tune to her name.
Narita Airport out in Chiba Prefecture was the air hub that I mostly used during my adventures in Japan between 1981 and 2011 before Haneda Airport in Tokyo itself got its second wind and became my new arrival/departure terminal when I was visiting Japan in the 2010s. Haneda may have become the new shiny place but I will still cherish ol' Narita for that kaiten sushi restaurant and the massage chairs in the lounge.
So, coming across Spoozys leader and singer-songwriter Jun Matsue's（松江潤）"JAL Narita Hatsu"(JAL Departure from Narita), I felt all sorts of nostalgia. Written and composed by the singer, it's not just my old memories of using the actual airport that's fueling my nostalgia but the fact that for a song that belongs in his April 2005 album"GO GETTER", it sounds awfully like old-school City Pop with that certain groove and horns that could belong in a Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）tune from the 70s or 80s. In fact, I had to make sure that the song was indeed from the mid-2000s rather than from an earlier decade.
My trip to Sapporo would have been perfect for this song. However, as it turns out, I departed Tokyo for Hokkaido from Haneda Airport and it was an ANA flight, not JAL.
Earlier today, just purely by accident, I found out that the late jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi would have celebrated his 98th birthday today (he passed away in 1976 at the age of 47). He does have a file here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" since my love for "Peanuts" and he's basically been the guy for "Peanuts" soundtracks. In fact, I can say with confidence that Guaraldi was the first piano player that I'd ever heard as a baby because of his fabulous work on "A Charlie Brown Christmas", the legendary Xmas animated special.
Speaking of "A Charlie Brown Christmas", I hadn't known until recently that this special and perhaps the entire "Peanuts" mass media franchise can thank their existence because of a documentary about the popular comic strip "Peanuts" that had been planned to air back in 1963 simply couldn't come to fruition due to financing woes. "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" was to have been the title for this documentary (the title was then used later for the 1969 feature film) by Lee Mendelson.
And yet, Guaraldi did come up with a 1963 soundtrack called "Jazz Impressions of A Boy Named Charlie Brown" that contained the iconic "Linus & Lucy" which would become the theme for the overall "Peanuts" franchise and included in the soundtrack for the Christmas special a couple of years later. For years, I'd assumed that "Linus & Lucy" was the Charlie Brown theme and not the song titled after Chuck's best friend and biggest thorn in his side respectively. So, you can imagine when I finally found out the truth, I remarked that this would be a typically Charlie Brown development...the most famous song in the round-headed kid's world doesn't even have his name attached to it.
In fact, it wouldn't be for many more years that I discovered that there was a "Charlie Brown Theme" by Guaraldi. By that time, I was living in Japan and getting into jazz so picking up a few Guaraldi and "Peanuts" albums was becoming normal. Upon this discovery, I also found out about its inclusion in the 1963 soundtrack for the unaired documentary. Getting to hear it, it starts out sounding as if the jazzman had been imagining how Charlie Brown has lived his usual life: ambling laconically his way to and from school as Guaraldi plays with his keys. Then, the pacing and complexity amp up some more as Chuck handles his alternately contemplative and frustrating relationships with Linus, Lucy, Snoopy and everyone else in his world. It all reaches a surprisingly triumphant climax before the tune settles back down to the main ambling melody. Afterwards, I assume that Chuck hits bed or the bath to commiserate about why he can't talk to the red-haired girl or throw a decent pitch in baseball.
The fact that the documentary project failed ended up galvanizing Mendelson and a lot of other parties who loved "Peanuts" to get even more intense about getting something on the air, and they finally pulled it off in 1965.
Not sure what the situation is regarding the huge billowing mass of forest fire smoke that's been coming down into Southern Ontario for the past few days. Apparently, some winds were supposed to give us some respite from the smaze before returning tonight. Well, so far, I've got the window open but I haven't exactly been coughing up my lungs yet, so maybe this is a good development.
Anyways, I have another song by Tokimeki Records. Up to now, I've collected a small group of their songs which have been covers of some of the City Pop classics. But this time, the unit has come up with an original tune "Tsuki wa Mirror Ball" (Under the Mirror Moon) which came out in June. Still, as usual, a featured female vocalist is on the mike and her name is Mai Zaitsu（財津マイ）. I couldn't find out anything at all about her although she's been depicted as an anime character thus far in Yahoo Images. Her voice is nice and smoky alongside the Neo-City Pop showing some of that nocturnal bouncy rhythm (maybe good for the car stereo). The only other question that I have about the singer is whether she is a relative of Tulip singer-songwriter Kazuo Zaitsu（財津和夫）.
For some reason, I'd been under the impression that actress-singer Teresa Noda（テレサ野田）had already been on KKP but apparently not; this is her first appearance on the blog, so I bid her welcome. Maybe it was something about the name or a similarity in album/single covers.
Anyways, Noda hails from Okinawa as the daughter of a second-generation Japanese-American man and a Japanese woman (according to her J-Wiki profile, she had been far better in English than Japanese). She made her debut as an actress in the early 1970s and it would be another several years before she began recording those singles she released with the first one coming out in 1977. Incidentally, she's had a number of different stage names during her career including her real name of Tamaki Saionji（西園寺環）.
Her third and final single under the name of Teresa Noda to date is "Tropical Love" from May 1979 which was created by the golden duo of lyricist Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）and composer Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）with Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）behind the arrangement. I'm not sure if it would be considered City Pop, but it does have those disco strings and a strong reggae beat. Noda does have a resonant and attractively creamy voice here.
It was a few weeks ago when I was quietly thrilling over the fact that both Canada and Japan had made it out of the group stage of the World Cup and heading into the knockout rounds. Well, as it stands now, both nations did eventually get knocked out and in a few days, we get to watch Argentina and Spain duke it out in the final match.
I noted this when I was writing about the fusion band Early Byrds for the first time in late June. Had never heard of these guys before and there's not a lot of information on them aside from their relative time of duty and the number of albums released. But "Galaxy Special" with Kyoko Kimura's（木村恭子）vocal assistance was indeed something quite special and vacation-friendly which got my attention.
Speaking of their albums, there is their July 1982 work "Morning Reflexion" which comes across as quite clever in the naming. On it is the track "Step Emotion" (not sure what that title even means) which was created by Early Byrds member Hiroshi Nakanishi. No Kimura on this tropical fusion cocktail of a tune, but there's still plenty of scatting from male and female voices and it's still worthy of a margarita or two while listening to it.
Amaterasu is a name that I've been hearing since I began university in the mid-1980s. I've heard about her in lectures within my Japanese Studies major and read about her in books on religion and mythology in Japan. In Shintoism, she is known as the sun goddess and the mythical ancestor of the Imperial family.
But enough of the professorial lecture from me. This is "Futari no Amaterasu" (The Amaterasu of Two), the latest single by Tomita Lab（富田ラボ）that was released last month, and according to the good folks at the Otomo website, it's "...an urban pop song focusing on the inner workings of people whose days shift under the influence of the weather". Man, considering the weather that Toronto and Tokyo have been wrestling with over the past few days, I'm hoping that our collective inner workings are hanging on for dear life.
With vocals provided by Yo from the duo Natsudaidai (about whom I posted about back in 2024), it's a cute and blippy tune whose modern arrangement may actually hold an old-fashioned melodic vibe of optimistic American sitcom spunk theme tunes, along the lines of "That Girl" and "The Doris Day Show" from the 1960s. Not sure if Tomita Lab had meant it to be so, but that's how I'm taking it. Then as we approach the grand finale, things go all techno jazzy harmony. Maybe "Futari no Amaterasu" should be looking for a cute Japanese rom-com somewhere. While Tomita took care of the music, Sasuke Haraguchi（原口沙輔）provided the lyrics.
It's been said that Level 42's"Something About You" from 1985 remains as the band's biggest accomplishment, and I couldn't disagree since it was the first song that I heard by the English group on the radio and it really grabbed me by the shoulders and has never let go. However, having said that, I think Mark King and his guys released a lot of other great tunes as well, some of which I'll be writing about on this week's Reminiscings of Youth...this time as an album, namely their March 1987"Running in the Family".
Buying the LP and then recording it onto audiotape, "Running in the Family" became one of those go-to albums that I played whenever I had to pull an all-nighter during university. In fact, it was one of three LPs that I put onto tape, the others being Hiromi Iwasaki's（岩崎宏美）1986"Wagamama"（わがまま）and "Uchuu Senkan Yamato Kanketsuhen Tehma Ongakushuu II"（宇宙戦艦ヤマト 完結編 テーマ音楽集Ⅱ）, one of the soundtracks for the 1983 anime movie "Final Yamato". Yes, it's a rather eclectic musical triumvirate but I was playing these guys non-stop while typing away to desperately get my thesis done and keep away that bothersome gnat called sleep. The cups of green tea helped as well.
I just wanted to feature my three favourite tracks from "Running in the Family" although the entire album is great. These three were all released as singles with arguably the most famous one being "Lessons In Love" that had actually been released almost a year before the album itself. The album, by the way, has been categorized as a sophisti-pop creation which I'm not sure about. Sophisti-pop is something that I actually think has plenty of champagne-clinking strings and brass along the lines of Swingout Sister. "Lessons In Love" certainly sounds more like funk-rock plus pop, and it's an infectiously fun piece either in its original four-minute-and-change form or the longer extended take, and I think it was the latter where I first heard "Lessons In Love" which was another grab of my shoulders. I got to know more about the famous King slap-bass technique through this one, too.
"Lessons In Love" reached No. 14 in Canada and No. 12 in the United States while it reached No. 1 in nations like Denmark, Finland and Spain.
The second of my favourites is the title track. "Running in the Family" is a cheerful melodic treatise on the average family with average rambunctious kids. In a way, although the band's description of the family is not really dysfunctional, I've often wondered if this could have made for a pretty cool theme tune for a movie on a really dysfunctional family such as "The Royal Tenenbaums". The blasting synth riff will always live rent-free in my head. The single was released in February 1987 and it was also hitting the Top 10 in several countries including the band's own UK.
"To Be With You Again" starts off on Side B of the original LP and it has such a great intro that I was always looking forward to it on the tape to get my eyes and brain fully awake once more in the overnight hours. It's quite the soaring piece and I have to mention here that I've always liked the vocal combination of keyboardist Mike Lindup with his high voice and King's deeper and grounded tones. The song was also the first single from "Running in the Family" to be released after the album's release by coming out in April 1987. It did more modestly than the aforementioned songs although it did come in at No. 6 in Italy and the Netherlands.
Meanwhile, the album reached No. 6 in Canada, No. 23 in America and No. 2 in the UK. I haven't done all-nighters since the first George Bush was US President but wouldn't it be nice to place that audiotape into the machine again (although I'm still worried about Jaws!)? Then again, I have a perfectly benign record player that can handle the LP.
So, what were three singles in Japan that were being released in the merry month of March 1987?
For me, the entertainment district of Roppongi in Tokyo consists of the still-somewhat grimy and original Roppongi Avenue and the two modern complexes of Roppongi Hills and Tokyo Midtown. It's quite the neighbourhood but I never saw it as an island unto itself.
Well, Pearl Kyodai（パール兄弟...The Pearl Brothers） apparently did...at least enough to create a song that was the title track to the band's June 1990 5th album, "Roppongi Tou" (Roppongi Island). I first wrote about Pearl Kyodai back in 2017 when Kenzo Saeki（サエキけんぞう）and his group came up with the New Wave-y"Sugar Sugar Tengoku"（シュガシュガ天国 ）for their 4th album"TOYVOX" in 1989.
Music genre-wise, Roppongi has in the past evoked Mood Kayo and jazz. With "Roppongi Tou", a breezy description of life on the island, it's actually showing some refreshing tropical jazz. I don't really see Roppongi at night here (as I would usually do); instead, it's bright daylight in Roppongi (despite the repeated mentions of "midnight") with some different attractions, thanks to the fervent Latin jazz rhythms and the crystalline synths. Saeki provided the lyrics while fellow Pearl BrotherHaruo Kubota（窪田晴男）took care of the music.
I'd been ready to treat this song by the late great Hibari Misora（美空ひばり）as one of her originals, but thanks to some checking back within the archives, I've realized that this is actually a cover by the Queen of Kayo Kyoku. Good to do that from time to time.
Jazz was one of Misora's go-to genres during her long career as a singer so it was natural for me to assume that "Futari de O-sake wo" (Let's Have a Drink Together) was one of her own as she cheerfully fronts all of that Dixieland jazz. However, the fact is that she was giving her rendition of the original by Michiyo Azusa（梓みちよ）which was released all the way back in March 1974, and listening to the original again, it was definitely more in the swinging kayo vein.
I couldn't find out when Misora had recorded her "Futari de O-sake wo" although it was a track on her 2007 "Cover Song Collection"（カバーソング コレクション）, coming out some eighteen years following her untimely death. The songwriters are of course the same: lyricist Michio Yamagami（山上路夫）and composer Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃）.
A friend of mine went to Japan for vacation about a month ago. Last time we spoke he was on the train headed to Osaka. While he was planning his trip he had asked me to hook him up with a Osaka playlist for when he got there. Of course I included the essential hits by Masaki Ueda, but I also found him some other great artists like Takajin Yashiki, and Masahiro Kuwana. One common theme I find with Osaka music is that they really love the blues. Which makes sense since I'm pretty sure they had a big Blues Rock scene back in the 70s, spearheaded by bands like West Road Blues Band, Funny Company, and Ukadan. Here's some of my favorites, let me know if I should have recommended others.
Osaka Big River Blues (大阪ビッグ・リバー・ブルース) by Ukadan
Sweet Home Osaka by Funny Company
Your Osaka (あんたの大阪 ) by Hako Yamazaki (She's from Oita Prefecture but its still a nice song)
Since coming to Osaka (大阪へ出て来てから) byJunji Ariyama (有山じゅんじ) and Masaki Ueda 上田正樹
おそうじ Obachan by Ukadan
As a bonus, here's an updated version of Since coming to Osaka from 2007. much jazzier while still retaining the honky-tonk nature.
Well, it's been over six years since I wrote about 80s aidoru Maiko Okamoto's（岡本舞子）sophomore and final album to date, "Fascination", from July 1986. As was the case back then, I only wrote about a few of the tracks there but was...well, fascinated by the fact that some bigwigs in the industry such as singer-songwriter Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）were behind the production, especially since City Pop was involved.
Happy to say that I've reopened the Okamoto file thanks to this track from "Fascination" that I hadn't covered. Titled "Aoi Summertime", this was written by Goro Matsui（松井五郎）with the aforementioned Yamakawa behind composition and arrangement. It's quite the zippy aidoru tune with the sparkly synths and Okamoto's genki vocals singing about young love in the hot season. I'm just glad that I could find a song with "summer" in the title especially when things have been blazing both here and in Japan. As for the colour mentioned in the title, aoi（蒼い）, I had initially assumed that it was "Green Summertime" but apparently considering the lyrics, I think it might be better to say "Sky-Blue Summertime".
A few months ago, I decided that I would become a tourist in my own hometown of Toronto. And as such, I visited the Art Gallery of Ontario for the first time in half a century back in April. Well, today, I visited Casa Loma, the castle-style mansion that's now well over a century old and has been a popular site for film shooting such as "X-Men", "Cocktail" and "Chicago". You can take a look at the Wikipedia article for some of the other movies that have been filmed there.
Of course, I had to go on a day that was deemed to have one of the worst levels of air pollution on Earth today (a hot and sticky day, to boot) and I actually had to climb the Baldwin Stairs to reach Casa Loma. I'm surprised that I actually survived. To be fair, the number of steps is probably a mere fraction of the stairway to heaven needed to access some Japanese temples but I wonder if architect E. J. Lennox had some sort of sadistic streak in him.
The above shot here is of the Group of Seven Room, named after the famous Canadian group of painters including A.Y. Jackson. I wonder if this is where Professor X (Sir Patrick Stewart) held court with his students.
Well, seeing that I did visit Casa Loma for the first time in 46 years, I figured that I ought to post an article having to do with castles. At first, I'd considered an Author's Picks consisting of castle kayobut considering that I'm doing this late at night, I just don't think I have the time or energy. But while I was searching, I did encounter this Saburo Kitajima（北島三郎）enka titled simply "Shiro" (Castle).
Man, for a June 1993enka, "Shiro" is mightily old-fashioned without any sign of an electric guitar. It's got the traditional koto and shakuhachi along with some epic chorus and timpani to really set down the feeling that Kitajima is really paying tribute to the overall Japanese castle right down to its parts and construction. And yet, he looks downright Bing Crosby-ish in his cardigan on the cover of the single. Daisuke Shiga（志賀大介）was in charge of the lyrics while the composer was none other than Sabu-chan himself under his usual pseudonym of Joji Hara（原譲二）.
I can't call myself a dialectician or an expert on linguistics although I've had a passing interest in the dialects of Japan, America and Great Britain. Because of my family background though, I've known about the differences between standard Japanese and the Kansai dialect since I was a kid. I won't get into any details (you can look at the above video provided by Miku Real Japanese) but let it be known that when I was visiting my relatives in Osaka years ago, I was literally barraged by loud and boisterous Kansai dialect. They probably thought I was some sort of imposter because frankly I sounded virtually mute compared to them.
My rather academic introductory paragraph is due to the fact that this article is based on the April 2026 debut single by new group Monaki（モナキ）. Titled "Honma ya de☆Nande ya nen☆Shiran kedo"(Hey, It's True☆What the Heck?!☆Got No Idea), it's quite the raucous nostalgic dance club-happy beginning for this quartet of Jin（じん）, Kenken（ケンケン）, Sakai Jr.（サカイJr.）and O-Yone（おヨネ）. I really have no idea why they've come up with this title consisting of Kansai dialect expressions since only one of the four, O-Yone, hails from Osaka (Sakai Jr. was actually born in Texas!). To further add to the nostalgia, I swear that the guys sound like an 80s male aidoru group like Shibugakitai（シブがき隊）or Shonentai（少年隊）.
Monaki, whose name derives from the expression namonaki（名もなき）meaning "nameless", showed up on a recent episode of "Uta Con"（うたコン）, and apparently the guys were running late due to traffic, although they were fortunate in that they had been scheduled to be the final act in the show. Indeed, they finally made it to the NHK Osaka studio only a minute or so late to perform "Honma ya de☆Nande ya nen☆Shiran kedo". The song by the way was a great premiere for the guys since it reached No. 3 on Oricon.
If the group and their antics seem familiar to you, that's probably because they are following a well-established group in entertainment, the popular trio Junretsu（純烈）. In fact, Junretsu's leader Kazuyoshi Sakai（酒井一圭）has been mentoring and producing Monaki, and he even co-wrote the lyrics for "Honma ya de☆Nande ya nen☆Shiran kedo" along with Takafumi Iwasaki（岩崎貴文）who also composed the song. I had no idea that Sakai had once been a professional wrestler.
I knew that the city of Mississauga right on the west side of Toronto has had a sister city relationship with Kariya in Aichi Prefecture since 1981. For one thing, an old friend of mine from my hometown had a position as a liaison between here and Kariya by being assigned there on the JET Programme. What I hadn't known was that Toronto itself has had a similar relationship with the city of Sagamihara in Kanagawa Prefecture since 1991 (so I guess we're celebrating (?) 35 years of friendship this year). I only found out about the connection in the last year when I was curiously looking for whether Toronto itself had any sister cities in Japan. The ironic thing is that I had a couple of students who hailed from Sagamihara including one who was my regular Wednesday night Arashi-loving superfan student.
As for singers from Toronto, we have Drake, The Weeknd and Alessia Cara. But I was also wondering which singers hail from Sagamihara. I could find three such people.
I remember watching Christopher Nolan's"Tenet" and concluding that the famed director should have spent more time planning things out with this one like he had with "Inception", although I realize that he had taken around a decade to figure things out with that one. Still, the idea was interesting and the effects were pretty trippy.
Why am I writing about "Tenet"? Well, for one thing, the music video for Cibo Matto's "Sugar Water" reminded me of the premise of the movie, although this video (and song) hailed all the way back in 1996, a couple of years before Nolan had his feature film debut with "Following". Still, I rather doubt that mere sugar water would get one in the state of mind to experience what Yuka Honda（本田ゆか）and Miho Hatori（羽鳥美保）had gone through in the video.
It's been a while since I've written about Cibo Matto. The last time I posted anything about the band was back in 2020 when I wrote about"10th Floor Ghost Girl" from 2014. From my admittedly brief impression of their career, they had a couple of phases of active duty: 1994-2002 and 2011-2017 according to their Wikipedia profile. "10th Floor Ghost Girl" was a song from that second phase and I was so overwhelmed by all those genres threatening to rip through the song that I basically chose the easy way out and categorized it as a pop tune.
Well, "Sugar Water" is from their first phase; it is a track on their January 1996 debut album"Viva! La Woman", and the album has been given the genre labels of trip hop, avant-pop and alternative hip-hop. I also hear it in a couple of layers. One layer seems to contain some psychedelic 1960s lounge material while another deeper layer has a hip-hop rhythm. Meanwhile, the ladies are intoning their vocals like beatniks at a poetry reading. Time to burn the incense!
Just to echo my friend, fellow KKP administrator/contributor and occasional lunch/dinner buddy, Larry Chan,Happy 61st Birthday to Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）. As I mentioned in my comments to him following his article on "Gomen to, Suki to"「ごめんと、好きと」, it used to be the tradition on the blog whenever we celebrated July 13th that we gave our greetings in the form of nervously hoping that Nakamori was doing OK wherever she was. Well, in the last couple of years, it looks like she is feeling fine and so I'm ready to retire the tradition and know that she's in pretty good spirits.✌
Reading the previous article, I was more than happy to have our annual July 13th Akina article written by Larry with my blessing since it's been another tradition to alternate our contributions, year by year. But then I thought why not have the two of us providing articles on this hot summery day? Mind you, both of us gave our Favourites lists a dozen years ago: "Larry's Akina Top 6 Picks (post-1991 era)" and "J-Canuck's Favourite Six Akina Songs"...man, time flies quickly!
Since a lot of us on the blog put up a lot of Akina tunes from early on in KKP's history, it's been a little difficult as of late to find something "new", but I was able to once again scour the early B-sides of the lass' singles. As a result, I was able to find this one titled "Ame no Requiem"(Rainy Requiem) which was the flip side to her September 1983 single"Kinku"（禁区）. That song, coincidentally enough, was the very first Akina song I heard and it was the song that she sang during her first appearance on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen at the end of that year.
"Kinku" was that rather dramatic technopop hit composed by Yellow Magic Orchestra's Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, and so I figured that knowing that, "Ame no Requiem" would most likely be a much softer ballad vocalized by Akina in that high and feathery love song style that she used to do in her earliest years to contrast with the deeper voice that powered songs like "Kinku",
Well...yeah..."Ame no Requiem" was definitely a different kettle of fish. It came off as being so French that while I was listening to it, the taste of garlic and butter escargots popped into my mouth along with a glass of Bourgogne Aligoté. The surprising thing was that the composer was none other than Koji Tamaki（玉木浩二）, lead singer of Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）; never realized that he had that much of the City of Lights in him. He definitely brought in the Fashion Music for Akina! Rui Serizawa（芹沢類）was the lyricist while Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）took care of the arrangement (he probably helped out with the French flavourings, too).
If you have any B-sides of Akina that you've enjoyed, please let us know!
I'm glad that Akina is healthy again and has been active recently. On July 1st, she just released her new single, "Gomen to, Suki to"「ごめんと、好きと」(Sorry, I love you). This is her first single in 10 years. She is also having a concert tour that started on the same day in Nagoya. After a detour to Osaka, the tour will end in Tokyo with 2 shows on July 13th (her birthday) and July 14th respectively. It's been 20 years since she did her last concert tour back in 2006! Building on her success last year, I'm pretty hopeful that she'll do another dinner show this year during the Christmas holidays.
All in all, 2026 has been a pretty good year so far for Akina and her fans around the world.
The new song, "Gomen to, Suki to", is a ballad. But unlike her past ones like Nanpasen (難破船) and Eki (駅), this one has a happy ending. The song talks about two lovers who parted but eventually got back together. The song was written by Jun Koami. Although not 100%, I'm 99.9% sure that this is the same person. Koami has apparently written quite a number of songs for idol groups such as AKB48 and SKE48. Lyrics was written by HZ Village, which is the name of Akina's own management company. I suspect it's Akina herself who penned the lyrics.
Her new single, according to this post on X.com, reached 7th place on the Oricon weekly chart upon its release.
It's good to see that Akina is healthy again. Having said that, when I listened to her new song, I can't help but think that her voice has deteriorated. I'm not sure if this is just how she interprets the song and sang it in a somewhat whispering voice, but I felt like her voice is not as stable as in the past.
Anyway, let's wish Akina-san good health for the years to come.
Monzen-Nakacho Station happens to be one of the stops along my old Tozai Line. I used to pass by it all the time on my way to downtown Tokyo although there were a couple of times that I actually stopped by to meet with friends. One time, the inner city area was the place to have dinner at a restaurant along the monjayaki alley.
Thanks to This Japanese American Life
After all these years, I still can't say that I'm a huge monjayaki fan. I'll take okonomiyaki in a heartbeat, but monjayaki is indeed Tokyo soul food.
Admittedly, I never got the chance to fully explore Monzen-Nakacho but I was still a little surprised to find out that a Mood Kayo song was based on the area. I mean, there are areas in Tokyo that have gotten their due through kayo kyoku such as Ginza and Shinjuku but I never thought that Monzen-Nakacho was ever that big to get its own tune. Well, I was wrong since Hiroshi Wada & Mahina Stars（和田弘とマヒナスターズ）indeed paid tribute to the shitamachi neighbourhood by recording the 1963 single "Koi no Monzen-Nakacho"(Falling in Love in Monzen-Nakacho).
Composed by Masanobu Tokuchi（渡久地政信）and written by Minoru Shimizu（清水みのる）, it's all about the mournful singing of love gained and lost in the area...and probably drinking one's sorrows, and there are tons of watering holes in the area, I have to admit. The rhythm is appropriately laconic and wistful; plus there are elements of both enka and Mood Kayo along with that Hawaiian twang which was often part and parcel of the latter genre.
Whenever the name of the actress Isako Washio（鷲尾いさ子）comes to mind, I always think of those vitamin drink commercials she did, complete with her own jingle. They were quite popular during my time in Japan on the JET Programme in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
What I hadn't been aware of though is that Washio had already been releasing music since before that big Tekkotsu Inryo（鉄骨飲料）commercial. Although "Tekkotsu Musume"（鉄骨娘）was her debut single in 1990, Washio had released her debut album all the way back in October 1987. Titled "Kanojo no Kaze ~ son vent a elle"（彼女の風...Her Own Wind）, there was definitely an effort on the producers' part to bring some Gallic flavour into the proceedings since a number of the tracks were covers of French songs by France Gall and Francoise Hardy.
One such cover was "Mes amis, mes copains", translated into Japanese as "Onna Dooshi"(Among Women). The original had been sung by pop singer Annie Philippein 1966, with Jean Hebert Leccia and Andre Raymond Pascal as the songwriters. Translated by Youta Shichino or Nanano（七野洋太）or Masumi Kawamura（川村真澄）depending on whether you go with the JASRAC database or J-Wiki respectively, Washio's cover is a bit more synthy and haunting. It feels like dancing a slow waltz in one huge and foreboding castle in France. Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）was responsible for arranging all of the tracks on the album.
I only had that one two-night stay in Sapporo way back when and that was back in the late spring. If I have a chance to visit the city again, I wouldn't mind doing so during the winter. Even better, I'd like to check out the Snow Festival with its huge ice statues. However, I have to point out that the above photo is of the main entertainment quarter there, Susukino. I did walk along its main street when I visited.
Susukino in the dead of winter is what I think of when I listen to "Blue Night in Sapporo" by Miyoko Tashiro（田代美代子）from 1969. Written and composed by Domei Suzuki（鈴木道明）, it's very much a love-done-me-wrong Mood Kayo thanks to Tashiro's mournful vocals, the just-as-melancholy backing chorus, the sad and shuffling rhythm and of course, the title itself (and don't forget the crying sax). It's probably not the greatest feeling plodding through sub-zero cold after a romantic breakup.
Crazily enough, I discovered that Shinichiro Hakozaki（箱崎晋一朗）would sing this very song a decade later in 1979!
I swear that the more I see the cover of Etsuko Sai's（彩恵津子）July 1984 debut album"Reach Out", the more I think that the stylish house behind Sai is the same one that got illustrated on Tohoku Shinkansen's（東北新幹線）album cover of their 1982 "Thru Traffic". And I'm still going to say that the good folks at paint companies such as DuPont and Glidden must be salivating in joy at the lovely exterior.
Regardless, I have another track from "Reach Out" to join other tracks such as the title track and "Heart wo Knock Shite"（ハートをノックして）that have gotten their due on the blog. This time, it's Track 5,"Mujaki na Hito"(Innocent Man) which was written by Tetsuya Chiaki（ちあき哲也）and composed by Hiroyuki Iso*（磯広行）. Incidentally, I've seen online that Iso is a percussionist who's also acted as backup chorus on songs such as "Kanashimi ga Tomaranai" (悲しみがとまらない）by Anri（杏里）.
It was a tad difficult to categorize "Mujaki na Hito" although I have nothing against the song itself; it's a lovely tune with an old-school Hollywood jazziness and sophisticated pop feeling. Kinda feel like mixing a couple of martinis for me and the missus whenever I hear that sax-y intro (nice strings, by the way). But by the time I reach the chorus, that boppy bass and the keyboards take me into City Pop land or something appropriate for Resort Pop.
*I'm not totally sure on the correct pronunciation of the composer's family name. As usual, if anyone can confirm or correct it, that would be greatly appreciated.
Over six years ago, I slightly lamented that I couldn't find guitarist-singer Yoshiyuki Sahashi's（佐橋佳幸） "Diary" on YouTube. I first discovered it on "Breeze", the very first disc of Toshikazu Kanazawa's（金澤寿和）series "Light Mellow" which had quite the run during the 2010s.
Mind you, I was able to find his "Frida's Freedom" on YouTube which made for a nice consolation prize, so to speak. I was listening to "Breeze" once more a few nights ago and afterwards, I decided to check if anything had changed in the status of certain tracks on the CD that hadn't made it onto the video site all those years ago. Well, I was happy to find out that Sahashi's "Diary" finally made it on there, although strangely, the "Yoshiyuki Sahashi -- Topic" page stated that it's been up there since 2017! I have to politely contest that.
But regardless, "Diary" is that guitar-driven tune that reminds me of those sunny 1970s and happier, more innocent times. There's something about the song that hits me as being rather Billy Joel of that decade. Just like "Frida's Freedom", it was originally a track on Sahashi's 1994 album"Trust Me". The guitarist came up with the breezy melody while Hiroshi Fukushima（福島浩）wrote the lyrics. Sahashi's file on KKP mostly has him in the "back office" as a songwriter, so "Diary" is just the second article with him on the byline while his "Frida's Freedom" is the first.
The above shows some of us on Deck 16 of the Harmony of the Seas on the second morning of our cruise several years ago. It was a pleasant start to our first full day on the ship with a hearty breakfast to greet us.
Maybe this was a feeling that jazz musician and composer Himiko Kikuchi（菊池ひみこ）was having when she came up with the wonderfully breezy "Everyday's a Miracle" from her 1981 "Flashing"album. Ernie Watts was on the saxophone for this travel-friendly or brunch-friendly track that pretty much sounds how the title reads. It's like a glass of optimism for the weary soul. If every morning can be as positive, then life would be that much more pleasing.
The last time I wrote on actress-singer Mayumi Asaka（朝加真由美）was back last December when I posted the article for her "Hold On Me", a track from her lone album, the October 1981"Yasashii Kankei ~ Mayumi I"（優しい関係...A Gentle Relationship）. Well, I've got another track here titled "Toki yo Hohoende" (It's Time to Smile).
Written by Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）and composed by Daiko Nagato（長門大幸）, it's another City Pop treat with the wailing electric guitar and the boppy bass, but there are also some interesting classical piano riffs ripping through the instrumental bridge. And Asaka's slightly husky voice keeps things within the urban contemporary.
Wow! The series "Aibou"（相棒）has been on so long that even with all of the partners that refined detective Sugishita has had for close to a quarter of a century, the producers have gone back to the original aibou. The man still has time for his cup of tea.
Thespian Yutaka Mizutani（水谷豊）has been Ukyo Sugishita for so long that it may be easy to forget that he once had a recording career. And in fact, all of my articles on his singing are based in the 1970s and 1980s. However, a few weeks ago, the actor appeared on "Uta Con"（うたコン）to introduce his first digital single in a decade, "Omoihateru Made" (Until My Heart Is Spent), which got released on June 30th.
Listening to "Omoihateru Made" a few times, it comes across as if Mizutani were trying to channel his inner Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）. Although his voice doesn't really equate with the one owned by the God of Love Songs, he does a game performance with the song that was even written and composed by him. The song would give a nice little zip to any action scenes in his "Aibou". Yoshiki Yamamoto（山元よしき）was responsible for arrangement.
I mentioned in my most recent article on singer-songwriter Miki Hyodo（兵藤未来）that I've enjoyed her City Pop/J-AOR stuff because of her approach. Well, this time around, I wouldn't really consider this particular song of hers as an example of either genre, but it's still pretty catchy.
What I'm writing about is the track "Melancolie Jungle" from her 1979 album"Hyodo Miki". From the title of the song, which was written and composed by her, there is that certain Gallic joie de vivre as Hyodo sounds as if she were musically skipping down the Champs-Elysees (I don't think that the Champs-Elysees would have any jungle-like areas but then perhaps some of you who have been to Paris can either confirm or deny this). Nope, neither City Pop nor AOR, I'd probably peg this one as New Music with a hint of jazz.
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