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 mentioned a few times in past articles about one of my favourite restaurants in Toronto, Kingyo. I still go to the place now and then but usually just for lunch. It was one of the great izakaya when I first visited the place on the recommendation of a friend and eventually it was often the case that our group year-end dinners took place there. However, during the COVID lockdown, Kingyo took a right turn and evolved into a half-Japanese grocery shop and half-eatery, so those dinners were no longer viable due to the lack of seating space.
Well, in the early days, in keeping with its name, Kingyo did have some goldfish in one specialized large table. Unfortunately, one night, a drunken moron opted to have some really fresh sashimi by swallowing the goldfish whole which may have signified something for the future of the restaurant.
Anyways, my memories of Kingyo were sparked by this song that I saw performed on a recent edition of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）. My family noted audibly about the whereabouts of former singer Shin Kouda（香田晋）, and more on that later. However, Kouda was the one behind this song titled "Sakaba no Kingyo" (The Goldfish at the Bar) which struck me not only as something quite kayo kyoku...rather interesting considering that this was his 16th single from April 1998, far into the J-Pop era. I figured that there was more of a hybridization of sorts in terms of genre.
Then, when I took a look at this J-Wiki profile, it showed that he sang both enka and folk songs. Maybe the jaunty "Sakaba no Kingyo" was a nice mix of the two genres or another example of New Adult Music. In any case, this was an example of songwriting pedigree with Yu Aku（阿久悠）handling lyrics, Takashi Miki（三木たかし）as the composer and Kei Wakakusa（若草恵）arranging everything. I'm just not sure whether the goldfish is an analogy for the flitting in and flitting out of customers over a usual day at this bar or whether real goldfish are just living their aquarium lives while human drama is playing out outside of the water.
On seeing the thumbnail of the video above, I could recognize Kouda as someone that I used to see on television a fair bit. Kouda was born Koji Washizaki（鷲崎孝二）in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1967, In 1985, young Koji was scouted by famed composer Toru Funamura（船村徹）after the teenager had sung in a karaoke contest held via the composer's radio program. A few years later in 1989 after having served as Funamura's apprentice, the new Shin Kouda debuted with "Otoko Doushi"（男同志...Male Comrades）. In 1994, he would even get onto the Kohaku Utagassen to perform "Yume Ichido"（夢いちど...Dream One Time）.
However, after releasing his 40th single in October 2011, Kouda basically fled show business in early 2012. Through a magazine interview, he admitted that he had decided to retire without any official announcement due to pent-up stress which affected his ability to sing. At the time, he felt that he was being pushed into becoming more of a TV personality which wasn't what he wanted to be. In the end, he had to seek psychiatric care. Kouda is now very much a past name for Wakazaki and after marrying someone outside of the entertainment industry, he is now a Buddhist monk, helping to run a restaurant and a wellness studio. His only regret is that he couldn't give an official explanation to his fans.
From what I could witness briefly through the Shibuya live cameras this morning on YouTube, things have become somewhat more regulated at Shibuya Crossing during Halloween to stem the risk of overcrowding and chaos compared to what you can see above in this photo of the 2017 celebrations there (Dick Thomas Johnson). Still, looking at the masses there this time around, it's awfully hard to feel free although seeing the dedicated cosplayers and Halloween costume wearers must have been fun.
Speaking of being free, let's go with "Jiyu ni Narimasho"(Let's Become Free), a track from singer-songwriter Yuko Shibuya's（渋谷祐子）March 1979 sophomore album"Pop Lady II". Written by Michio Yamagami（山上路夫）, composed by the singer and arranged by Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）, it's a grand funky horn-happy number featuring a generous dollop of Latin percussion here and some disco there. At the time, it probably did feel that the sky was the limit for folks in Japan to push the envelope and have a happier and perhaps more well-off station in life.
I remember when Gene Roddenberry, the creator of "Star Trek", held the press conference to announce that his sci-fi magnum opus would come back to television. This was surfing on the fact that at the time, the 1986 film "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" starring the original cast had been a major hit which finished with Captain Kirk and company manning a new starship called the USS Enterprise-A to major cheers from the audience (yep, I was there).
However, the caveat was this: this new TV series would take place several decades after Kirk and would feature the USS Enterprise-D with a totally new cast. And I (and presumably millions of other Trekkies) went: How could they replace Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the rest of the main bridge crew?! That's absolutely scandalous! But Roddenberry and a new production team plowed through with the plans and several months later, I bought the above "Starlog" issue showing the new Enterprise crew (my copy has long since disintegrated).
The crew was different alright. The only actor I could recognize was Levar Burton as Geordi LaForge because of his acclaimed time in "Roots" and "Reading Rainbow". Everyone else was new. And the new captain: he's bald and French? I would think that in the 24th century, baldness would have been cured. In any case, I had no idea who this Patrick Stewart was, although before "Star Trek: The Next Generation" premiered in September 1987, I'd heard that he was this Shakespearean actor who had appeared in "Excalibur", "Dune" and "Lifeforce", none of which I'd seen.
Well, the premiere episode "Encounter at Farpoint" showed up on CITY-TV here in Toronto, and my initial impression was that it was OK...interesting...a bit hammy at points. But Roddenberry and the writers made sure that all of us knew what Captain Jean-Luc Picard was like: definitely not the relatively easygoing James T. Kirk. He was stern, tense and didn't suffer fools gladly. He kept a very frosty distance even from his closest officers and hated kids. And as the first season progressed, I was wondering if Captain Le Grumpy and the show would survive. There was a certain 80s cheesiness in the early episodes to the extent that when the final episode of the season, "The Neutral Zone", played out, I internally remarked "Well, nice try, Gene...guess you can't capture lightning twice in a bottle".
I'm glad that I was wrong. TNG would continue for another six seasons to great acclaim especially in the middle. And soon, the camera and the interest would start to focus a lot on Captain Picard (although of course, Lt. Commander Data and Lt. Worf had their time in the spotlight) because of Stewart's portrayal of him. Shakespearean training, eh? Season 2 showed the series and cast gradually gelling with Picard himself slowly losing some of that frostiness although he still maintained that very commanding presence. "The Measure of a Man" from that season was the first time that I truly realized that the man could act everyone else off the stage. He actually moved me.
I think it was from the third season that TNG finally came out of the original series' shadow, and we all got to know Stewart's abilities, especially in episodes like "Sarek" where he was more than willing to show off his vulnerabilities as well as his strengths. His speeches were always things to look forward to and I have to admit looking at the below scene from "The First Duty", it was the first time that I'd wished I could actually get reprimanded by Captain Picard!
By the time TNG had ended, Stewart's reputation had become even more well known in Hollywood although of course, he'd already fashioned a successful career on stage long before. But a few years later, a likeness of him appeared as Professor X in an "X-Men" graphic novel; the illustrator knew who his Charles Xavier should be like. I guess the fans locked onto this brilliant idea which then transferred to the producers at 20th-Century Fox and Stewart was now truly the leader of the X-Men when it premiered in 2000. I saw the first movie at a theatre only a couple of stations away from my apartment on the Tozai Line. Although there have been a few good movies in that franchise, I have to say that the only scene that I return to regularly on YouTube is the one where we see Xavier and Erik "Magneto" Lehnsherr meet briefly in what is actually Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto. After that scene, I was convinced that Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen could spend a night on stage in front of a captivated audience reading an old-fashioned phone directory and make millions.
I would have thought that such an actor with a formidable presence on stage and screen was arrogant and self-absorbed. But from what I've heard over the years, Stewart was just the opposite. He was kind and generous, and I've seen some of the outtakes from TNG where he got all muggy with the camera. Moreover, I think that what got him even more admiration and respect was that he didn't hesitate to take the piss out of himself and his roles as starchy heroic leaders. I've seen the above scene from "Extras" and of course, he's shown up on "Family Guy" and "American Dad" fairly regularly. I also heard about his love for "Beavis and Butthead".
I heard about the actor's passing about twenty minutes after the bulletins had first come out online yesterday. And I just couldn't believe it! I knew that in the years to come that the passings of the original and perhaps even TNG crew would eventually happen but I just wasn't expecting to find out about Stewart's passing so soon and only a few days after Walter Koenig's death. I first assumed that it was some sick joke but when I checked up on it, it was sadly true. "Star Trek" and Marvel and Hollywood had lost one of the best. I would be seeing a lot of Trek-based YouTube channels put out videos in tribute of the man.
Of course, Sir Patrick Stewart was even more of a star on the stage doing all of those Shakespearean roles, but I can only speak from where I've known him from...as a dignified and tough starship commander and an idealistic leader of mutants, and I was truly fortunate to have seen and heard him from even those roles. His final role is in the upcoming "Avengers: Doomsday" movie in a couple of months' time. I can't imagine what the reaction will be like when we see him one last time.
Anyways, all my condolences to Stewart's family, friends and many fans around the world.
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.” -- As You Like It
Yes, this is still a special ROY article and as was the case with Walter Koenig, I'll show a few Japanese singers who shared the same birthday as Stewart: July 13th!
I gather that since we have a couple of songs today, "Saishuubin"（最終便）and "Attention Please", that are set at an airport, and "Sentimental Journey", which was recorded by a band known for their travel-linked J-Pop, I guess that today's theme on Urban Contemporary Friday on KKP has been travel. I certainly didn't intend to do that but now that the three are up on the blog, we can continue that way.
Case in point: Yuko Imai's（今井優子）"Escape" which is the first track on her December 1988 3rd album"Voyager" which has the theme of traveling according to her J-Wiki file. And with the stresses of everyday life including work, who wouldn't want to escape to more exotic climes?
"Escape" was written by Yuuho Iwasato（岩里祐穂）and composed/arranged by Hideya Nakazaki（中崎英也）as this theme to hit the plane and head out, and by the sounds of the relentless samba in there, Brazil seems to be the destination. That boppy synth paired with the tenor saxophone gives the impression of a Matt Bianco tune.
I only discovered the duo sucola a few months ago. They apparently started in 2021 in Nagoya during the height of the COVID pandemic, and according to their website, vocalist-songwriter KiBi and producer yopeco opted to create a sound and words that they describe as "traveling J-Pop" which would make listeners want to take a look out the window and go off on a journey. Considering all of the lockdowns, KiBi and yopeco probably attracted a lot of sympathetic attention.
The YouTube video for their single "Sentimental Journey" came out in February earlier this year. sucola has said that their sound transcends the usual genre labels...something that at least some of the commenters agree upon. Listening to this one, I get Neo-City Pop groove and indies pop (without a lot of jangly guitar). A song about a couple slowly finding each other and realizing the need for each other in a crowded and troubled world, there is a feeling of dreaminess, helped along by KiBi's soft, caressing vocals, that can resemble the sensation of traveling on a train for hours on end while staring out the window at the speeding landscape.
I've written on some of the discography of the late actress/singer Ryoko Sakaguchi（坂口良子）and found her to be thus far someone who had liked to sing some of the more refined material hovering around City Pop, Fashion Music, bossa nova and New Music.
Coincidentally enough, I'm posting this song by her just a week past what would have been her 71st birthday (she unfortunately passed away back in 2013). "Sayonara no Shitagaki" (Rough Draft of Goodbye) doesn't have absolutely strong vocals by Sakaguchi but I think that works in her favour considering the lyrical theme of the tune. The poor lass within the lyrics must have been wracking her brains and crying her eyes out over how to come up with a "Dear Jane" letter.
Those lyrics were provided by Takemi Shima（島武実）. Meanwhile, Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）came up with the melody which was arranged into a refined sunset bossa nova style by Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）. I can't really see the letter being tearfully written and signed on a wooden desk in a lonely room. With this sort of music, I'm thinking well-constructed hotel desk with a bottle of vintage wine nearby. "Sayonara no Shitagaki" was Sakaguchi's 6th and penultimate single from February 1978.
Y'know, although I have heard (but never watched) a couple of J-Dramas titled "Attention Please" based on the seeming vagaries of the airline industry, I don't think I've ever heard an actual announcement at either a station or airport in Japan starting with "ATTENTION PLEASE". Maybe at Narita or Haneda, I have heard "May I have your attention please?" but nothing more terse than that.
Interestingly enough though, in my prep work to bring this song with this very title to a KKP posting, I've encountered a few songs titled "Attention Please", but let me focus on the one that I'd already pegged. This "Attention Please" hails from the No. 50-ranking May 1982 album"Image" by underrated singer and songwriter Mieko Nishijima（西島三重子）. Written by her frequent songwriting partner, lyricist Kenji Kadoya（門谷憲二）and composed by the singer herself, it seems to be another dramatic City Pop number based at an airport; I just wrote about another similarly-set song a few hours ago. This one though has a goodly amount of Latin percussion to add a bit more spice to the proceedings. Nice chord progressions in the chorus, to boot.
I have to give my compliments to photographer Kentaro Iemoto and his shot of Runway 16R at Narita Airport. That's quite the dazzling evening shot and it beckons a passenger to what may lie ahead of him or her.
The thumbnail from Wikimedia Commons is an ideal one to herald the arrival of Saki Kubota's（久保田早紀）"Saishuubin" (Last Flight) which is the final track on her April 1983 6th album"Nefertiti"（ネフェルティティ）. Written and composed by the singer with Kei Wakakusa（若草恵） handling the arrangement, it's quite the bouncy and whimsical City Pop number about a woman shedding her past life including her paramour to head up north, although in one later verse, she did wish briefly that the fellow would stop her egress and bring her back into his arms. Perhaps a very brief lapse in (in)sanity.
To be honest, after listening to "Saishuubin", I'd thought that the song was recorded several years earlier than it actually was. It feels more like a late 70s City Pop tune.
Commenter mopuchino2 reminded me of the Eriko Tamura（田村英里子）file when he left his thoughts on one of her singles "Process"（プロセス）a few days ago.
I hadn't posted an Eriko song in many years so I decided to take a look at the song "Soyokaze no Prologue"(Breezy Prologue) which mopuchino2 had recommended. It is a track on her 2nd album from February 1990, "Myself", and hearing it for the first time, it reminded me how fresh and optimistic she sounded through other songs that I had heard by her. Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）was behind the lyrics and Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）, under his pen name of Mark Davis, composed the melody as a synthpop-driven aidoru tune of the times although some of that rumbling made me wonder about throwing in the Eurobeat tag.
Didn't want to write this at the beginning of the article since I would be bringing the atmosphere down a ton but as a longtime "Star Trek" fan, I was absolutely gutted on hearing of Sir Patrick Stewart's death earlier this afternoon. It was bad enough that we lost Walter Koenig a few days ago and now we lost him. Not only was he Captain Picard of the USS Enterprise but he was also Professor X in "X-Men", two huge characters in pop culture. Catching "Avengers: Doomsday" is gonna feel very different now.
I will try to pay tribute to him tomorrow. Nope, he doesn't have anything to do with Japanese pop music but I'd like to call my choice a "Captain's Prerogative".
Well, think of that while you're listening to "Obake Nante Nai sa" (There Ain't No Such Things as Ghosts) as sung by chanteuse Mieko Hirota（弘田三枝子）in a way that you've usually not heard her sing. You may have her jazz stuff when she was a teen and then some sultrier tunes later in her career, but over here, she sounds just like a boy stubbornly refusing to believe that he'd be scared of the supernatural...and perhaps failing a tad. Written by Minori Maki（まきみのり）and composed by Yo Mine（峯陽）, there is something of the cute Disney-esque arrangement here, not surprising considering that it was broadcast on an NHK "Minna no Uta"（みんなのうた）episode from 1966 for about a month in the summer.
"Obake Nante Nai sa" has been covered over the decades by a number of other singers but the first one I discovered on YouTube was Kaela Kimura's（木村カエラ）take on the song through her September 2015 22nd single"Egg". Kimura's version of the song has more of a slightly anarchic and technopoppy marching band vibe as if she were leading a Halloween parade.
Well, we're just a couple of sleeps away from Halloween 2026. I figure that it'll be chaos at Shibuya Crossing again and the kids will be trick-or-treatin' in the local neighbourhoods while the grownups will be planning their own cosplay debauchery. Of course, it also means that it's another Halloween-themed Reminiscings of Youth today.
It was in March 1988 when the first "Beetlejuice" hit movie screens, and in retrospect, I have to say that it'll go down as one of the most star-studded horror comedies that has ever existed although some of the cast weren't all that well known back then. But now, when I mention Michael Keaton, Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, Catherine O'Hara and Winona Ryder among others, folks may gasp. There were many highlights in the movie but one of the funniest was the cast rendition of "Day-O". I was lucky enough to have caught the flick in the theatre in its first run.
For Keaton, I think "Beetlejuice" was probably his final movie as him being known primarily as a comedic actor. Once "Batman" and one other movie with him came out the following few years, he was heading into dramatic territory along the same lines as Robin Williams and Tom Hanks. Composer Danny Elfman was even less known to me at the time. The New Wave band Oingo Boingo was known to me only by name since I was never a fan of theirs but Elfman was the lead vocalist and songwriter.
Elfman then became a soundtrack scorer for movies from the middle of the 1980s, and the score for "Beetlejuice" is the one that first impressed upon me his mix of old-style oom-pah-pah Eastern European circus marching band and early 20th-century heroic classical overtures. The "Beetlejuice" theme is perfect for October 31st for its silliness and sinister overtones...and it even includes a prelude of the "Day-O" hijinks to come.
What else was coming out in Japan in that month of March 1988?
As a PS, allow me to introduce something related to another wonderful Halloween theme, "Ghostbusters", which has already gotten onto the ROY file. In the last several days, a YouTuber by the name of Bill McClintock has managed to create a great musical mashup with the famed Ray Parker Jr. song as the base. You can also see Elfman hamming it up as well.
From time to time, old memories of my tokusatsu-viewing hobby bubble up now and then, and earlier today, the Japanese TV hero "Jumborg A"(Jumborg Ace) popped up in my head. However, this was only in manga form since that's the only way that I got to know him.
The quizzically titled "Jumborg A" (the producers must have really wanted to get that voiced velar stop between "jumbo" and "ace") showed up on NET (the future TV Asahi) for one season between January and September 1973 as another gigantic and weaponized tokusatsu hero to protect the Earth from all monstrous invaders; I gather that the Ultraman family couldn't hog up all of the airwaves.
I must admit that the opening credits aren't exactly the most compelling that I've ever seen in a tokusatsu show...it's just actor Naoki Tachibana（立花直樹）as mild-mannered delivery pilot Naoki Tachibana（立花ナオキ）in his beloved Cessna flying in the sky. But the thing though is that due to the intervention of a suspiciously Ultraman-like mentor, Tachibana and the Cessna merge to form Jumborg A! Wait a minute, so a human gets infiltrated by technology to become a...Borg! Things that make Trekkies go Hmmmm!
The opening theme "Jumborg A" is sung by Akira Tani（谷あきら）who is really veteran Masato Shimon（子門真人）who has made tokusatsu theme songs his specialty. For some reason, he's had a lot of different names in his career such as Koichi Fuji（藤浩一）and Motomi Tsubaki（椿もとみ）. Plus, for any tokusatsu theme, the kids chorus group is essential so this time, Tokyo Arakawa Shonen Shojo Gasshotai（東京荒川少年少女合唱隊...The Tokyo Arakawa Boys & Girls Chorus Group） was backing Tani up here. Not surprisingly, "Jumborg A" has plenty of brass punch and vocal exhortation to encourage the hero to continue the good fight. The song was composed by Shunsuke Kikuchi（菊池俊輔）and written by Kazuho Mitsuta（満田かずほ）.
Shigesato Itoi is one famous personage in Japan who has worn a number of hats in his long career: copywriter, essayist, lyricist and TV personality.
And that includes popping up on commercials such as the one he did decades ago with a very young Chisato Moritaka（森高千里）for Pocari Sweat.
I've read that Itoi also has a share of ownership in Nintendo's "Mother" games, and he provided the catchphrase "Otona mo, kodomo mo, oneesan mo"（大人も子供も、おねーさんも。...From adults to kids...even older sisters [or young ladies]）. The above is one such commercial from 1994 starring SMAP's Takuya Kimura（木村拓哉）.
Itoi was born in Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture's capital city, in November 1948. 1968 was when he first entered the copywriting business...having to come up with the right copy for anything from cars to department stores, and according to Wikipedia, starting from the 1980s, his profession gained more prominence because the man himself gained more prominence. Perhaps one reason is that one of the first songs that he actually provided lyrics for, Kenji Sawada's（沢田研二）"TOKIO" in 1980 was a huge hit. Itoi could have been working for the Tokyo Board of Tourism because of this one.
Looking at it made you feel like you were going to die
With your cigarette in your mouth, you cried
Tokio, the town where a gentle woman sleeps
Tokio Tokio flies through the night
Although Itoi's contribution to "TOKIO" was only the lyrics, it was often the case that he provided not only a commercial jingle's words but also the slogan to the particular ad itself. One example is Tetsuo Saito's（斉藤哲夫）"Ima no Kimi wa Pikapika ni Hikatte" (いまのキミはピカピカに光って...You Are Sparkling) , also from 1980, on behalf of the Minolta X-7. The title and the slogan are the same. The translation is through Musixmatch.
You are now shining brightly
It's shockingly wonderful
Accept my passion (dance round and round)
If I had you
(If I had you)
It's always midday
The sun that the moon and stars are in awe of
Akiko Yano's（矢野顕子）1981 "Harusaki Kobeni"（春咲小紅）was the first Yano song that I fell in love with because of that famous twitchy technopop sound with some slight Asian influences. Yup, Itoi was the one behind the lyrics here, too, and he was in charge of the Kanebo Cosmetics account that provided the Lady 80 Mini Kuchibeni（口紅...lipstick） whose campaign was titled "Harusaki Kobeni Mini Mini" which were incorporated into the lyrics. Some cute little pun work there as well. Translation is provided by the Hello! Project Lyrics Wiki.
Look, the little red blossoms in spring,
come and come and come and see
My heart
floats in the breeze
Wondering when they'll bloom, waiting for the day
Might have been counting down on my fingers
The smile that delivers my response
Has a little bit of red color in it
If you met me, you'd understand
Though it's strange to say it myself
Somehow today is beautiful
Had to go search the time stamp for the above which is a multitude of Kanebo ads over the years, but you can find Sky's "Kimi ni, Kurakura"（君に、クラクラ...Getting Dizzy Over You） at around the 3:00 mark right after the Yano "Harusaki Kobeni Mini Mini" ad. Now in this case, Itoi had nothing to do with the song itself but he was the one who came up with the slogan "Kimi ni, Kurakura" for this particular cosmetic. The one other observation about Itoi's songwriting career thus far is that he didn't really have a huge breadth of songs probably because he was doing so many other things such as appearing on TV shows. However, he had a regular list of clients on file such as Yano and Sawada.
"Nama biru ga aru janai ka, aru janai ka!"（生ビールがあるじゃないか、あるじゃないか。...There Is Always Draft Beer, Isn't There?）is most likely the slogan that gets most Japanese right in the heart...and down the throat. Especially during the torrid summers that Japan is notorious for, Itoi hit the nail on the head when he came up with the slogan for Kirin Lager Beer in 1991. Of course, he would also write the song accompanying the series of ads campaigning for the suds, "Oenka, Ikimasu" (応援歌、いきます...Here Comes the Fight Song) by enka legend Takashi Hosokawa（細川たかし） as described by KKP writer Noelle Tham over a decade ago. In a way, Itoi broke the 4th wall with his lyrics since every verse would end with a poke at each of the three celebrities involved in the campaign, actors Masatoshi Nakamura（中村雅俊）, Honami Suzuki（鈴木保奈美）and singer Hosokawa. The translation is by me.
Aaah aah aah
No matter if you're lucky or not
No matter if you're on a roll or not
The fish who gets away is good at swimming
Even if you're down in the dumps, don't lie to yourself
Ah, ah
There is always draft beer, isn't there?
There is always draft beer, isn't there?
Let's chug it down,
Mr Nakamura!
One other client of Itoi that I hadn't mentioned was Studio Ghibli. Itoi also came up with the slogans for many of the studio's movies over the years. For example, there is "Kono henna ikimono wa mada Nihon ni iru no desu. Tabun."（このへんないきものは まだ日本にいるのです。たぶん。...These strange creatures are still in Japan. Probably.） Strangely enough, Itoi himself voiced the father in "Tonari no Totoro"（となりのトトロ）.
I remember when Yosui Inoue's（井上陽水）classic "Shonen Jidai"（少年時代）first appeared on television. It was a ballad that was so infused with sigh worthy nostalgia that one's hands probably would have gone sepia-coloured on prolonged contact with the CD.
Then, I came across this song by 80s aidoru Yuki Saito（斉藤由貴）titled "Shojo Jidai" (Girls' Generation) that was a track on her 6th studio album"PANT" from March 1988. It begins slowly as if I were going to get Saito's take on "Shonen Jidai" but then the tempo perks up quite a bit and the melody by Southern All Stars'（サザンオールスターズ）Yuko Hara（原由子）rolls onto a speedier and happier beat. The lyrics are also provided by Hara and the arrangement by Satoshi Takebe（武部聡志）is a mix of contemporary pop and synth classical pop for a court dance in a castle somewhere. "PANT" itself peaked at No. 4 on Oricon.
Hara herself would cover her own creation within her 1991 album"Mother". Instead of the languid intro on Saito's original, the keyboardist goes straight into the lyrics while the song, which retains its happy-go-lucky pace, has a slightly different arrangement which sounds more like Christmas toy store than palatial surroundings. Interestingly enough, this "Shojo Jidai" was used as an ending theme for the long-running NTV anime "YAWARA!". I must have stopped watching the series by that point because I don't remember ever hearing this song. As with Saito's "PANT", Hara's "Mother" would also score a No. 4 ranking, ending up as the 20th-ranked album for 1991.
I'm not sure about this, but along with the trendy inclusion of 50s rock-and-roll into Japanese pop music in the late 1970s going into the early 1980s, I also wonder whether good old-fashioned jazz was also making it into the mix. I distinctly remember a few songs such as "Jazz Singer" which was first sung by its creator Kingo Hamada（濱田金吾）and then covered in a torch song style by Mariko Takahashi（高橋真梨子）way back when.
Then, we have Masami Urabe（うらべまさみ）, a recent discovery by myself, who has been up for a number of genres. For the title track of her 1982 album"Kanashimi yo Chotto Doite Choudai" (Hey Sadness, Down in Front), we've got something that sounds as if it should have been created some sixty years beforehand. Written by Hiroyuki Sumino（住野裕之）and composed by Yoshinori Yonehama（よねはまよしのり）, this is a cheery and bluesy honky-tonk jazz number that would be perfect in a smoky speakeasy while Urabe up on the tiny stage and under a piercing spotlight sings openly to chase those blues away. My previous song regarding Urabe, "Tomadoi"（とまどい）, is also included on the album.
It's been a tough 24 hours for all those into pop culture worldwide. I was remarking in the past that 2026 has been another year of a lot of famous folks leaving this mortal coil, and just yesterday, I got word that another three people passed away.
First came the news that Scarborough-born (right in the Toronto area) voice actor Eric Bauza had passed away a couple of days ago at the age of 46 from heart disease. I didn't know his work very much but heard that he had been voicing a lot of beloved Looney Tunes characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd, characters that I had known as a child when they were being voiced by the legendary Mel Blanc.
Then this morning as I was watching NHK News, I found out that manga illustrator Tetsuya Chiba（ちばてつや） had died on the 22nd due to myelodysplastic syndrome at the age of 87. My anime buddy and I had been coincidentally talking about him and his tempestuous friendship with Leiji Matsumoto（松本零士）, the manga artist behind "Uchuu Senkan Yamaoto"（宇宙戦艦ヤマト） just last night. Chiba was responsible for a number of manga, especially "Ashita no Joe"（あしたのジョー）.
But the one obituary that hit me harder than the others was the one given for Walter Koenig who played Ensign Pavel Chekov on the original "Star Trek". He passed away from old age at 90 on the 25th. I was whistling or humming the famous theme by Alexander Courage from time to time yesterday on hearing the death of everyone's favorite Russian Starfleet officer.
When I first got into the original series as an elementary school student in the early 1970s, some years after it had been cancelled by NBC, some of the kids in my apartment building set up a "Star Trek" club. Joining it for a short while, I kept hearing the character's name of Ensign Chekov who I hadn't been aware of. I knew the captain, the pointy-eared science officer and the grouchy doctor nicknamed "Bones" but who was this Chekov?
Well, I would eventually realize that Chekov was the fresh-faced junior officer brought onto the USS Enterprise to man the Navigation station from the second season onwards after several other navigators had their time there in the first season. Whether Koenig was brought on the series as a response to USSR complaints that there was no proper representation of a Russian on "Star Trek" or he was the new guy to attract the young female audience (Chekov kinda looked like a Beatle or a Monkee although Koenig was already in his thirties when he was hired), he as the newest and most adorable cast member made an impact as an officer who loved his Russian heritage to a fault and as a crew member who could scream his head off.
Following the original series, I remember seeing him guest star on the Canadian TV sci-fi series "The Starlost" and then he would show up in the "Star Trek" movies starring the original cast. I remember when Koenig, James ("Scotty") Doohan, George ("Sulu") Takei and Nichelle ("Uhura") Nichols were due to appear at a special 25th anniversary celebration in 1991 at Toronto's City Hall (the same year that the old cast's final movie together "The Undiscovered Country" was released). It seemed that thousands of Trekkies showed up at Nathan Phillips Square in front of City Hall but due to some airplane scheduling problem, the four "Star Trek" actors didn't show up on stage until several hours beyond their scheduled time of late afternoon. At one point, I was worried that the fans would erupt like many Vulcans during the worst of Pon Farr.
But they finally did show up at around sunset, much to everyone's joy and relief. I think one reason that I'm writing this heartfelt message about Koenig today is that out of the four who showed up at City Hall, Koenig was the one who struck me as being the most grounded and relatable. Not that there was anything wrong with the other three...it just seemed that they were a little flighty in the Hollywood way (maybe it was the plane problem and some extra alcohol). Doohan created quite a buzz when he gave out his old address in the Toronto neighbourhood of Don Mills to thousands of fans; all I could imagine was the current residents of the house looking horrified seeing Starfleet officers and Klingons all kneeling in front of their domicile.
When it was Koenig's turn to speak, he spoke in his own voice (it was the first time that I realized that he didn't speak in a Russian accent), and it was like listening to an old buddy at the bar. His imitation of William Shatner's gestures brought the house down and I just said to myself "Yeah, Koenig's my choice of Trek Cast Member of the Day."
I never got to meet Koenig in person although I was able to get that photo-op with Takei over ten years ago at the annual Fan Expo here. However, it was great to hear his voice one more time a couple of years ago on the final episode of "Picard" as he portrayed Chekov's son, United Federation of Planets President Anton Chekov. This he did in his real voice although he brought a little of the ol' Pav when quoting his father.
"Star Trek"-related YouTube channels are providing tribute to Koenig and I'm sure that folks in the Los Angeles area have been placing wreaths on his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. For me, I can only give my personal regards through this blog. My condolences go to Koenig's family, friends and many fans along with the two surviving cast members, Shatner and Takei.
With this special elegiac Reminiscings of Youth, I think I'll go with Japanese singers who shared the same birthday with Koenig: September 14th.
Ahh...the good ol' Ginza Line. Used that quite a lot right from my early days living and working in the Greater Tokyo Area. When I was teaching at NOVA Asakusa Branch for those first two years, I used to transfer to Nihonbashi on the Ginza Line and then take it all the way up to Asakusa at the end. Some years later, when I was teaching a couple of ladies on Mondays, I would go the other way all the way down to Shibuya.
As I mentioned in my previous article regarding one guest, I had been watching "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）on NHK, and one of the semi-regular guests was the veteran vocal group Junretsu（純烈）. I'd first known about them when they had already gained quite a lot of prominence and popularity through hits such as "Propose"（プロポーズ）.
So I was intrigued when I learned that the song they performed last night was their debut single from June 2010, "Namida no Ginza-sen"(Tears on the Ginza Line). Of course, it was a bit jarring to see how many members were in Junretsu on the original single cover compared to their currently pared-down number of three. And back then, the group was being promoted more as a contemporary Mood Kayo and very shibui kayo kyoku unit...Junretsu seems to be more into the general upbeat kayo stuff now.
Written by Jun Kashima（鹿島潤）and composed by Kotohime（琴姫）, "Namida no Ginza-sen" is indeed a contemporized Mood Kayo with some of that Latin spice and most of the instruments being synthesizers aside from a Latin guitar (I think). Still, the old feelings of nighttime Tokyo are fully expressed and I guess it's probably the most dramatic trip I've ever heard of a commute on the Ginza Line. A lot of shoutouts to the stations on the line.
Junretsu didn't show up on the Oricon charts until 2014 when they came out with their 4th single"Starlight Sapporo"（スターライト札幌）when they ranked in at No. 41. It was then upwards and onwards for the guys.
Last night, "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）was on, so we got to see the usual semi-regulars such as Junretsu（純烈）and a few new faces. One was Maajuu, the new stage name for Maju Arai（荒井麻珠）. I'd never heard of her before...at least, all by herself. However, up to 2017, she had belonged to the vocal group Little Glee Monster since it first formed in the early 2010s, so she can be seen in music videos for songs such as "Seishun Photograph"（青春フォトグラフ）.
Her first song under the new name is "Karma" and she performed it on the show last night. Well, it definitely stood out from the usual kayo since it struck me as being very similar to Ringo Shiina's（椎名林檎） booming and buzzy rock from the early days along with some soul. In fact, the melody seemed to wrap around an echo of the traditional "Sakura, Sakura"（さくらさくら）. Speaking of echoes, Maajuu's own voice still had me thinking of her time with Little Glee Monster.
As for the accompanying 「歪青」, it didn't bring in any meaning or pronunciation when I punched it into the usual engines. So I could use some help there. Maybe it's originally Mandarin?
There has been that analogy of a person trying to weigh options when making a fateful decision so the angel and the devil show up on each shoulder making their arguments for and against. I realized that perhaps in the early 1980s, as far as Japanese pop music was concerned, the angelic Hiromi Go（郷ひろみ） portrayed the angel while the more sardonic Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）sported the pitchfork and horns.
Through two specific appearances on the Kohaku Utagassen (1981 and 1982), I'm sure there were viewers who were going "What fresh hell is this?!" when they saw him come out to perform the glam rock "Stripper" in 1981 and then the New Wave"Rokubanme no Yu-u-u-tsu"（６番目のユ・ウ・ウ・ツ）the following year. But for others, it was a welcome bolt of freshness into the traditional proceedings.
"Rokubanme no Yu-u-u-tsu" from September 1982 was all about a fellow going through his staid hell of ennui. Meanwhile, its B-side of "Romantic wa Go-Issho ni"(Let's Be Romantic Together) sounds like a frenzied love affair taking part somewhere in Eastern Europe or Turkiye. There is something of the exotic kayo in this New Wave-y tune but at the same time, despite the frenzy, Sawada insists to his "dance" partner that things shouldn't be rushed; he needs the romance to be savored like a fine sipping whiskey. Well, when it's Julie leading, it's hard not to acquiesce. Indeed, Sawada took care of the music while Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）was the lyricist.
It's been a cool, sunny and comfortable start to Sunday today as I took a stroll in the neighbourhood for some shopping. At my age, a stroll is pretty much my speed now.
The only thing missing was some musical accompaniment. If it were up to me, I would select "Perfect Love" from Yutaka Yokokura's（横倉裕）"Another Sun" album (1993). Yokokura's duet with Gracinha Leporace is a sublime sangria of AOR, Latin, jazz and fusion. Being able to focus on this one song is one reason that I really don't include every track when I cover an album on KKP. I hadn't listened to "Another Sun" in a while so it was nice hearing "Perfect Love" again as this upbeat but stroll-speed-worthy tune on an autumn Sunday morning.
Forgive me, J-Wiki, for using the image from your article pertaining to Koijigahama, a one-kilometre span of beach in the city of Tahara, Aichi Prefecture. But I thought that this would be the ideal thumbnail photo to start this article off.
The beach is fine. However, I always have to look askance as to why singers or bands would use the word junk to name themselves. Yes, I know that there is singer-songwriter Junk Fujiyama（ジャンクフジヤマ）and of course, he has a glorious voice and all but I never quite found out why he opted to go with the word junk as part of his stage name. And then, just recently, I was made aware of a short-lived folk duo by the name of Junk. Of course, though it doesn't deserve this treatment, I couldn't help but envisage a huge pile of garbage whenever I hear the name...although I'm aware of its use as well to describe a certain type of boat.
In any case, Junk was composed of Ron Ogawa（小川ロン）and Takahiro Kanaumi（金海たかひろ）who started the band in 1975. According to his own webpage, Ogawa, who was born in Tokyo but raised in Shizuoka Prefecture, has a rather sad origin to his stage name of Ron...apparently, he'd had an aging blind dog by that name and one day when Ron tried to follow his master, he ended up missing forever. In tribute, Ogawa took the name.
Anyways, Junk released four singles during their time together between 1975 and 1977 with their second single"Koijigahama" coming out in 1976. It's a lovely folk song (shimmering strings, gentle guitar) with who I believe is Ron taking the sensitive and resonant lead vocals since he was responsible for both words and music. I'm only judging by this one song thus far, but with this particular voice, it's a pity that Junk didn't last beyond a mere two years.
I'll have to see whether there were a whole lot of other kayo kyoku with the title "Yakan Hiko"(Night Flight). The one that I'd known up to now is Junko Yagami's（八神純子）soaring City Pop ballad"Yakan Hiko" from her 1979 album"Sugao no Watashi"（素顔の私）.
Cue ahead a couple of years to 1981 and singer-songwriter Itsuko Nakamura（中村伊都子）comes up with her own "Yakan Hiko" as the B-side to her 2nd single"Rain". And the crazy thing is that it's also a cool and polished City Pop song about romance and air travel. Written by Sonomi Ari（阿里そのみ）and composed by Nakamura herself, this "Yakan Hiko" practically sports a passport, a tumbler of Old Parr and a cigarette while waiting in the airport lounge at Narita one evening. Both Nakamura's and Yagami's "Yakan Hiko" are different but both relate the urbane attraction of air travel (always have a sexy sax solo) at a time when the Japanese were finally on the cusp of affording recreational flights.
I began the Chakra（チャクラ）file on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" almost a decade ago when I discovered their "Myun Myun"（ミュンミュン）which was this technopop treat that came from their 1981 second album"Satekoso"（さてこそ...As Expected）. And since any and all articles about them went into their stuff from that year forwards, I carried that impression of them being a New Wave band.
But a few weeks ago, I encountered one of their tracks from their 1980 debut album, "Chakra", for the very first time. I was stunned by "Akogare"(Desire) which was written by (not Chakra) bassist Hirobumi Suzuki（鈴木博文）and composed by Chakra guitarist Bun Itakura（板倉文）which is very much unlike what I'd heard before by the band. Where there has been quirkiness in my mind when I've listened to their later music, "Akogare" has some wonderfully sunset City Pop vibes entering my head and Mishio Ogawa's（小川美潮）dreamy vocals soar into the sky. I'd say that she sounds more like Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）or a particularly intense Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）from her early days as a solo artist. I'll have to look more into their first album now.
Haven't seen the good guys of H2O for a couple of years, so it's time to revisit them. And this time, I'm taking of a B-side of one of their most-remembered hits, "Goodbye Season" （Goodbye シーズン）from October 1983.
Despite the sad title, "Furimukeba Broken Heart" (A Broken Heart Back There) is pretty upbeat and has a nice bouncy rhythm which feels like going on a pleasant ocean side drive, especially when those breezy strings come into the chorus. Written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）, composed by Tsunehiro Izumi（和泉常寛）and arranged by Katsu Hoshi（星勝）, the song feels like it does belong to the West Coast AOR set.
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