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.
This Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）song was recommended to me by a commenter a few days ago and it turns out to be her fourth single that I hadn't known about. "Harukaze no Itazura" (Spring Wind Mischief) which was released in March 1974 arrived between a couple of arguably more well-known hits by the famed 70s aidoruand actress, "Kinjirareta Asobi"（禁じられた遊び）from November 1973 and "Hito Natsu no Keiken"（ひと夏経験）from November 1974.
As with those two songs, "Harukaze no Itazura" was written by Kazuya Senke（千家和也）and composed by Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）. The arrangement by Shunichi Makaino（馬飼野俊一）was reflective of what Momoe's early material sounded like: light and bouncy kayo paired with her younger and higher-pitched vocals. It's all about a young girl who's gotten so distraught after a fight with the boyfriend that she's gotten lost somewhere in the big cruel city while a cold spring wind is blowing. If Momoe's late-career persona of jaded mankiller ever saw this lass, she would have either taken her under her wing or perhaps given her a sneer and internally told her to dry up.
"Harukaze no Itazura" reached No. 11 on Oricon and ended up as the 85th-ranked single for 1974. The song was also included on her 3rd studio album"Juu-go Sai no Tehma ~ Momoe no Kisetsu"（15歳のテーマ 百恵の季節...Theme of 15 Years Old ~ Momoe's Season） which came out in April 1974 and reached No. 7 on the album charts.
I'm not totally up on what former Chiba Prefecture governor Kensaku Morita（森田健作）has been up to in the years since his retirement in 2021. I know that he has appeared on "Uta Con"（うたコン）once in the past year or so but that's about it. However at the age of 76, I think he deserves some of that rest and relaxation after a career of politics and then before that, a career in entertainment as an actor and singer.
Let's go back to his early days as the amiable guy-next-door type in the geinokai, shall we? He released his 16th single in January 1974, "Namida no Ato kara Hohoemi ga" (The Smiles Come After the Tears), which was written by Mitsuhiko Kuze（久世光彦）under his pseudonym of Natsu Kotani（小谷夏）and composed by Kunihiko Suzuki（鈴木邦彦）. In the song, Morita sings sagely about life being like that plastic horse on a merry-go-round; it has its ups and downs but as long as there are ups, it shouldn't be too difficult. Not only do I like the governor's reassuring voice but also Suzuki's arrangement which includes a bit of funk and rock and a nice & groovy electric piano.
There's unfortunately no sound to this minute-long video which shows stills from the cinematic adaptation of "Namida no Ato kara Hohoemi ga" which got released only a couple of months following the single's first appearance in the record shops. Not surprisingly, Morita was the star. Hopefully, he used the song's message in his future endeavors in entertainment and politics.
I was once asked by one of the commenters about an Author's Picks regarding airports. After all, in terms of an old kayo kyoku, the airport serves as a setting for romantic farewells and (rarely) greetings. Plus, they can also be the launching point for adventures abroad. Now, I believe that I had yet to post such a list of airport-themed songs so I'm going with this one today to finish my trio of articles.
Well, I wrote too soon when I posted my previous article on Shocking Lemon's"Under Star" in tribute to the recently departed former boxer and TV personality Guts Ishimatsu（ガッツ石松）who had passed away nine days ago at the age of 76. Coming up with a boxing-themed anison in tribute to the man, I hadn't been aware that Ishimatsu did put out his fair share of records from 1974 to 2015.
His debut single came out in September 1974 in the form of "Ishimatsu Otoko Bushi" (Ishimatsu the Man, the Melody). Given an enka arrangement, it's a languid song with that sharp trumpet to cut through like an upper hook. It was written by Masato Fujita（藤田まさと）and composed by Koumei Sone（曽根幸明）for Guts to sing in a rather forlorn way as someone who's been going through the meat grinder of life and has only himself to rely upon. It almost sounds as if he'd endured twelve rounds with the eventual unanimous winner and then ambled over to the nearest watering hole for a few hours of liquid solace before hitting the recording booth.
All the way back in 2012, I stated my surprise that singer-songwriter Akiko Kosaka（小坂明子）didn't have any other major hits besides her debut single "Anata"（あなた）from 1973. In the years since though, I've learned that even if a singer's discography doesn't translate onto Oricon, it doesn't mean that the singer hasn't made any good songs of worth...not at all. There are also the dedicated fans who will also stand up for their oshi's works.
Case in point: Kosaka's B-side to her third single "Oka no Ue no Kyokai"（丘の上の教会...The Church at the Top of the Hill） from October 1974 is "Saigo no Love Letter"(Final Love Letter). I haven't heard the A-side yet but "Saigo no Love Letter" packs quite a punch with some of that guitar and electric piano (organ?) work. It strikes me as being a folk tune but one that is a bit more muscular than average although the song lasts barely above two minutes. Kosaka was responsible for the melody while Osamu Souya（相谷修）took care of the lyrics.
I'd thought that my previous article on Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）would be the final one for February 2026, but I was very wrong there on realizing that the music world has lost a pioneer in pop music and someone who has had a presence on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" over the years. Singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka passed away at the age of 86 on February 27th.
From what I've read on his Wikipedia file, he was responsible for a huge number of hits for himself and other singers, especially during the 60s and 70s, and I recall hearing his voice through radio, on K-Tel commercials and TV appearances since I was a kid. In fact, the very first ROY article that I posted was a Sedaka creation for Captain & Tennille. But for his own records, I always remembered that higher and melodic voice of his.
With all of those Sedaka successes in the postwar era, it's perhaps no surprise that the Japanese, who were more than happy to provide their own cover versions of many American and British hits of the time, also took a fancy to Sedaka's own tunes. Here are the ones that have been plucked from the pages of KKP over the years.
One of my favourites by Sedaka though was "Laughter in the Rain" from 1974. It still gives me a chill when he sings the chorus out and it's a song that I definitely have great memories about. My condolences to his family, friends and many fans.
First off, thanks go to The history man on YouTube for providing this video on the life and career of kayo kyoku songwriting legend Yu Aku (1937-2007) who apparently remains the 2nd-most prolific lyricist in Japan following Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）. Yesterday, the return of NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）after the Olympic break was a big one for all of the kayo fans since a good chunk of the program was a tribute to the works of Aku who would have been 89 back on February 7th..
This isn't an Author's Picks because I wasn't the one who came up with these songs for performance on the show last night. Of course, it was the NHK producers who did that but I still wanted to acknowledge the Aku songs that had been sung on the Shibuya stage since they have remained part of the bread and butter that make up a lot of this blog. You can also take a look at a Creator article that I wrote up back in 2015 regarding Aku and his constitution on writing those lyrics.
Since going into the 21st century, NHK's Kohaku Utagassen has undergone a number of key changes in its format, but one thing that has been retained is everyone's singing of "Auld Lang Syne" or as it is known in Japanese, "Hotaru no Hikari" (蛍の光）. The orchestra goes into its rendition at the end of the broadcast with a brief glimpse of the man who's conducting them. In the past, that has been singerIchiro Fujiyama（藤山一郎）and singer-songwriterMasaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃）. For the past several years, though, it's been singer-songwriter Shunichi Tokura.
Well, since it's been several months since I've written up a Creator article (the last one was for Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロー）back last August), I've decided to whip one up tonight for one of the more prolific songwriters. Tokura has come up with some of the biggest hits in the late kayo kyoku period including those for some of the most famous aidoru of the 1970s: Pink Lady and Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）.
Born in Tokyo in June 1948, Tokura got into music pretty early in life by picking up the violin at the age of 4. His father was a diplomat so for several years, their family was living in West Germany where he started studying the basics of music. Returning to Japan at the age of 12, some of his junior high school classmates included future officials in government and business. He then returned to Germany for high school (where he joined a band called The Beat Cats) before making his way back to his home country.
During his sophomore year in university, Tokura became the vocalist for the folk group The Panic Men which came out with a 1968 single called "Omoide no Komichi"（思い出の小径...Path of Memories）. This was also the time when he took up his future career as a composer and one of his first creations was Chinatsu Nakayama's（中山千夏）"Anata no Kokoro ni" (あなたの心に) in 1969.
A few years later in 1971, Tokura would compose "Tenshi ni Narenai"（天使になれない...Can't Be An Angel） with lyrics by Yu Aku（阿久悠）, a heartfelt 8th single for Akiko Wada（和田アキ子）that became her first Top 10 hit, coming in at No. 8. It was also Wada's ticket for her 2nd appearance on the Kohaku Utagassen that year.
Tokura currently has 60 articles, not including this one but including one which shows his own solo song "I'm Just a Man". I was pretty surprised and happy to get his name on the byline as a performer. But let's show some of the ones that he has composed for other big-time acts. Along with other composers such as Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）, there is a bit of a "He made that one?!" buzz around Tokura.
Along with his many accolades over the decades, he was the JASRAC chairman and currently Tokura is the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs. Not bad for a guy who once whipped up a melody about an alien-human love affair.
Singer-songwriter Sumiko Yamagata（やまがたすみこ）is someone that I got to know first from the pages of "Japanese City Pop" and then from her 1977 album"Flying". It was the album that signified the young folk singer's transition into something more adult contemporary.
However, I think the Tokyo native may have already been showing signs of trying out different genres as early as 1974 when she released her third album"Melodies Come From My Heart". It was still considered a folk LP but I think with her track "Murasaki Iro no Kaze" (Purple Wind), I've been getting different genres including folk. I could pick up on some blues guitar and a general feel of New Music. Yamagata was behind both words and music with the story of a woman standing in the midst of a stiff breeze as she tries to forget about that man who's now very much part of the past. There may be some lingering regret but as the last few notes hint, there is also hope around the corner.
Back in September, I posted up that All-Points Bulletin for Neff regarding some Chinese covers of songs that he couldn't quite identify. I believe that he was able to resolve most of the mystery songs thankfully. But I also remember while trying to help him out that I came across a few songs that may have been connected to the mystery ones but ended up nothing of the sort. Of course, I was disappointed but in the process, I was able to find some new kayo kyoku with their common denominator being a common title.
"Ryoujou" on Jisho.org talks about "the mood when traveling". And of course, travel is a big theme in kayo kyoku, notably as the action one takes when there's a need to get away from a problem, usually post-romantic in nature. The protagonists take trains and planes (not sure about automobiles, though) to some faraway place in Japan, away from Tokyo or Osaka (Tsugaru Strait is especially popular) or even overseas to mourn and/or reset those feelings.
Through Google, I even discovered some very specific terminology for that particular mood. Wanderlust was one word that I had already known but here are some of the others:
Wanderlust: A strong desire to travel and explore the world.
Eudaimonia: A state of intense happiness and contentment while traveling, when everything feels right.
Resfeber: The restless, anxious excitement that comes before a journey begins.
Strikhedonia: The joy of being able to say, "to hell with it!" and go on an adventure.
Fernweh: The opposite of homesickness; an ache or longing for places you have never seen before.
Sehnsucht: A wistful yearning for something far-off and indefinable, or for travels past and future.
Where enka and kayo kyoku are concerned, I think perhaps Fernweh and Sehnsucht might be the traveling moods that match the feelings there, although the words themselves sound like alien crewmembers on the Enterprise on "Star Trek".
Anyways, let's begin with the first "Ryoujou" that was recorded by Mari Sono（園まり）for release as a single in June 1972 to commemorate her 10th anniversary in the music business. Quite the poignant kayo kyoku, this was written by Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）as the lyrics describe a woman who has either broken up or is on the verge of breaking up with her beau by flying off to Paris. It's the strings and what sounds like a harpsichord that give me the heavy sense of the melancholy here but I also have to note the deep horns that pop up as if the lady is about to take one major leap of faith.
Less than a couple of years later, enka veteran Shinichi Mori（森進一）released an album "Ryoujou" in March 1974. The title track was written by Kohan Kawauchi（川内康範）and composed by Kosho Inomata（猪俣公章）as a song of longing by a fellow who's looking upon a woman he's had feelings for. She hasn't reciprocated them and maybe she isn't even aware of them especially since she's probably just broken it off with another guy. It's a got a bit more brass and heart-on-a-sleeve emotion so I can put it between kayo kyoku and enka.
Then, we come to Hiroshi Itsuki's（五木ひろし）"Ryoujou" which was released much later in 1998. With lyrics by Reiji Mizuki（水木れいじ）, the singer himself came up with the melody. If there were such a thing as Itsuki Song, then his "Ryoujou" would be the class example with the haunting chorus, the seemingly tear-choked vocals and the wistful arrangement.
One day, I was reading through the J-Wiki article on enka and there was a list of all of the enka songs that actually made it to No. 1 on the Oricon weeklies. Among them, one song was Rumiko Koyanagi's（小柳ルミ子）"Fuyu no Eki"(Winter Station) which was her 13th single.
Released in October 1974, just from that jaunty arrangement, I don't really consider it to be an enka song per se; it strikes me more as a straight-up kayo kyoku, and even the article for "Fuyu no Eki" itself has it categorized as such and not as an enka. Written by Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）and composed by Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）, it's characterized by a jangly guitar and Koyanagi's light and airy vocals. With the season and the setting in the title, I figured that it would be about a romance that has hit its reluctant end.
As mentioned in the first paragraph, "Fuyu no Eki" hit No. 1 on Oricon through three non-consecutive weeks and it ended up not only as the 63rd-ranked single for that year, it became the 27th-ranked single for 1975. Koyanagi would also get her 4th invitation to the Kohaku Utagassen at the end of 1974 to perform "Fuyu no Eki" during her 18 straight years of appearing on the annual New Year's Eve special.
September in Japan has two statutory holidays: Keirou no Hi（敬老の日...Respect-for-the-Aged Day） on the third Monday and then Shuubun no Hi（秋分の日...First Day of Autumn）. For the former, there's the usual tradition of taking the folks out for lunch or dinner somewhere and probably there is a whole plethora of gateball tournaments across the country. Of course, being an official holiday and all, the TV schedule in Japan is all different today, so as we were watching NHK News this morning (down from the usual one hour to 30 minutes), my family was getting a little confused about whether Canada was having a holiday today (the next one for us in the Great White North is Canadian Thanksgiving next month).
Out of curiosity, I took a look for any kayo kyoku list online consisting of any songs that had an association with Keirou no Hi. There were quite a few out there and most of what I can give here has that theme of gratitude and enduring through the tough times.
The J-Wiki profile on this sextet singing group Poppies（ポピーズ）is fairly sparse, but they formed in 1974 and at the time of their formation, they consisted of Junko "Jun" Yamada（山田順子）, Sayoko "Boku-chan" Nishida（西田さよ子）, Yukiko "Mikki" Katada（片田雪子）, Tomoko "Monroe" Sugiyama（杉山智子）, Akemi "Eve" Sakamoto（坂本明美）and Sachiko "Lark" Matsumoto（松本祥子）*. Poppies debuted in April 1974 with "Koi no Chance"（恋のチャンス...Love Chance） but for this article, I'm featuring their sophomore effort, "Koi wa Kibun" (Love is a Mood).
My impression of "Koi wa Kibun", which was created by veterans Rei Nakanishi（なかにし礼）and Tadao Inoue（井上忠夫） (who would change his name to Daisuke Inoue/井上大輔), is that all involved wanted to put out a rapid-fire tune with old-fashioned 60s girl pop mixed in with a bit of ABBA disco and a soupcon of sex kitten. Think of it as Candies（キャンディーズ）fare with some of that Pink Lady kick-step although both girl groups still had their best days ahead of them when this single was released in September 1974.
After their third single, there were some major changes in the lineup and Poppies went down to being a group of five ladies with only Nishida and Sugiyama remaining from the original team. When their final single was released in 1978, they were down to just four.
*The given name kanji for Ms. Matsumoto can be read in many ways. I've gone with Sachiko for now but if anyone can confirm or correct this reading, that would be greatly appreciated.
When it comes to the good-time rock n' roll group, the Downtown Boogie-Woogie Band（ダウン・タウン・ブギウギ・バンド）, almost all listeners will be reminded of "Minato no Yoko, Yokohama Yokosuka"（港のヨーコ・ヨコハマ・ヨコスカ）from 1975.
But immediately before that, their 3rd single"Smokin' boogie" was said to be the song that got the band into listeners' ears. Written by bassist and vocalist Takeshi Arai（新井武士）and composed by fellow bandmate Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）, it starts off rather rootsy before we all get that reminder of what it must have been like to cut a rug on the dance floor back in the 1950s. Meanwhile, Arai's lyrics talk about how one probable teen got into a life of cigarettes. Japan Tobacco must have loved this one while anti-cancer campaigns probably did not. Even the chorus makes like the sound of the guy puffing away.
However, as they say, "Wait, there's more!". It turns out that "Smokin' boogie" was inspired by American blues guitaristElmore James' 1961 "Shake Your Moneymaker", itself inspired by previous songs according to Wikipedia.
Heard this one last night on NHK's"Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）. Of course, my mother was asking about whatever happened to Naomi Chiaki（ちあきなおみ）. Well, she called it a day to her long career in 1992 shortly after the passing of her husband, Eiji Gō（郷鍈治）.
Chiaki's 17th single from March 1974, "Waltz", fits the template for her songs...a mix of melancholy and cheerful with those velvety vocals, just like her most famous hit "Kassai"（喝采）a couple of years previously.
I've placed "Waltz" as a kayo kyoku although Makoto Kawaguchi's（川口真）melody and arrangement has also included some of that enka and country. The legendary Yu Aku（阿久悠）provided the lyrics about a woman who is thinking of other couples dancing a loving waltz while she no longer has a dance partner as she is sitting all by her lonesome in a seaside hotel. "Waltz" reached No. 29 on Oricon and was included as the title track of a May 1974 album.
Nice touch of adding that furigana of "Waltz" overlaying the kanji since the original pronunciation is the more unwieldy enbukyoku. Apparently, the title was inspired by a 1949 Kousaburo Yoshimura（吉村公三郎）film titled "Manatsu no Waltz"（真夏の円舞曲...Midsummer Waltz） which did the same thing with its kanji.
We're not too far away from the third anniversary of the passing of Olivia Newton-John who left this mortal coil in August 2022. It's hard for me to think of her as anyone else other than that pretty young blonde woman with the softest vocals imaginable, although she died at the age of 73.
For a lot of her file under Reminiscings of Youth, I've covered her discography going from the 1970s into the 1980s when she was tackling pop and dance music such as "Physical". And yet, my earliest memories of her go to the pink SONY radio when she was releasing the softer ballads and country music from the early 1970s. One of her most memorable songs from that period was "I Honestly Love You" which was released in August 1974, and created by Jeff Barry and Peter Allen.
I guarantee if they had played this ballad at her funeral, there probably wasn't a single dry eye in the place. It is one of the most tenderhearted love songs that I ever heard and if I did listen to this one on the day that the media announced her death, I probably wouldn't have been too dry-eyed either. As I recall, this got plenty of airplay, and not surprisingly, "I Honestly Love You" was a huge hit around the planet, hitting No. 1 in both America and Canada among other places. It also won Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female at the 1975 Grammys.
Couldn't find an exact date for the release of "I Honestly Love You" aside from that month of August in 1974 so why not go with what was part of the Top 10 on Oricon on August 5ththat year? I've got Nos. 1, 5 and 8.
Soulful singer-songwriter Roberta Flack has had representation on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" via Reminiscings of Youth with two songs, her iconic "Killing Me Softly with His Song" and her 1983 duet with Peabo Bryson, "Born to Love". Unfortunately, her third article on KKP in a special ROY today is being posted on the day that she died at the age of 88.
As I mentioned in the ROY article for "Killing Me Softly with His Song", Flack and her ballad were something that I heard as a boy while being driven home from family friends' houses. Her relaxing vocals and the arrangement stuck with me as I was nodding off to sleep in the backseat of the car while watching the street lamps go by.
Her June 10th 1974 single "Feel Like Makin' Love" is another classic that I used to hear all the time on radio in the car and in the apartment. It's become so ubiquitous through cover versions and the like that I had to do some hunting before I found out that it was Flack who had originally recorded it with Eugene McDaniels taking care of the songwriting. Rather than getting images of late-night dark skies, "Feel Like Makin' Love" (without realizing what the title meant at the time) had me thinking of Sunday afternoon strolls in the park because it was such a relaxing and friendly number.
As one commenter put it, Flack's vocals were like warm butter. I'll raise that person's bet and say that they were like warm butter sliding down a stack of fluffy pancakes. "Feel Like Makin' Love" hit No. 1 on both the American and Canadian charts. My condolences go to her family, friends and fans.
Singer-songwriter Miki Imai（今井美樹）covered the Flack classic in her December 1988 album of covers "Fiesta". I remember placing the CD into the Onkyo stereo and although I knew it was a release of her singing other people's major hits, it was still a shock to hear her covering this particular one. Maybe it was because the song went all the way back to my early childhood.
Anyways, what were hitting the Top 3 on the Oricon chart back on June 10th 1974?
Last Sunday, I put up an article titled "Japanese Pop Songs: Female Names", celebrating the fact that kayo kyoku and J-Pop shared a tendency with Western pop music in coming up with songs named after women. Well, men's names have been used on both sides of the Pacific to title certain ditties over the decades, too. Although I couldn't find a whole bunch of male names for songs, I did find some more female names fronting those tunes so here is my additional list of female and male names.
Encountering this single by Miki Hirayama（平山みき）recently, I couldn't help but feel the similarity between it and her most famous hit from a few years earlier, "Manatsu no Dekigoto" (真夏の出来事）, especially in the intro.
But perhaps this was intentional. Anyways, I'm talking about Hirayama's 10th single from June 1974, "Ureta Kajitsu" (Ripe Fruit) and yep, Jun Hashimoto's（橋本淳）lyrics even include a partial reference to the singer's big hit through "...natsu no dekigoto". Not surprisingly, "Ureta Kajitsu", about another torrid summer romance on the beach, was written and composed by the same duo behind "Manatsu no Dekigoto", the aforementioned Hashimoto and Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）. The arrangement by Tsutsumi is indeed rather similar to the earlier song but I think this particular song is slightly more laidback.
First off, I heard about the major quake in southern Japan so I'm hoping that folks there are doing OK.
January 13th 2025 has been set aside as the annual Seijin-no-Hi（成人の日）or Coming-of-Age Day in Japan. It's the time when all young people turning 20 this year get the big ceremonial welcome into adulthood (although there has been some recent movement in taking things a couple of years younger). The guys get all decked out in suits while the ladies are dressed meticulously into their kimono. After the speech at the local town or city hall, the freshly-minted adults can finally take that "first official" sip of booze with family and friends...and perhaps experience the exquisite pain of a hangover.
But give the new generation a decade or fifteen years and they may receive those pangs of nostalgia and longing for their salad days in high school...known as seishun（青春）in Japanese. Nostalgia has been a vital ingredient in kayo kyoku so it's not all that of a shock to know that there are also plenty of songs that have seishun in the titles and/or seishun in the feelings. So allow me to give you a few examples.
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