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.
Well, now that we're in early August 2026, I might be introducing this song a month late. After all, the Tanabata festival is an early July event in Japan. But still...better late than never.
Yukiko Haneda（羽根田征子）is a singer that I first introduced back in 2020. The reason I found out about her was due to her 1989 cover of the late great Hiroshi Sato's（佐藤博）"It Isn't Easy" from his 1982 "Awakening" album. That particular cover can be found on Haneda's 2nd album"Sora", which was produced by Sato. I've also found another really pleasant track from that one, and it's called "Milky Way". Again composed by Sato and written by Yui Masaki（真沙木唯）, it's an urban and urbane synthpop number with a touch of bossa nova. Haneda's strong and silky vocals are given some backup by Sato himself.
Hopefully, everyone is enjoying their weekend. It's pretty darn nice here in Toronto today after going through a repeat of winter on Friday. Still can't believe that snow fell just north of here but the important thing is that the weather is nice and seasonal today and just in time for June.
Anyways, let's start off Sunday with some late 1980s City Pop (oh, by the way, I did enjoy that City Pop Festival organized by DJ Fact 50 on Twitch yesterday) via Yukiko Haneda's（羽根田征子）"Still in the City (Rain is Falling)". The title sounds like something from a book written by a Japanese Mickey Spillane enthusiast which is why I selected the above photo for the thumbnail (it's in deep Shibuya).
Written and composed by Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）, and I think that's her on background vocals yelling "Don't give up!", the intro sounds like as if it were going to go a whole lot more major-chord upbeat than it actually is. However, "Still in the City" then goes into a more suspenseful vein with that bopping percussion, hard rhythmic synthesizers, what sounds like an organ that received its Red Bull wings, and fairly rich and resonant vocals by Haneda. The song was included as a track on the singer's debut album "Beating Mess" from March 1988 which was produced by Yoshida, too.
I've done a couple of Yukiko Haneda（羽根田征子）songs in the past and while those were quite jazzy, her debut single from July 1988 is much more in the pop vein.
In fact, I would say that "ENCORE" reminds me of some of the uptempo pop that Miki Imai（今井美樹）was releasing at about the same time in the late 1980s. There's that certain synthesizer being used in the song that immediately rang nostalgia bells for J-Pop in that decade of the Bubble. It was written by Ayako Naito（内藤綾子）and composed by Hitoshi Haba（羽場仁志）.Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）took care of the arrangement which automatically peaked my interest.
Ah, speaking of the Bubble..."ENCORE" was actually used as an insert song for the Fuji-TV trendy drama "Dakishimetai!"（抱きしめたい!...I Wanna Hold Your Hand） starring Atsuko Asano and Yuko Asano（浅野温子・浅野ゆう子）...indeed The Double Asano. The opening theme for that show is even more famous seeing that it is "Aquamarine no Mama de ite"(アクアマリンのままでいて) by Carlos Toshiki & Omega Tribe (カルロス・トシキ&オメガトライブ) .
I'll be honest here and say that when I first saw that cover of Yukiko Haneda's（羽根田征子）3rd album"Good Times, Bad Times", I could imagine Ms. Haneda muttering "Y'know...you could have called ahead before dropping by."
Embarrassing pulling-her-out-of-the-shower incident aside, the title track from Haneda's July 1997 album is some kind of wonderful. As I mentioned in the first article for her cover of Hiroshi Sato's（佐藤博）"It Isn't Easy", "Good Times, Bad Times" has been lauded by kaz-shin of "Music Avenue" as an AOR masterpiece. Perhaps so, but I think this title track isn't really in the AOR genre. It seems to belong more in the soul ballad arena with slight turns into country and gospel, and it sounds like a number that Quiet Storm diva Anita Baker would have also tackled with aplomb. I really do love those 1980s hit-'em-out-of-the-park love songs, and "Good Times, Bad Times" has that splendid touch of jazz thanks to that sax solo. The last part of the song is especially a Grand Slam, in my humble estimation.
Alas, I couldn't find out who was behind the songwriting for this one but my compliments to the folks involved. Of course, before you decide to visit someone, please call ahead. It'll be appreciated.
Was hoping to return to this album, "Awakening" by Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）, a release that got the seal of approval by none other than Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）. Most fortunately, I did find a song that I hadn't covered in the original article for Sato's 1982magnum opus.
After listening to the track "It Isn't Easy", my first and continuing thought was that it really doesn't need Sato's introductory vocal because I think it almost belongs to a different song. Once it hits 22 seconds, though, that's when we get the ironically easy melody (considering the title) by Sato, the musical equivalent of a hammock swaying gently on the beach. Wendy Matthews is back to provide her lovely voice for the English lyrics against the background of some synth-Asian arrangement, rather reminiscent of the material by Japanese-American band Hiroshima. Sato himself adds a brief jazzy element on the piano along with the background vocals. Lorrain Feather came up with the lyrics.
Yukiko Haneda（羽根田征子）is a Tokyo-born singer who was definitely blessed when she first started out in the late 1980s. Her 1988 debut album"Beating Mess" was produced by Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）, and then her sophomore effort in the following year, "Sora", had Hiroshi Sato in the producer's chair.
So it's not surprising then that one of the tracks on "Sora" happens to be a cover version of "It Isn't Easy", given the alternate title of "Renka Senri"（恋唄千里...Love Song Long Distance）. Not sure on my reading of that title although YouTube uploader Keir Hardie's transcription has it as "Renka Chisato" (that first attempt of the second word is based on jisho.org). In any case, Haneda's cover is still within the AOR genre although it tends toward a more soulful arrangement and the singer delivers the song in both Japanese and English; apparently the lyrics in the former language were provided by someone named Yui Masaki（真沙木唯）according to JASRAC.
Haneda has provided 3 singles and 6 albums up to 2008, and according to her website, her full stage name is Johanna Yukiko Haneda, although her real name is Yukiko Ito（伊藤征子）. On finding out that kaz-shin at "Music Avenue" reviewed "Sora", I also discovered that he has proclaimed her 3rd album from July 1997, "Good Times, Bad Times", as an AOR fan's must-have. Therefore, I will have to continue the exploration into her discography.
_copy.jpg)
