Junretsu -- Ai wo Kudasai ~ Don't You Cry（愛をください）

 

The vocal quartet Junretsu（純烈）has become a regular presence on the annual Kohaku Utagassen over the past few years and once again, they've been invited to join the New Year's Eve special on NHK. With "Propose"（プロポーズ） and "Junretsu no Happy Birthday"（純烈のハッピーバースデー）having been performed in the past couple of editions, I had been wondering what would Kazuyoshi Sakai（酒井一圭）, Yuujiro Shirakawa（白川裕二郎）, Ryohei Odai（小田井涼平）and Shota Gogami（後上翔太）present this year at Shibuya Hall.

Well, I don't think I need to wonder anymore. This song has been popping a fair bit on shows such as "Uta Kon"（うたコン）so I figure that their February 2020 single "Ai wo Kudasai ~ Don't You Cry" (Give Me Your Love) has been given the NHK go-ahead for performance.

Plenty of gusto in this one. Written and composed by their regular songwriter Kohei Miyuki（幸耕平）with arrangement by Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）, "Ai wo Kudasai" has brought in all of the ingredients for a Junretsu song: brio-filled Latin horns, old-style and new-style kayo, bar-friendly Mood Kayo and the reassuring voices of the guys. The music video surprisingly doesn't have the four put on the usual dancing show and they don't appear until the last minute of the song, instead focusing on their voices soothing a lonely young lady in a really nice living room set. That last scene though made me wonder whether the director was going for something like a pivotal part of "The Bachelorette". "Ai wo Kudasai" peaked at No. 3 on the Oricon weeklies.

Akiko Murata -- Watashirashikunakya!（私らしくなきゃ！）

 

The mid-1990s were known for the Komuro Boom with songwriter-producer Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）leading the way with his dance-pop sounds as applied to Namie Amuro（安室奈美恵）, Tomomi Kahala（華原朋美）, trf and the like. But there were other acts out there with their own styles such as Keizo Nakanishi（中西圭三）with his brand of soul-pop, AOR kings Sing Like Talking and cool UA.

The thing is, though, that I knew about these guys thanks to the media machine and Oricon charts, but as much as I've remarked that I discovered a whole treasure trove of formerly unknown City Pop stars from the 1980s, I think the same can apply to a number of singers from the 1990s.

Case in point: singer Akiko Murata（村田彰子）. Never heard of her until some months ago. Born in South Carolina, America, her very short J-Wiki entry mentions that she is known for a low voice with plenty of punch. Apparently at one music event, the late Ike Turner even praised Murata's abilities which were considered to be a step above a lot of other Japanese voices. One blurb on a page compared her to Annie Lennox and Alison Moyet.

Having said that, she released just one single and one album. Her February 1996 album "Find Out" contains the track "Watashirashikunakya!" (Gotta Be Me!), written by Satomi Arimori（有森聡美）and composed by Kazunori Sone（曽根一訓）. No doubt about the strong and soulful voice, and the song has got that jazzy dance beat to take things close to City Pop, although the impression that I got on first listening to "Watashirashikunakya!" is that the song wasn't quite up to Murata's talent level but it was promising.

The following year, Murata changed to her professional name to FOOL to release a single "Dance Tonight" and then later in 1998, she lengthened it further to FOOL & The Long Hairs with an indies album coming out.

Atsumi Kurasawa -- Genki desu ka（元気ですか）

 

"Genki desu ka?" (How are you?) was one of the first Japanese expressions that I ever learned as a kid, and I think the question has taken on a little deeper meaning considering our current circumstances. Hopefully, everyone is hanging in there although Toronto will be sadder for the next 28 days at least since we're going back into lockdown as of tomorrow due to the rates in hospital and generally speaking being too high. 

"Genki desu ka" also happens to be the title for 80s aidoru Atsumi Kurasawa's（倉沢淳美）penultimate 9th single from April 1987. Written by Shun Taguchi（田口俊）and composed by Tsunehiro Izumi（和泉常寛）, the usual sunny teenybopper arrangements have that slight feeling of Eiichi Ohtaki（大滝詠一）and doo-wop as Kurasawa inquires about how a former flame (?) is doing in a new town in a new job. 

Kurasawa who hails from Sagamihara City in Kanagawa Prefecture started her career in show business as one of the three members in Warabe（わらべ）, an aidoru group born on the variety show "Kin-chan no Doko Made Yaru no!?" （欽ちゃんのどこまでやるの?!...Kin-chan's How Far Will You Go?!）that garnered at least a couple of hits including "Medaka no Kyoudai"（めだかの兄妹）in the early 1980s. She made her solo debut in 1984, ending up with those 10 singles, 4 studio albums and a couple of BEST compilations by 1987.

According to her J-Wiki profile, early in her solo career, Kurasawa was a victim of a slashing attack by a 26-year-old company employee at an autograph session in Sapporo, Hokkaido which left her with a 6-cm gash on her wrist. Apparently, he took issue with a statement that Kurasawa had said that he perceived as a slight against the aidoru's partner in Warabe, Tomoko Takabe（高部知子）. On happier news, some years later, Kurasawa married a fellow from Australia and moved there to become a homemaker and mother before moving with her family to Dubai in August 2011, according to a feature on a TBS variety special focusing on Japanese wives all around the world that was aired in 2013.

Yoko Ishino -- Kiss made Matenai ~ My World ~（KISSまで待てない ）

 

Earlier this year, people in Japan and from what I've heard from my anime buddy, people in Taiwan were also stunned and saddened to hear of the untimely death of longtime comedian Ken Shimura（志村けん）due to COVID-19. I was also absolutely shocked to find out because he as both a solo entertainer and as a member of the comedy troupe The Drifters had been a regular presence via TV and our VCR literally for decades. 

One of the many variety shows that he had appeared on was "Shimura Ken-san no Daijoubuda"（志村けんのだいじょうぶだぁ...Ken Shimura's Everything's All Right）, a Monday night program on Fuji-TV which ran from 1987 to 1993 at 8 pm, about a year before the music program "HEY! HEY! HEY! MUSIC CHAMP" with Osaka comedy duo Downtown began its long run. I had the opportunity to catch it when I was living in Gunma Prefecture, and there were a number of comedic segments interspersed with musical numbers often featuring new and veteran aidoru. One of those segments involved Shimura as a grumpy and harried husband of a very fluttery wife played by actress/comedienne Yoko Ishino（いしのようこ）, the younger sister of 1970s aidoru Mako Ishino（石野真子）. Basically, it seemed to come off like a Japanese version of a Burns and Allen skit.

Ishino was one of the regular members on "Daijoubuda" and the chemistry between her and Shimura seemed so good that fans were wondering whether they were really indeed an item. According to J-Wiki, they even shared the same birthday of February 20th. It was a riddle that even I had thought about but apparently not, since after "Daijoubuda" ended its run in 1993, that was it in terms of their time together. In fact, according to a Japanese sports newspaper, Ishino got married a little over a year ago.

Ishino also followed in her sister Mako's footsteps and started her show business career as an aidoru in the mid-1980s, premiering with singers such as Minako Honda（本田美奈子）, Miyuki Imori（井森美幸）, Yuki Saito（斉藤由貴）and Miho Nakayama（中山美穂）. She debuted with "Teddy Boy Blues"（テディーボーイ・ブルース）in 1985 and her 7th and final single was released in June 1989, "Kiss made Matenai ~ My World ~" (Can't Wait for the Kiss).

Now, the reason that I did the search for Ishino's material was that I'd realized that it was a very long time that I covered a Eurobeat tune, and when I looked up a list of J-Eurobeat tunes, I saw Yukari Morikawa's（森川由加里）"SHOW ME" of course, but then I additionally found "Kiss made Matenai" by Ishino.

To be honest, her comedic chops were probably better honed than her singing ones, but the song surrounding her isn't too bad since it is actually a cover of a single by Italian Eurobeat singer Elena Ferretti, better known as Sophie (among many, many aliases) also released in 1989 as "My World". The Japanese version of the song was translated by Keiko Aso（麻生圭子）while the original melody was provided by Stefano Comazzi, Giuliano Crivellente and Federico Di Bonaventura.

"Kayo Kyoku Plus" on "Come Along Radio"

 

I hinted at this in a past article (I forget which one) but last week, I had the honour of being interviewed by fellow City Pop fan and good friend Rocket Brown for his podcast "Come Along Radio" from Los Angeles which goes into the history and sweet sounds of the genre (paraphrasing from his regular introduction). We go into how I got into the music of folks such as Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）, Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）, Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）and Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）among others in the first place and how I got "Kayo Kyoku Plus" off the ground. In addition, some of my favourites will be played on air.

The above is just the YouTube commercial for "Come Along Radio" but if you are interested in listening to the podcast, you can click the link and head over to Mixcloud. Also, feel free to prove/disprove how much I sound like Alan Alda from "MASH" and how often I use "Y'know" (I must have watched too many player interviews on "Hockey Night In Canada" when I was a kid).

Just wanted to thank Rocket Brown for taking the time to have me on and also since I neglected to mention this on the podcast, I also want to send my gratitude to everyone: JTM, nikala, Marcos V., Noelle, Larry, Joanna and all others who have contributed to the blog with their articles over the past 9 years as well as the commenters who have given their suggestions. I will make that public the next time I get to go on "Come Along Radio".

Mari Yoshida -- Suteki na News（素敵なニュース）

 

I have to admit that this is a first for me but when I was looking up the songwriters for this particular song on the JASRAC database, I could actually track down Etsuko and Takao Kisugi（来生えつこ・来生たかお）, the sibling songwriters, but the name of the singer wasn't there for some odd reason.

Fortunately, the name of the absent singer on JASRAC was plainly described underneath the video. This is Mari Yoshida（吉田真梨）, an aidoru who had a very brief career in show business just between 1976 and 1978. Hailing from Toyama Prefecture, she was born as Yuka Nishikata（西方由香）and graduated from Horikoshi High School, the school where a lot of show business folks attended, near where I used to teach in Nakano-Sakaue.

With a grand total of 7 singles and 1 album under her belt, this one song by her actually comes as a non-single track from her lone album "Makka na Mimitabu"（まっ赤な耳たぶ...Red Earlobes）, released in December 1976, "Suteki na News" (Wonderful News). Listening to it a few times, I'm pretty assured that this is indeed the Kisugi creation (the only other song with that same title listed in the database was the translation of an original song by Canada's own Anne Murray!). It's really quite refined as an aidoru tune in terms of the arrangement and I figure, yup, it's Takao behind it considering some of the other songs that he would weave for other singers later on in his career such as "Slow Motion" for Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）and "Sailor Fuku to Kikanjuu" （セーラー服と機関銃）for Hiroko Yakushimaru（薬師丸ひろ子）.

I'd say that there is something even quite Bacharach about "Suteki na News" just from the horns in there. It's more reminiscent of 1960s Sunshine Pop, and it's enough that I would be interested in seeing if there were any more of her songs up on YouTube. This may be the earliest example of the Kisugis' work that I've come across.

March 25th 2025: Well, I'm currently wiping the egg off my face right now. I was doing some maintenance on the articles when I discovered that the Kisugis had nothing to do with this "Suteki na News". In fact, when I found the liner notes for the album "Makka na Mimitabu" and enlarged the photo, I realized that it was a couple of French songwriters responsible for the song. Machiko Ryu（竜真知子） provided the Japanese lyrics for Yoshida. My apologies for the mistake that had been hanging around for a few years, and I've made the corrections in the Labels. However, I'm leaving the original prose as is so you can see how I've embarrassed myself. The Kisugis were responsible for the 1990 "Suteki na News" sung by tarento and model Risako Shitara（設楽りさ子）.

Also, on a more somber note, Yoshida passed away in September 2022 at the age of 64.

SHE IS SUMMER -- Donuts（ドーナツ）

 

There was that one Friday in December 2009. The news about it arriving had been coming at us for a few months but Krispy Kreme was ready to make its move into Japan via Tokyo, and then it did. Krispy Kreme Branch No. 1 was set up in South Shinjuku across the pedestrian bridge from Takashimaya Times Square. The famous American donut franchise had already tickled the taste buds of many Japanese when they visited Hawaii and saw it there, and now they really didn't have to polish off their passports to get access to what was perhaps their first time eating yeast-raised donuts instead of the cakey variety that they known for years via Mister Donuts.

I had missed out on the brief mania about these sugar bombs in Canada. The brevity was due to some rotten timing on KK's part from media reports of the high amounts of cholesterol killing Canadians so people rather soured on the donuts fairly quickly. So Krispy Kreme in Japan was my first opportunity to taste what all the hoopla was about, and even then it took literally months before I was even able to set foot into Branch No. 1 or even a few of the other branches that popped up all over Tokyo because the lineups were absolutely insane. Easily, there were folks lining up for 2 hours to get their box of a dozen icing-coated donuts. However, I finally got my opportunity late into 2010 and had that potent ring with a cup of coffee. The coffee threw me for a loop since it was so strong but I gather that it had to counteract the teeth-shivering sweetness of the donut. I couldn't deny it...it was good stuff but sleep was largely lacking to me that night. In any case, the remainder of my time in Japan had me visiting the various branches from time to time.

The Krispy Kreme craze lasted probably a good half-decade, long after I had left Japan for Canada, but by the time I returned for my first trip back to my old stomping grounds in 2014, the donut franchise was slowly disappearing. However, there was still one branch over in Odaiba at Tokyo Bay as you can see at the top, and it was still there when I visited once more in 2017, although Branch No. 1 went the way of the dodo.

My preamble ramble was to introduce the latest by solo project SHE IS SUMMER with songwriter MICO as the vocalist. Last year, I discovered for the first time through a 2018 song. Just a few days ago, she released her digital download single "Donuts", and the video seems to be about her most normal relationship with a tasty donut. The biggest thing that I noticed though was her riding a bicycle. I haven't ridden one in over thirty years, and I gather that I should have been more involved with that than with Krispy Kreme donuts.

"Donuts" is as sweet and satisfying a technopop tune to my ears as one of those KK donuts was to my belly, and considering the darker times that we now live in, it's nice to hear something as happy-go-lucky as this one. Despite all the bleeps and bloops, there is a good dollop of warmth in "Donuts" especially in the refrain. Ah, incidentally, if you want to check out another donut-related J-Pop song, try this one out.

The former site of Branch No. 1. Now supplanted
by a café.