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.
Y'know...as much as I haven't been to a ramen restaurant in over three months because of this pandemic, I've realized that I've yet to end up curled in a fetal position due to the matter. I mean, I'm still getting my ramen fix through packets of Sapporo Ichiban. Yes I know, ramen purists, it's not the same at all but I'm good with the instant stuff. Besides, real restaurant ramen has really only been with us here in Toronto for about a decade...and I got to eat the lion's share of the stuff because I had been living in Japan all those years.
Earlier this afternoon, I watched the NHK program "Japangle" which presents various aspects of culture in Japan in nifty ways, often with the help of CG. The theme was ramen whose episode was originally broadcast in January 2018 according to the J-Wiki article for the program.
During the episode, there was this musical interlude displaying the history of instant ramen noodles. I was significantly impressed with the technopop involved here so I thought I would take the chance of seeing whether the song existed on YouTube. It turns out that the entire sequence and the episode as shown on top were right there.
It was dang nifty seeing the history of instant ramen and its packaging while "Epoch Men King"(Epoch Ramen King) was playing away while examples of decades of pop culture were also being revealed. The singer was Etsuko Yakushimaru（やくしまるえつこ）, the whispery-voiced chanteuse who performed the ending theme for beloved anime "Space Dandy" back in 2014. Chihiro Maruyama*（丸山千尋）provided the original lyrics while Leo Imai（ＬＥＯ 今井）from METAFIVE wrote the English lyrics and Yoshinori Sunahara（砂原良徳）composed the tune.
Until the all-clear is given to enjoy dine-in ramen once more, I will stick with Sapporo Ichiban and Demae Itcho.
*Not sure whether the first name for the original lyricist is properly pronounced since there seem to be several ways to read the kanji. If anyone can clarify for me, that would be great!
Favorite Blue is a band that I don't remember very well anymore although enough of a memory remains so that I recall hearing their name through commercials for their songs. The duo of vocalist/lyricist Maya Matsuzaki（松崎麻矢）and keyboardist/guitarist/composer Takashi Kimura（木村貴志）debuted in June 1996 with "Ai yori mo Hageshiku, Dare yori mo Itoshiku"（愛よりも激しく、誰よりも愛しく...More Intense Than Love, Dearer Than Anyone Else） and released a total of 15 singles and 5 albums including a BEST up to February 2000. One of their contemporaries was the band Every Little Thing and both units were with the Avex Trax label; according to the J-Wiki article, FB and ELT got along with each other swimmingly and have even appeared on television together.
One of Favorite Blue's most successful singles was their 8th release, "Sayonara yori Eien no Naka de" (From Goodbye In Eternity) released in December 1997. A cheerful song created by Matsuzaki and Kimura, there's some similarity with the early works of Every Little Thing but there is a bit more of a lightness on the keyboards. The lyrics also relate the always welcome story of finding that special someone and discovering that life can actually work well.
"Sayonara yori Eien no Naka de" was also the theme song for a 1997 motion picture "Peking Genjin Who Are You?"（北京原人 Who are you?...Peking Man ~ Who Are You?）, a sci-fi flick where apparently a family of Homo erectus pekinensis was brought back to life through DNA found in a prehistoric skull. Now, that's using the ol' head! Sounds very "Jurassic Park".
The single peaked at No. 29. Following the end of activities with Favorite Blue in 2000, Kimura moved onto a new music project called m.o.v.e. while Matsuzaki went on to form a new group, mamy drop, with a friend.
Recently, I was able to listen to the 2nd of two original albums released by 1980s aidoru Maiko Okamoto（岡本舞子）, "Fascination" （ファッシネイション）which came out in July 1986. In a past article about her, I remarked that despite her brevity in the spotlight (Okamoto was only active between 1984 and 1987), my belief was that she had quite a bit more talent in singing and in the songs that she received than she was given credit for.
Well, I think that was true for the material that she had recorded for "Fascination" which was well-titled. All of its eleven tracks (the 11th only being available on the CD) were arranged by guitarist Tsuyoshi Kon（今剛）or singer-songwriter Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）, so that fact automatically perked up my ears. The first track "L.A. Lover" is pretty fascinating in itself. It was written by Goro Matsui（松井五郎）as a paean to the sunny beach life in the titular city and it was composed by J-funkster Toshinobu Kubota（久保田利伸）and Ichiro Hada（羽田一郎）.
Often enough with me, unless the song just has that prototypically 80s aidoru cotton-candy arrangement, I also attach some sort of other genre Label. With "L.A. Lover", I'm not sure if I would even say that it's an aidoru tune and even with that title, I'm not sure if I would even place it as a City Pop song, either. It's just a really interesting pop number with its own bubbly groove thing and some spacey twanging in the musical ether. At the same time, though, I really get that feeling of lying on the beach blanket getting bronzed while listening to this first track.
Track 2 is the title track, "Fascination" and this one has more of the City Pop vibe to it. Written by Matsui and composed by Yamakawa, it's got the lovely synth-bass and other keyboards which would probably nominate it for Vaporwave processing if it hasn't already undergone it. Matsui's lyrics talk of the good romantic life from the 22nd floor of an apartment in what sounds like a modern resort area. Man, the setting could illustrate a City Pop album cover!
Another fascinating track is "Okubyou na Venus"（臆病なビーナス...Timid Venus） which was Okamoto's 5th single released in February 1986. Right from Note One, there is that gentle surf of AOR before the keyboards head on downtown, and when the aidoru starts singing, I immediately got that breathy vocal style and the urgent and anthemic melody of Ami Ozaki（尾崎亜美）who also provided the lyrics.
The single was also the theme song for a March 1986 OVA with the same title, and the main character of fictional aidoru Yumiko Kirita（桐田裕美子）was played by Okamoto herself while Ozaki provided the score. "Okubyou na Venus" just managed to peak at No. 91 on Oricon.
One more track that I will throw out here is "Stranger no Yoru"（ストレンジャーの夜...Night of the Stranger）, and this is another City Popaidoru tune provided by the aforementioned Matsui and Yamakawa. It's shiny and slick as a car designed by Syd Mead (well, maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself there), and putting on my kayo sommelier's hat on, I get some hints of Hall & Oates (through the keyboard riffs) and Junko Yagami（八神純子）. Okamoto is singing about being thrown into a whirlwind romance and herself throwing caution to the winds. I do hope Mead designed those futuristic seat belts into that car she's riding.
Yup, "Fascination" is indeed fascinating and so I'm somewhat disappointed that the album only got up to No. 83 when it was first released. Maybe it was just a little too ahead of its time or maybe it was even behind the times in terms of mixing aidoru and City Pop, but the album was given a re-release in 2003, so I'm hoping that even now, those who have recently gotten onto the City Pop/AOR bandwagon will also realize the merits of Okamoto's final studio album. In parting, one other track on "Fascination" is her 4th single"Juu-Ichi-Gatsu no Sophia"（11月のソフィア）which has already been covered on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" and is one of her more aidoru-esque works.
Tokyo's Ebisu district isn't nearly as sprawling as Ginza or Shinjuku but it's also got its fair share of restaurants and watering holes. When I think of the area, I usually think of Ebisu Garden Place, the entertainment/commercial complex across the street from JR Ebisu Station on the Yamanote Line, and one of the main buildings at EGP is Sapporo Beer Station. As I recall, I've been there a few times with friends for a medium mug of the suds and the usual snacks that surround it.
Enka/Mood Kayo singer Naoki Sanada（真田ナオキ）looks like he's been inhabiting a more stylish establishment there and he's been there for a lot longer considering that goofy grin in the thumbnail for the video above. That's because he's performing the short version of his latest single"Ebisu" which was released in January 2020.
I've found out from his J-Wiki profile that enka veteran Ikuzo Yoshi（吉幾三）has been writing and composing all of his singles (four, including "Ebisu"), so I'm wondering whether Sanada has been Yoshi's apprentice for the past few years. Sanada is showing a lot of guttural brio in his delivery as if he's been knocking back a lot of that reserved Old Parr at his favourite tavern. "Ebisu" is quite the heroic-sounding Mood Kayo and I can see it as a potential current favourite at the karaoke boxes for the business folks.
Happy weekend! Feeling darn warm in my room but the fan is alleviating things a tad.
I don't particularly want to be doing farm work in Hokkaido, but I guess that there is something to be said about performing the chores in the open air and then resting up on a hay bale. Of course, I'm just going from the above thumbnail for the 2019 NHK morning serial drama "Natsuzora"（なつぞら）. All I know about the show is the opening credits (which I couldn't find in their original form) which are an anime sequence featuring the main character and some cute forest animals.
However, I was able to find the theme song, "Yasashii Ano Ko" (That Nice Girl), Spitz's 42nd single from June 2019. It's nice to hear Masamune Kusano's（草野正宗）distinctive voice again after so long, and the song is a perfect fit for both Spitz and "Natsuzora" with that optimistic country-style melody. Kusano provided both music and words with the band and Seiji Kumeda（亀田誠治）of Tokyo Jihen（東京事変）working on the overall arrangement.
"Yasashii Ano Ko" reached No. 2 on Oricon, going Gold. The song is also a track on Spitz's 16th original album"Mikke"（見っけ...See） released later in October that year which also went Gold and hit No. 2.
Managed to find one of the rarest of the rare, I believe. Virtually the only information that I could find about the Tokyo-born Reiko Takahashi（高橋玲子）was at Idol.ne.jp*, and that was only to list the mere two singles that she'd released in 1986 and 1987. I wasn't even sure whether she was an aidoru since I've seen other singers at that site, and they were definitely not teenybopper singers. I could only get some confirmation by going through three pages of Yahoo.jp and discovering that she had been included on a 1988 aidoru calendar that was being sold at Rakuten, and that's now sold out so I couldn't see what the calendar looked like.
Anyways, now that I've finished my harangue of sorts, I can introduce that second single by Takahashi, "Sunset Road" which came out in July 1987. Written by Junko Sato（佐藤純子）, composed by City Pop prince Kingo Hamada（浜田金吾）and arranged by Keiichi Oku（奥慶一）from the band Spectrum, "Sunset Road" is pretty perky as if it were introducing the weather segment on a weekend news broadcast. But as an aidoru tune, it's got some pleasant AOR feelings and Takahashi's vocals are fine to the extent that I think it is a pity that she never got her full due in more singles or a single album.
Strangely enough, the first version of "Sunset Road" which I heard was one that had been mysteriously sped up, but perhaps there was method behind the madness since it actually sounds rather nice here, too. Maybe the uploader had some Vaporwave ambitions. It actually took me a couple of listens to realize that Takahashi sounded a little too Minnie Mouse to be normal.
*January 28th 2026: For whatever reason, the site has disappeared.
Y'know...I really felt like pulling out another J Utah driving video when I listened to this one. However, the song itself is only four minutes and change while a J Utah video usually goes at least 40 minutes.
But hey, if you're lucky enough to have Kyosuke Kusunoki's（楠木恭介）1985"Just Tonight" album, then enjoy the LP and the video. As it is though, I'm still happy to make the acquaintance with "Get Down", the second track from "Just Tonight", and despite the disco vibes that the title engenders, the song is very much a production of its decade, thanks to Hiroshi Narumi's（鳴海寛）arrangement of Yoichiro Kakizaki's（柿崎洋一郎）melody tied with Jessie Rein's lyrics.
It's nice and groovy on a West Coast level, and images of 1980s George Benson, Al Jarreau and Manhattan Transfer in their urban contemporary mode come to mind. Heck, Kusunoki at the beginning comes across as a Japanese version of Michael McDonald in his delivery. This is definitely a car drive-friendly number, and I still maintain that if you have a long-play City Pop/J-AOR compilation album handy, play it alongside a J Utah video. It's smooth sailing. This is his latest: a drive through Malibu!
