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.
It was about four years ago that I first introduced aidoru Tomoko Ishizaka（石坂智子）onto the pages of "Kayo Kyoku Plus". Her second single"Digital Night Lullaby"（デジタル・ナイト・ララバイ）from September 1980 gave me the impression that she was going to be quite the funky teenybopper singer.
From that cover in the thumbnail, it looks like the minders around young Ishizaka wanted to ply some of that Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）effect onto her. Anyways, this was her December 1980 third single"Futari no Koi wa ABC" (A Couple's Love is as Simple as ABC) and it's also quite the spirited tune kinda reflective of the footloose-and-fancy-free material that Seiko-chan and Ishizaka along with many other aidoru of the time were releasing.
Words and music were provided by Kaoru Ito（伊藤薫）who had also created "Digital Night Lullaby" and it's got quite the chuggy and funky beat. Also like that sophomore single, "Futari no Koi wa ABC" has got some interesting and soaring keyboard (celesta, perhaps?) work during the instrumental bridge. The song was also used for a UCC Coffee commercial. It's got quite the caffeinated energy so it's pretty apt.
August 27th 2026: Commenter Tobi informed me that sadly Ishizaka had passed away three years ago according to her friend on Twitter/X: https://x.com/eYsUhrI1IruqGlf/status/2092756154145505737,
Welcome once again to Hump Day and boy, is it sticky out there! It was about a week ago that I was still muttering about being on the winter side of things and now the summer has come with some good heat and humidity. Feeling like 35 degrees C!
Although this song doesn't have anything to do directly with the 2014 anime "Witchcraft Works"（ウィッチクラフトワークス）, "innocent field" by the pop band fhana was included in the CD for the opening theme song "divine intervention" which was released as a single from January of that year. It's a pleasant upbeat song for summer despite the release date and there's perhaps even a feeling of kayo kyoku in there with the saxophone playing things off. As was the case with the main song, "innocent field" was written by Hideki Hayashi（林英樹）but the composer this time was guitarist yuxuki waga.
Just out of my usual sense of whimsy that pops up, I explored a bit on whether I could find another new technopop band of the 1980s in Japan outside of the usual suspects: Yellow Magic Orchestra and any of the Techno Gosanke（テクノ御三家）. I have discovered a few but when I took a look at one of the streaming services, I did manage to find a fresh one.
Good heavens! This fellow was quite the handsome Japanese David Sylvian or member of Duran Duran, wasn't he?
Let me introduce you to musician and singer-songwriter Shinobu Narita（成田忍）. He's actually had an indirect presence on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" because he was a part of the music project 99.99 for which I've provided a few articles including one for their "Amazin' & Amusin'" song from 1982. As I mentioned in that one, their self-titled album was split into two types of music with one type covering fusion while the other type was all about progressive rock and technopop. "Amazin' & Amusin'" was from the fusion stable so I can imagine that Narita was on the other type.
Anyways, Narita joined up with another member from 99.99, violinist Tadahiko Yokogawa（横川理彦）, to form the electro group 4-D in October 1982 which mostly did the live house circuit in the Kansai region. Narita also produced his own songs on sonosheets/flexidiscs for free distribution and according to "Lostwave's Finest Wiki", one of those tunes was the 1984 "Ceramic Love", a slightly dreamscape-y song thanks to the introspective arrangement and echo-laden vocals by the man himself. The J-Wiki article for Narita states that "Ceramic Love" came out in 1987 but I'm assuming that is the CD version.
I heard this for the first time on the latest episode of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌） the other day and the melancholy nature of this was very plain to hear.
"Kawa wa Nagareru" (A River Flows) started out as the B-side to singer and actress Miki Nakasone's（仲宗根美樹）4th single "Ame no Hanazono"（雨の花園...Rainy Flower Garden） when it was released in September 1961, but witnessing how much more popular "Kawa wa Nagareru" was with the listening audience, the single was released once more in November with the sides switched. A reflection of some sad times, Nakasone's stoic performance of the song as if she were too exhausted and depressed to even cry won over fans along with her haunting vocals. Written by Hiroshi Yokoi（横井弘）and composed by Seiichi Sakurada（桜田誠一）, it would become a million-seller by the end of the year and in the following year, she would be invited onto the 1962 edition of NHK's Kohaku Utagassen to start the show as the top batter.
As was often the case back then with hit songs, they inspired cinematic adaptations and "Kawa ga Nagareru" which was known in the West as "Okinawa Blues" was released in theatres from March 1962. Nakasone herself received second billing as part of the cast.
Born Katsuko Kuniba（國場勝子）in 1944, she and her parents fled their native Okinawa to Tokyo due to World War II. Nakasone would release a total of 86 singles and 9 original albums up to early 1974, although she'd already retired once in 1971 due to marriage. She would go through a couple of those and also suffered a number of financial crises in addition to the tragic loss of a son due to cancer. She herself would succumb to lung cancer early in 2024 at the age of 79.
After so many years of waiting, the second season of the hilarious anime adaptation of the original manga "Grand Blue Dreaming" will finally arrive early next month. From what I hear from those who have read the manga, it looks like viewers will happily get some more of the craziness that made "Grand Blue" one of the funniest anime of all time.
Episode 8 was the one where Iori and the gang visited a local bar and one of their buddies who had a job mixing drinks there whipped up a gin & lime. That got to me thinking that that particular cocktail has possessed quite the profile in Japanese pop culture for decades. It seems to have become quite the popular drink for women, and I distinctly remember a Mieko Nishijima（西島三重子）song by that title from the 1970s. Maybe that mixture was seen (and tasted) as the alcoholic route to adventure and romance.
However when I threw in the English words gin lime into the YouTube search engine, I received a whole bunch of videos for the gimlet. And so at first, I had assumed that a gin and lime was the Japanese way of saying a gimlet, but actually, that wasn't exactly correct according to J-Wiki. There are two key differences apparently: 1) the gin and lime is stirred whereas the gimlet is shaken and 2) the gin lime is a short drink while the gimlet is a tall drink. So I guess that what distinguishes a gin & lime from a gimlet is a matter of aeration, container and volume and perhaps how cold it is. But you can take a look at the two videos above and below. I've never had one myself so some of you folks might be able to let me know about the taste.
Well, all that preamble ramble was for me to introduce the short-lived City Pop group PAO's song "Gin Lime" from their 1980 album"YOU". Written by Teruko Harada and PAO members Sabine Marianne Kaneko（サビーネ金子）and Yoshikazu Miura（三浦義和）and composed by Miura, it's got an interesting intro with the piano and synthesizer, and then Miura starts off the soulful crooning with one of the two female members humming away hauntingly. There is some nice sunset soul going on in "Gin Lime" with the two leads providing their own parts of the vocalization, but the harmonization when the two go at it together isn't particularly smooth; it's as if a little too much gin got mixed with the lime juice during a late-night session at the karaoke box.
Welcome to another work week at KKP! To start things off, I received a message from a downtown foodie emporium that Wednesday June 18th is International Sushi Day. Had no idea...I do love my sushi, though, although the realization hadn't punched in until that Japanese Language School trip to Japan in 1981. It wasn't just the love for music that arose within me that fateful July that year...sushi, sashimi and eel all became a thing for me.
Of course, I was scouting around for some sort of sushi-themed kayo kyoku. I'd already posted Shibugakitaki's（シブがき隊）"Sushi Kui ne!"（スシ食いねェ！）and Hibari Misora's（美空ひばり）"Edokko Sushi"（江戸っ子寿司）, both of which are pretty genki tunes.
But on the other hand, enka singer Chiyuki Asami's（あさみちゆき）"Sushi ya de..." (At the Sushi Restaurant...), her 8th single from December 2008, there's quite a solemn and bittersweet atmosphere hanging over the father and daughter dining at the titular eatery. The lyrics by Chiho Inoue（井上千穂）talk of the daughter, on the verge of her wedding day, no longer being able to have regular talks with Dad and no longer being to talk with Mom for quite a while now. Not sure if Mom had already passed away or left the family, but there is plenty of regret emanating from the lass as the sushi chef is molding his wares. Masato Sugimoto's（杉本眞人）melody is also very sad in a folk music kind of way. Masashi Sada（さだまさし）would nod in approval. "Sushi ya de..." managed to reach No. 38 on Oricon.
Not sure whether there was a hard stop to the breezy Shibuya-kei that the duo capsule had been recording in the early 2000s and then they went into full techno. Most likely, it was a gradual transition judging from what I'm hearing from this song of theirs "happy life generator".
Until now, the most recent capsule article on KKP had been about their 2008 song "more more more" which was definitely more into the harder synths and stuff. Meanwhile, "happy life generator", a track from capsule's February 2005 5th album"NEXUS-2060", seems to have grafted a little techno while maintaining that Shibuya-kei happy-go-lucky feeling. As usual, Toshiko Koshijima（こしじまとしこ）applies her sweet and breathy vocals to her partner Yasutaka Nakata's（中田ヤスタカ）lyrics, melody and arrangements. There is an English translation for "happy life generator" at this site as the song goes on to describe a person going on with life as best as they can without the significant other. At least, there is still the peanut butter.
As for "NEXUS-2060", it peaked at No. 59 on Oricon.
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