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J-pop star Mika Nakashima sat down with Billboard Japan for its Women in Music interview series highlighting women flourishing in the Japanese music industry. The initiative launched this year in the same spirit of Billboard’s annual event celebrating women since 2007. Billboard Japan aims to elevate women who continue to break new ground in Japan’s music business through contents including interviews, live performances, and panel discussions.
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For over 20 years since her sensational debut, Nakashima has continued to take on new projects while staying true to her unique style. This year, the 39-year-old singer released a self-produced album with songs she wrote herself, aptly entitled I. “‘Mika Nakashima’ is the work of the supporters around me,” she notes, and true to her words, she established her career by maintaining the flexibility to update herself by being open to the voices of the people around her.
Were there any women you looked up to as as role models growing up?
Mika Nakashima: I suppose it’s the same for anyone when they’re little, but the cool women in my life were my mother and older sister. Still, I thought my mom was an ordinary parent until I went out into society, but as I began working part-time and the number of adults around me increased, I realized that my mom was pretty awesome and started noticing the great things about her. I still remember a lot of the things she said to me and I think I listened to her because I longed to be like her at the time.
She sounds like a lovely person. Could you share something she said that you still take to heart?
Among many things, she often used to say, “If you borrow something, return it cleaner than when you borrowed it.” I still think back to this and it’s become my foundation of sorts. I mean, literally, it’s important to treat something you’ve borrowed with care and return it in a clean state, but recently I’ve been interpreting it more like, “Even my body is something being borrowed and must be returned to the gods in a clean state.” I know this sounds kind of woo-woo [laughs] but because of my mom’s words, I’ve come to think that I need to be prepared to return everything in a beautiful way. I’m grateful to my mom for giving me words during my childhood that are like hints still relevant today as an adult.
Has your image of an ideal woman changed with age and experience?
It hasn’t changed much. I admire cool women and have always wanted to be one. When I was younger, I think I was aiming for a more superficial, visual coolness, but now I know that the quality has to come from within and adjusting the surface isn’t enough. “Being cool” is about how you live your life, and age and experience helped me realize that.
What’s your definition of a cool woman?
Someone who has the ability to be open to the ideas of those around her and to organize them. Maybe it’s because I work in the music industry, but I feel that it’s easier to stick to your own opinion and that it’s more difficult but important to take in the ideas of the people around you. Thankfully, I’m surrounded by talented people and consider it my role to do what I can to let them show their strengths and enjoy themselves.
That’s a great way of thinking. When did you start thinking this way?
Since my debut, and this idea hasn’t changed for a long time. I started working in the industry when I was 18 years old, completely clueless, and wouldn’t have been able to do anything without the help of the people around me. They took me by the hand and taught me every step of the way each day, and I’ve always thought that I just happened to be the one with the role of singing in front of the audience.
Are there any parts that have changed?
In terms of lyrics, there are some aspects that I interpret differently now than in the past, when I had less experience. When asked to sing songs from the past, some artists seem to feel, “But my current ones are good, too,” but I consider it a valuable opportunity to express a new aspect of those songs that can be performed because I’m the person I am today. In the past, I think that by singing those songs, I was trying to bring myself closer to the image of the strong woman being depicted in them.
As you said, many fans must consider you as being strong and cool, but is there a gap between who you really are and your public image?
I’m glad if people consider me that way, but that image and the actual me are probably completely different. But that doesn’t mean the image of “Mika Nakashima” is something we intentionally created. It’s just that I was too nervous and shy to speak well when I appeared on music programs on TV, or that my facial features look cold. All of those things added up to create the image. I’m actually a lively person that gets everyone involved, and am loud in my dressing room. Meeting people and chatting with them helps me relieve stress.
Did you find it stressful to have that gap between your public image and real self?
It was actually nice for me that people thought of me differently. I must have been intimidating or something but not too many people came up to me, so that worked out well because I’m pretty shy. I don’t really mind if people come up and talk to me, though.
You wrote all the lyrics and music for your self-produced album released in May. How does the songwriting process affect you?
When I write lyrics, I feel kind of glad that I have my emotional ups and downs. There were times when I felt bad about myself for being that way, but I’m able to write songs because I feel all kinds of emotions. I have to face myself when I’m writing lyrics so it releases stress and I find words I want to say to myself. I also sometimes hold up an ideal, thinking, “I want to be the kind of person who would say such things.”
Does being a woman influence your musical activities, including songwriting?
I thought about this again for this interview, but I personally don’t think it’s influenced me too much. It doesn’t matter if I wear a skirt or pants onstage, or use “boku” as the first person (generally used by men) in my lyrics. One thing I did think of, though, is that women (in Japan) are more likely to be accepted if they’re “innocuous.” For example, I have tattoos. Sometimes when I upload a photo of myself wearing something that shows a tattoo, some online media writes an article on it. I’ve been fortunate enough not to bear the brunt of this general tendency to put people down for standing out, but it’d be sad if there are artists who hold back from expressing something because of it.
Are there any female artists or songs that empower you?
To be honest without being shy, the artist I like the best right now is me. My songs are the ones I want to listen to. I probably feel this way because of the things I’ve accumulated over the past 20 years. I had no confidence at all in the past and used to stand on stage feeling apologetic. I made countless mistakes, and there were times when I was depressed because of my hearing problems. But now I’m able to create works that I think are fabulous. I can’t quit this job until I give back to the people who’ve supported me.
Listen to an exclusive playlist curated by Mika Nakashima below or here.
—This interview by Rio Hirai (SOW SOWEET PUBLISHING) first appeared on Billboard Japan.
Billboard Japan has been interviewing various women who have established themselves in the Japanese music industry for its Women in Music initiative since its inception last year. In the same spirit of Billboard’s annual Women in Music event that began in 2007, Billboard Japan also aims to celebrate women who continue to break new ground in the country’s music business through various contents including interviews, live performances, and panel discussions.
YouTube’s Mai Sasaki, who oversees Artist Relations in Japan at the video sharing giant, is the next featured guest in the interview series. Sasaki helps artists in Japan expand the scope of their musical activities by providing a platform and operational support, a major example being the official Fuji Rock Festival YouTube channel that began in 2018 featuring livestreams and archives from Japan’s pioneering summer music festival. Having been involved in the music business in her home country and abroad before assuming her current post, how does Sasaki view the Japanese music scene today?
You currently work in Artists Relations at YouTube. What specifically does this section do?
Our job is to make various proposals and provide operational support for artists to utilize YouTube as a platform. The things our music team can propose to our clients are increasing in multifaceted ways on a daily basis, such as how to actively operate official channels, or hosting livestreams.
I see, so it’s not just about opening up your platform. The pandemic has changed the way music is made available online, so it feels like more and more artists are utilizing YouTube now.
It goes without saying that the shock of the pandemic has been immense for the music industry, from not being able to hold in-person events like live concerts and music festivals to having to postpone releases because the recording and promotion process became harder to carry out. In the midst of all this, YouTube has been holding online seminars for artists, record companies, and other music professionals on how to make the most of our platform. This initiative was more about wanting to work together towards a common goal rather than trying to sell our services. As a result, our platform has been used as a place for artists and fans to connect — through livestreaming shows without in-person audiences, or streaming performances from the artists’ private spaces — and even now that movement restrictions have been lifted, such developments on the platform continue to expand.
Could you tell us a bit about your career before taking up your current position?
I’ve loved music for as long as I can remember, and after graduating college, I landed a job at a record company in Japan. After that, I moved to San Francisco. I didn’t have any connections; I did my own research, got connected to a company that I wanted to work for, set up an appointment for an interview, and got the job at a digital music distribution start-up.
Having experienced working in the music industry both in Japan and the U.S., have you felt any differences between the two?
After returning to Japan, I really noticed the large percentage of men in the industry as a whole. At the company I worked for in San Francisco, there were many women in key positions such as the heads of the production and marketing departments, so the fact that such key positions in Japan are usually filled by men in dark suits became glaringly apparent to me after coming back.
What do you think are some of the reasons that have led to this current situation?
This isn’t just about the music industry, but I feel that there’s still a strong sense of gender roles in Japan, that women are supposed to take care of children and do housework. Of course there are regional differences in other countries as well, but San Francisco is a very liberal-leaning city, so I think the difference I felt when I came back to Japan was significant.
What’s the current situation like at Google?
Google has a corporate philosophy that emphasizes diversity, equity, and inclusiveness. In fact, we have as many women as men. This is subjective, but my impression is that the right people are placed in the right places with more emphasis on individual careers and working styles than on gender. Working remotely was also allowed before the pandemic, and support is in place for women to continue their careers while going through childbirth and childcare. In order to promote women’s leadership, we also offer a training program called the “Women Will Leadership Program” for both management and individuals who aspire to become leaders, and it’s been very effective.
It’s encouraging to see a global company like Google leading the way in the advancement of women in society with an extensive support system. Moving on to the topic of artists, on Billboard Japan’s year-end Japan Hot 100 for 2022, only two female artists broke into the top 10 (Aimer and Ado). The result for the entire list was 58 male artists, 27 female artists, and 15 mixed acts. Men consistently outnumber women on the tally, even though there are many great female artists in Japan. Could you share your views on this result?
I’m not an artist, so I can’t speak for them, but as a listener, I sometimes feel that Japanese society isn’t ready to accept the views of female artists when they try to send out strong messages. Many female artists who are setting records globally, such as Taylor Swift, Beyonce, and Lizzo, send out strong messages to society. The fact that these women have loyal followings is proof that their messages are touching people. In Japan, that aspect still seems to be a hurdle to overcome.
In Japan, there has even been a controversy about whether or not to bring politics into music, and I get the impression that there are a certain number of people who can’t tolerate women having a voice.
That might not be the only reason, but we once received feedback from the global team that they couldn’t think of any artists in Japan with outstanding individuality or assertiveness among other global artists. They said that when considering the global music market as a whole, J-pop artists don’t stand out.
In reality, though, there are outstanding artists like Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, who presents Japan’s unique culture to the world and has successfully performed at major events including Coachella, and Haru Nemuri, whose reputation abroad is even greater than in Japan. Boosting these and other great domestic talents further toward global audiences is one of the challenges that a global platform like YouTube should address.
That’s rather shocking to hear. What kind of artists were you into in the past?
It’s not just because she’s a woman, but Madonna has left a big impact on me. I first heard “Erotica” on a local radio station, J-WAVE when I was in junior high school and was blown away. Not only her music, but her fashion and makeup were also so exciting, and she made me feel that I didn’t have to be too concerned about what people think of me, which still influences how I think today. Her speech at the 2016 Billboard Women in Music event was also fascinating.
More than 40 years have passed since Madonna’s sensational debut in 1982, and the circumstances surrounding women have changed. Do you personally feel any of these changes?
When I started out, it was a given that we (women) had to work harder than men if we wanted to make it in the music industry. But nowadays, the concept of men working hard without regard for their families is outdated and pushing yourself too hard while ignoring the physical differences between men and women isn’t a virtue, either. We should also be aware of the potential for harassment that stems from the authority gained from advancing in one’s career, regardless of gender. I believe that having room to breathe both mentally and physically will lead to better performances for both myself and team members.
Watch the exclusive playlist curated by Mai Sasaki below.
—This interview by Rio Hirai (SOW SOWEET PUBLISHING) first appeared on Billboard Japan
J-pop band back number continue to enjoy lasting hits, with their 2016 album Encore still charting in the top 100 of Billboard Japan’s Hot Albums tally. The group’s recent hit song “Suiheisen” (“Horizon”) — created in the wake of the cancellation of the 2020 All Japan High School Sports Championships due to the pandemic — was released in August 2021 and finished at No. 9 on the 2022 year-end Billboard Japan Hot 100, becoming another signature song for the band that already has a long list of familiar hits under its belt.
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The trio’s latest studio album, Humor, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Japan Hot Albums chart dated Jan, 25. The set contains a total of 12 tracks including “Suiheisen,” songs featured as themes for TV drama series, plus brand-new numbers. In this latest interview, Shimizu shares the creative process that went into the production of this album that reflects the band’s current state, written and recorded alongside the band’s domestic tour last year.
What was 2022 like for you? You caught COVID during the band’s tour last year and some shows had to be postponed, but you all managed to successfully wrap of the trek in September.
Iyori Shimizu: I wanted to have fun during that tour instead of putting too much pressure on myself. Until recently, I used to put pressure on myself by setting up goals, like, “I want to be a certain way when the tour is over, so I have to make this kind of effort and…” But after coming down with COVID, it really hit home how important it is to pamper myself and make time for fun.
Then on the final day of the tour, it was like seeing a completely different view from before. We’d intended to enjoy ourselves and be satisfied with the tour, but in the end it was like we became aware of a kind of thirst. It was a strange feeling, that we could do more. I contemplated what that feeling was as we were putting the finishing touches on the album, and worked through the meaning of “humor” all over again.
What do you think was the nature of that “thirst”?
It was like a kind of earnestness that encompasses both fun and stoicism. Being really ambitious while also being really natural, the sense that the things that I thought could never be placed side by side are being mixed together. The three of us went into the studio and experimented in a lot of ways.
How do you think those things influenced your new album?
I realized that somewhere along the way, I’d lost the ability to “think normally.” I’d forgotten what I’d felt like when I first got started. But around the time I wrote “Velvet no Uta” during the tour, I began to feel the power of just being able to straightforwardly do what’s “good enough, normally speaking.” It felt like I’d returned to my very natural state, singing what I think the way I think it. If I hadn’t gotten COVID and finished the tour without any incident, it probably would have been a completely different album.
You shared “Suiheisen” on YouTube in August 2020, then released it on streaming platforms a year later. It started going viral on TikTok and other social networking sites around this time. Did that lead to any new discoveries about how to deliver your music?
I thought, “People sure do listen to a lot of music.” TikTok is a great playground. I’m pretty sure artists are all trying to figure out how to provide a plaything for it.
Also, I really appreciate the fact that the concept of B-sides has all but disappeared. I’ve never wanted to make a song that’s considered second best.
Streaming has made it much easier to access music on a song-by-song basis.
I think there was a bit more of a “this is popular, so let’s listen to it” vibe until fairly recently. Of course, that way of listening to music isn’t bad at all, and I’m sure we’ve benefited from it. But the joy is great when people choose to listen to our music. We’d like to keep on embodying our style of valuing each and every song, and we’re thinking of doing something new in our next phase.
How do you feel about the way your new album Humor turned out?
I already have an idea of what I want to do after this, so I think we managed to do what we can with this one. I can’t say for sure if it’s a good album until people hear it and we tour with it, but I’m confident enough to at least look forward to those things.
When we started making this album, I was thinking how I wanted to see “back number Level 99.” That we had to make an album that we could call our very best. But while we were making it, I realized that that way of thinking was really egotistical and that I was just being conceited. Like, if you keep working out all the time, your basic physical fitness will improve, but the environment around you is constantly changing. There’s no point in becoming a band that only pleases your core fans by being stubborn about how you think you should be and falling into complacency. That would just halt our growth and it would also mean turning our backs on our fans who love and support us. There is no upper limit.
Your journey continues even after Level 99, you mean.
It’s just a new beginning. I’m sure there are people out there who don’t listen to back number, so I want to hang on to that desire to turn those people around. The people who listen to us now and “One Room” (back number’s fan club) are really important to me, but I also don’t think it’s right to only care about them. I want us to be a band that those people can be proud of and say, “Isn’t our captain pretty amazing?”
—This interview by Takuto Ueda first appeared on Billboard Japan
Official HIGE DANdism’s “Subtitle” makes history on the latest Billboard Japan Hot 100, released Jan. 25, extending its record to 12 weeks at No. 1 (8 of those weeks consecutively) to break the all-time record for longest-leading single on the chart.
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The records for both consecutive and non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 were previously held by Gen Hoshino’s “Koi,” which hit No. 1 seven times consecutively and 11 times in all.
“Subtitle” racked up 12,610,115 streams this week, down from 13,481,602 last week, to rule the metric for the 14th consecutive week. The grand total for the track is currently at 259,611,559 streams. The song is at No. 4 for downloads (7,654 units, down from 8,709) after topping the metric 8 times and totaling 273,438 units to date. It racked up 1,839,544 views (down from 2,044,575) to come in at No. 3 for video views, and while it never hit No. 1 for this metric, it stayed at No. 2 for 9 weeks and currently totals 36,927,130 views.
While “Subtitle” continues to gradually slow down (7.2 percent down in total points from the previous week), it’s still around 2,000 points ahead of the song at No. 2 — “KICK BACK” by Kenshi Yonezu — and it’ll be interesting to see if it can extend its record next week and beyond.
KinKi Kids’ “The Story of Us,” the third single marking the 25th anniversary of the Johnny’s duo’s CD debut, bows at No. 3 on the Japan Hot 100 this week. The track written by the two members launched at No. 1 for physical sales with 178,502 copies sold in its first week, but couldn’t supplement that advantage with other metrics of the chart’s methodology.
back number‘s seventh album Humor, the three-man band’s first studio set in four years, blasted in at No. 1 on Billboard Japan’s Hot Albums chart this week. The song “I Love You” off the set rises 15-7 this week on the Japan Hot 100 after collecting points in streaming and radio airplay. Other songs by the popular band, including past hits such as “Takane no Hanako-san,” also surged in points and a total of eight tracks by the band is charting on the Japan Hot 100 this week.
The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, YouTube and GYAO! video views and karaoke data.
See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from Jan. 16 to Jan. 22, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English Twitter account.
J-pop singer-songwriter Yuuri premiered the new music video accompanying his latest song “Billimillion” on Jan. 19.
The new track by the 28-year-old musician lends support to the younger generation trying their best to get by in modern times, through an allegorical story about an old man who offers a young man large sums of money in exchange for 50 years of his life. The “Betelgeuse” singer has been performing this song that encourages people to make decisions they won’t regret since last year, including his tour celebrating his YouTube channel sailing past a million subscribers.
The visuals released on YouTube features Tekken’s flip animation depicting the message and story of the new track through his signature black-and-white drawings.
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Official HIGE DANdism’s “Subtitle” has tied the all-time record for most weeks at No. 1 on the latest Billboard Japan Hot 100, dated Jan. 18, logging its 11th week atop the chart.
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The track has now caught up with superstar Gen Hoshino‘s “Koi” that set the 11-week record in early 2017. The tracks are also tied for most consecutive weeks at No, 1 with seven each.
Hoshino’s ubiquitous hit continues to be widely popular today, and “Subtitle” is also well on its way to becoming one of HIGE DAN’s biggest hits as well. But, as predicted last week, the track is slowing down considerably — the overall points for “Subtitle” decreased by about 10 percent this week— so we’ll see if the next tally will become a history-changing moment on the Japan charts.
The four-man band currently has three songs charting in the top 10 — “Subtitle,” “White Noise,” and the former No. 1 song “Mixed Nuts” — with “White Noise” debuting at No. 5. The track is the opener for the latest story arc of the TV anime series Tokyo Revengers and is the band’s second tie-in with the series following the long-running hit “Cry Baby” from the summer of 2021.
LIL LEAGUE from EXILE TRIBE’s debut single “Hunter” launched with 88,660 copies (No. 2 for sales) and bowed at No. 2 on the Japan Hot 100 this week. The new group, formed through the iCON Z 2022 Dreams For Children audition that was the biggest of its kind in LDH’s history, also came in at No. 1 for radio this week.
Meanwhile, “Kamisama datte kimerarenai,” the tenth single by 22/7 (Nanabunnonijyuuni), a virtual idol group produced by Yasushi Akimoto of AKB48 fame, hit No. 1 for sales with 89,460 copies sold, but couldn’t follow up in other metrics (No. 25 for radio, for example) and debuts at No. 7 on the Japan Hot 100.
The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, YouTube and GYAO! video views and karaoke data.
For the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from Jan. 9 to 15, see here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English Twitter account.
Veteran J-pop singer-songwriter Chara chatted with Billboard Japan for its Women in Music interview series celebrating women in the Japanese music industry. The initiative launched this year in the same spirit of Billboard’s annual Women in Music event that launched in 2007. Billboard Japan aims to elevate women who continue to break new ground in Japan’s music business through interviews, live performances and panel discussions.
On top of her long-standing music career, Chara returned to acting this fall for the first time in 26 years in the Disney+ series Subete wasurete shimaukara (“Because I’ll Forget Everything”) starring Hiroshi Abe, and has been working more often with her two children — daughter Sumire and son Himi — who are also carving out their own paths in show business. When asked what she values as an artist and mother, she emphasized the importance of words and communication. The 54-year-old artist, whose songs depict the delicate subtleties of love, spoke about the power of words in this latest interview.
When you were little, what kind of woman did you look up to?
My earliest recollection of a grown woman would be my kindergarten teacher, and I adored my teacher who could play the piano. So I wanted a piano, but my parents didn’t get me one at that time. When I became a teenager, I remember seeing (Japanese singer-songwriter) Akiko Kosaka leading an orchestra and singing the song “Anata” (“You”) while playing a grand piano, and I thought that was cool. I guess I was impressed by a young woman leading a large group of people.
From there you also became a singer and have led bands yourself. How did you find your way there?
I never did very well in school, but I absorbed a lot from other fun things and exercised my mental muscles that way. Now there’s a term for women who record music at home, “takuroku joshi” (bedroom producer girl), and I was probably one of the first to do that. I met my band mates while playing instruments for fun and started making music. There was no music software you could get cheaply like you can now so everything was analog, and I bought equipment with loans.
I also started learning to play the piano but got tired of it along the way. Playing the practice pieces over and over was never fun and I also wasn’t interested in learning the skill to play fast. I liked music, but didn’t feel like studying it in college because I figured, “If I go to music school, I’ll have to practice like this all the time.” So I quit playing the piano and got a synthesizer and began fooling around on that instead.
Were there any indications of your signature style back in those days?
I think I was a little different everyone else from around the sixth grade. I had the sense that “my parents don’t own me” from around then. I didn’t know that studying abroad was a path that existed, and didn’t know how to get out of my small world, so I ended up at roller discos. Discos were popular when I was in high school, and I also used to cheerlead, so I liked roller discos where you could dance and listen to music while wearing roller skates. I’ve probably been influenced by the people I met at the places where I hung out.
Does that mean you didn’t have an ideal of the kind of person you wanted to be?
There were lots of people I admired. Cyndi Lauper appealed to me, both her music and the way she looks. When I was in school, fashion (in Japan) wasn’t as free as it is today, and it was rare to see a woman with her hair half buzzed or spiked up like hers. I remember being scolded for wearing an outfit that showed my belly button and large hoop earrings to driving school. Even so, I did my best to be creative.
Do the women you admire have anything in common?
I think it’s about appearing to be in a good mood. I’m sure there are times when people in a bad mood or in bad shape, but instead of giving up, they give out power that makes them appear to be in a good mood.
That sounds exactly like who you are now.
It’s not that I’ve been able to be like that since I was young. Even now, I’m not perfect at all. When I was young, I couldn’t speak up honestly because people would say I was being a smart aleck and there were lots of times I caused trouble for those around me. But especially after I had children of my own, I began to think that I have to take responsibility for my words. Words are scary because once you put them out there, you can’t take them back. I’ve experienced many failures in my life, but since having kids, I’ve come to appreciate both the scary and fun aspects of words more. Children are very observant of their surroundings. They ask lots of questions, and you have to respond to what they ask with words. But thanks to that, I’ve come to think that even ordinary words are interesting. When I was younger, I was more arrogant and didn’t want to use the same ordinary words as everyone else. I wanted to find an expression that no one else was using no matter what. But through conversations with my kids, I came to realize that wonderful words can be found anywhere. Because children start talking using really simple words.
Looking back to the days when you made your debut, if you were to give yourself some advice, what would you say?
When I made my debut, I didn’t know anything about the rules of the industry, so I held back and sort of waited to see how things would go. I figured, “I don’t know anything, so I’ll leave it up to the pros,” but there was this one time I was so unhappy with the finished product that I cried because I was shocked that it was completely different from what I’d had in mind. But maybe I didn’t communicate those feelings properly to the people around me at the time. Now I think, “Why didn’t I just try it myself?” but I feel that way now because I made mistakes and learned from them.
One thing I can say though is that it’s important to communicate properly with words. And to make sure the other person understands you. In order to make something go in the right direction, I think it’s all right for both parties to confirm what they’re thinking. And if you can’t align your viewpoints, then so be it. Because if you feel like you disagree, the other person usually feels the same way too.
What do you think is needed to make the world a place where more women can flourish?
I think maybe the world isn’t going to change much unless something happens like a woman becoming the president (of the U.S.). When I first started out, it was common for men (in Japan) to say things like, “Women should shut up” directly to us, so I suppose things have improved a bit since then. One thing we can do now is to raise boys so that a better future will come. For example, parents building a balanced relationship between each other first, since kids observe and sense the relationship between their mother and fathers at home.
You’ve raised a boy yourself. Was there anything you took care in doing or was important to you when he was little?
I’m sure there were a lot of things, but I’ve forgotten a lot of them. [Laughs] But I loved a translated picture book called The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf and used to read it to him a lot. The main character is a bull named Ferdinand who’s brought to a bull ring. He’s a gentle soul who loves flowers. His mother thinks it’s fine for him to be just the way he is, and says it’s OK if he doesn’t live like a typical fighting bull. I never thought that boys should act like boys, and my son probably sensed that I felt that way.
—This interview by Rio Hirai (SOW SWEET PUBLISHING) first appeared on Billboard Japan.
In recent years, you’ve doubtlessly felt some major shifts in the Western pop music scene. Of course, there has been the rise of reggaeton, fresh takes on pop-punk, edgy new grooves from London, and hit trends that originated on TikTok. While these are all fascinating movements, there’s another in the air — the meteoric rise of Asian artists.
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Since the late 2010s, listeners around the world have been reappraising music from Asia, and the development of streaming platforms has provided Asian music with an even greater presence. Special note should be taken of the presence of musician Hikaru Utada, who uses they/them pronouns and has drawn a great deal of interest for their rich catalog of songs, including “Somewhere Near Marseilles,” a club-like tune that deftly evokes the precarious emotional states people have been thrust into by the pandemic. In 2022, they released their latest album, BAD MODE, to the acclaim of music lovers everywhere.
Hikaru Utada is now known for their intriguing style, drawing the listener into a maze of fine, spiraling rhythms, working with producers such as Floating Points, A. G. Cook and Nariaki Obukuro on their new album. It’s important to remember, however, that long before they released songs like “Face My Fears” and “Simple and Clean,” which became well-known in the West due to their use in the Kingdom Hearts games, they had already created universally loved hits.
One of those was “First Love,” the topic of this column. “First Love” has become a hit song in many countries throughout Asia, taking the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on the Apple Music Daily Top 100 and Spotify Daily Rankings Hong Kong and Taiwan. It’s also rising rapidly through the charts in Korea and Indonesia, enjoying a passionate revival not only in Japan but across national borders. This rediscovery was sparked by the November release of the Netflix series First Love. The Netflix series was inspired by the interaction generated from the Hikaru Utada songs “First Love” and “Hatsukoi” and their maddening sense of heartache. The show has become a hit throughout Asia.
“First Love” was revealed to most of the world from the main stage at the Coachella Festival in 2022, but it first captivated Japanese listeners back in 1999. Even though Hikaru Utada was just 16 years old at the time, the song has been a continuing inspiration throughout the years. In that way, as well, the fate of the song resonates with the series First Love, whose story winds back and forth through the past and the present.
What has influenced the path of “First Love”? As is clear from the fact that the song has become a hit again throughout Asia, 23 years after its initial release, it’s clear that “First Love” possesses a certain kind of universality.
Its structure is extremely simple — just piano, bass, drums, and acoustic guitar. This format brings out Utada’s vocals to their fullest. Their vocal performance, which demonstrated a highly refined expressive sensibility despite the song being one of their debut-era releases, can be enjoyed to its fullest on “First Love (A Cappella Mix),” included on the exclusive limited-edition 7-inch single. Their vocals, like a tightrope walker that sways with the music but never falls, are nothing less than breathtaking.
Special attention should be paid to their use of breath. Throughout the song, they use an unusual breath approach, but only for the verse. The floating opening of the song begins, “Saigo no kiss wa, tobacco no flavor ga shita, nigakute setsunai kaori” (“Our last kiss was the flavor of cigarettes, A bitter taste”). They take a breath between “sa” and “igo,” and then again before “kiss,” expressing the fluttering, flustered feelings of love. However, although they pause midway through the word “tobacco,” they don’t take a breath. There’s a momentary silence, one in which even their breathing is stopped, deftly expressing time coming to a halt during a kiss. In the second verse, “Tachidomaru jikan ga ugokidaso to shiteru, wasurerarenai koto bakari” (“Time, standing still, is about to start moving, So many things I don’t want to forget”), the lyrics are accompanied by surprising, bold breath usage. Time, which was stopped for a moment by a kiss, starts up again, along with their breath. Utada uses an “a-i-o” rhyme pattern in both verses (“saigo” and “tachido”), but there’s a crucial difference between them. This deliberate use of breath is also reflected in the newly released Dolby Atmos version, “First Love (2022 Mix).”
A lot has been said about how “First Love” demonstrates unique vocal timing, with pauses where they would not normally be found in Japanese, along with novel uses of breath as an instrument. However, what’s truly notable, more than the methods themselves, are the way that Utada interwove their use of breath with the lyrics to create a sensation of time coming to a standstill during a kiss tinged with a hint of the smell of a cigarette, or the sadness that comes with time starting again when you realize that love has ended. It is because these feelings are shared by people throughout time, we have — unforgettable experiences that are hard to put into words. “First Love” uses breath to breathe new life into emotions that have had an indelible impact on us but have dissipated with time. This is bound to become a universal, or perhaps invariable, artistic technique that will become part of the common language of music, transcending time and borders.
—This article by Tsuya-chan first appeared on Billboard Japan
Official HIGE DANdism’s “Subtitle” continues to steadily extend its record at No. 1 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100, dated Jan. 11, now at 10 weeks with only one more to go to tie the record for longest-leading hit.
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The all-time record for most weeks at No. 1 on the Japan Hot 100 is 11 weeks, held by Gen Hoshino’s “Koi.” HIGE DAN’s current hit dominated three metrics of the chart’s methodology when it ruled the song chart last week — streaming, downloads, and radio airplay — and is down to one this week (streaming). While “Subtitle” continues to hold for the sixth consecutive week at No. 1 on the Japan song chart, total points for the song is down by about 2,000 on the latest list, so it remains to be seen whether it can catch up with Hoshino’s smash hit from 2016 on the next.
Solo music producer Vaundy made a splash nationwide on the year-end live music extravaganza, the 73rd NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen, and the effects are showing on the charts. The 22-year-old singer-songwriter currently charts eight songs on the Japan Hot 100: “Kaiju no Hanauta” (No. 3), “Odoriko” (No. 30), “CHAINSAW BLOOD” (No. 42), “Fukakouryoku” (No. 46), “napori” (No. 72), “Tokyo Flash” (No. 80), “Hanauranai” (No. 95), and “Koikaze ni Nosete” (No. 97). These tracks increased points in streaming, downloads, video views, and karaoke, indicating that his performance of “Kaiju no Hanauta” on the historic music program left a strong impression and spilled over to other songs in his catalog. The young artist also performed “Omokage (produced by Vaundy)” with star singers milet, Aimer, and Lilas Ikuta on the program, which also boosted this track from No. 84 to No. 20 this week.
The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, YouTube and GYAO! video views and karaoke data.
See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from Jan. 2 to Jan. 8, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English Twitter account.
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury, the first Gundam animated TV series in roughly seven years, has just drawn to a close. For the first time in the franchise’s history, the protagonist was a woman, and the show generated a lot of buzz for the new directions it was taking Gundam, such as including elements of school life and inter-corporate war.
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The show’s writer, Ichiro Ohkouchi (also responsible for Planetes, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, SK8 the Infinity, and more) was asked to “create a Gundam series that could be enjoyed by newcomers to the franchise, including young viewers.” This, he explains, is why he added new elements to the anime. “I’m not all that young myself, so I thought if I merely tried to match the story’s sensibilities to those of young people, I’d end up missing the mark. Instead of simply lowering the target age, I expanded it — up, down, left, right — with the hope of making a series that would also be appealing to younger viewers. Traditionally, Gundam is mainly about tragedy, battles, and wars, but this new series also involved school life, society, and romance.”
However, he couldn’t turn his back on the traditions of the franchise, which began in 1979. “I wanted to create something that was true to Gundam. I added new elements to the excellent foundation established by previous Gundam shows. However, that also made it hard to control the amount of information involved. Maintaining balance was a struggle.” Ohkouchi did this out of respect for Gundam fans and for the traditions of the franchise. “The reason Gundam is so famous is that countless people have created an uninterrupted chain of works that feature the things that make the franchise great. I couldn’t just ignore that and make something totally different.” “One thing I can say is that one of the central elements is a certain hard-edged tone. When the first Mobile Suit Gundam came out, most of the new series’ viewers hadn’t even been born yet. Viewers knew many people who had lived through war themselves, and so war was still something that still felt real and familiar. When I thought about what fighting meant to today’s generations, I thought ‘companies.’ People experience factional struggles, they get called to oppressive meetings and harassed by superiors. I thought I could use those kinds of battlefields to create something that wasn’t all that divorced from modern audiences.”
Matching the desires of the series’ creator to share Gundam with even more people by expanding its audience, YOASOBI (a musical duo known for producing songs inspired by novels) wrote the show’s opening song, “The Blessing.” YOASOBI consists of two artists, Ayase and ikura. It was formed in 2019, and its debut song, “Yoru ni Kakeru,” took first place in Billboard JAPAN’s 2020 “Hot 100” year-end song chart.
YOASOBI’s Ayase recalls, “Honestly, there was a lot of pressure. However, I wanted to create a great song that would live up to those high expectations. At first, I had these ideas for concepts that I thought would be interesting, but ultimately I decided to make a powerful, straightforward song that reflected my image of Gundam.”
ikura added, “It’s the opening theme, so you hear it every episode. That’s why we talked about making a song that you could interpret in different ways as the story progressed. We hoped to make a song that would remain fresh, with new things to discover each time you listened to it, instead of just keeping the impression it made when you first heard it.”
Each of YOASOBI’s songs is based on a novel. “The Blessing” is based on Cradle Planet, a novel by Ohkouchi. “When I first heard their song,” says Ohkouchi, “I was amazed. The novel isn’t a happy one, so the song they wrote could have ended out like a witch’s curse, but their imagination led them to come up a response in the form of ‘The Blessing.’”
Cradle Planet is written from the point of view of the Gundam Aerial, the mobile suit piloted by the show’s protagonist, Suletta Mercury. Ohkouchi explains why: “Suletta starts out unaware of what’s really going on, so I thought that a song based on a novel about her would end up being really vague. Writing about the adults around her would result in a song that doesn’t really match the series. The show is about Gundam, so I thought ‘Why not make a Gundam the protagonist?’ I proposed writing about how Suletta would look from the perspective of the Gundam, and they took up my idea.”
The name The Witch from Mercury conjures to mind images of “curses” and “spells.” Ayase talked about the creation process that led them to “The Blessing.” “At first, I was just kind of thinking, ‘What’s the opposite of a curse?’ I’m not sure if it would be a blessing, but reading through the novel and other materials, there were these different situations involving people encouraging and supporting each other, which, I felt, threw the curses into sharper relief. I always struggle with naming songs when we finish them, but this time the process went surprisingly smoothly. ‘Curse’ is such a strong word, but at the same time it’s commonplace, something you can feel in all kinds of places. ‘The Blessing’ is, of course, about the world of The Witch from Mercury, but I also think it connects, in a way, to actual society.”
In the past, vocalist ikura has decided on delicate singing nuances before going into recording, but this time was different. “I didn’t think too hard about it, but instead read the novel, listened to the music, and then decided to throw in all the power I felt from them. The lyrics are powerful even compared to other YOASOBI songs, and I’m singing about really sweeping themes, so I thought that instead of trying to load the lyrics with my own delicately detailed emotions, it would be better to sing the words as they are written, expressing the feelings I had when reading the story.” “Suletta is doing her best to survive in the environment she is thrust into, but that’s a curse placed on her by her mother. She doesn’t realize this, but her partner, the Aerial, knows all about it. At the end of the novel, when Suletta chooses to confront her situation head-on instead of fleeing, the Aerial tells her ‘I’m here with you.’ I hope that the Aerial’s kindness and Suletta’s power come through in the song.”
When Ohkouchi heard the song, he says, “I was moved at how accurately the image of the original novel was retained, and how it was opened up to make the song.” At the same time, he also points out how the lyrics can be interpreted differently after watching each episode. The song itself changes as the story progresses.
“That’s what we focused on the most,” explains Ayase. “The season consists of 12 episodes. I wanted viewers to listen to the opening every time, without skipping it. I wanted to make it a song that developed along with the heroine, so that it felt different as the story went along, and its emotional impact flowed with the story.”
“I’m amazed that they were able to write it that way,” says Ohkouchi. “Originally, it’s a song about Suletta, but, for example, after you watch episode 7, it becomes a song about Miorine. Then, at some point, it becomes a song of encouragement for the audience. It’s wonderful how its range of interpretations blossoms like that. When you try something new, at some point you’ll be tempted to give up. If ‘The Blessing’ springs to mind at a time like this, it’ll inspire you to keep pushing forward.”
—This interview by Takuto Ueda first appeared on Billboard Japan.