Today in The Japan Times, a story I’ve been super excited to write for a bit ran. It’s about the intersection of modern Vocaloid and “liminal spaces” / The Backrooms-esque aesthetics, coinciding with the opening of the Backrooms movie today in Japan. I’ve been thinking about this one for months, though, specifically since Tokyo Manaka’s “Brain Rot” came out back in the spring, with its liminal-garage sound matched with riffs on Kane Parsons’ visuals alongside assorted “dreamcore” backdrops.

That definitely wasn’t the first instance of it…producer rusino’s “Looping The Rooms” had already been a viral hit, and more preceded it…but was the moment I got into it, especially with the feature-length film around the corner. My main thesis: Vocaloid has always offered commentary on what internet culture is like, and in the 2020s, that means it has taken a turn to the uneasy as people’s relationship with the web starts feeling like an addiction…or inescapable maze.

The trick with this story was…there were so many potential people I could interview for it. I reached out to many folks, but didn’t expect all of them to get back to me. AND YET they all did respond, right before my deadline. And all of them were so thoughtful in their responses! Thanks to them this reported feature turned out (forgive me for this) fantastic, but the downside is owing to word count not everything they shared could make it into the final article. A ton of great insights and quotes were left in my notes.

Owing to how much I enjoyed all these responses, I’ve decided to compile them for this week’s Make Believe Bonus, allowing paid subscribers a chance to get some extra insight into modern Vocaloid, from producers to artists to writers. I’ve also included a few notes about how the piece came together. I’ve put them in the order I had them in my research file.

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80KIDZ — CUT OUT

To persevere in music for an extended period of time involves embracing the moment. Don’t let greater trends or shifts in the ecosystem weigh on you — just focus on what’s in front of you and capture it.

Which is how I imagine duo 80KIDZ have to operate nearly 20 years into their career. They formed at the height of bloghouse mania, and by the time I settled into a suburban Mie city in 2009, had released the .mp3-ready blow out of This Is My Shit, a debut split between Cobrasnake-worthy bass debauchery and peeks into a more sentimental kind of escape (“She,” “Getting You Off”). As a fresh college graduate who had actually experienced the sensation of Sparks before relocating to the other side of the world, I obsessed over this album, even if part of me thought it would end up like the assorted “(Aeroplane remix)” files filling up my iPod Touch.

And yet…80KIDZ just kept going, releasing better albums and showcasing sonic diversity in the years after. They became elder statesmen supporting the next generation of Japanese creatives (see their PARK label, helping nurture Make Believe Melodies’ faves punipunidenki and Shin Sakiura among many more) while still staying active on their own. Now comes CUT OUT, a late-career highlight unconcerned with fitting into any 2020s realities or harkening back to the Aughts. It’s two guys just confident in their ability to craft tracks both ecstatic and sweet.

CUT OUT could be a musical guide to aging gracefully. Many electronic artists from around the same period 80KIDZ came up just can not accept the world around them changing. They have to get really into country music, or start a running club for some reason. Yet for these two, it’s all about just making energetic music, whether delivering electronic one-two punches on opener “Energeia” or pitching up samples to create workouts on the aerobic “So Sweet.” Maturity seeps in via the marimba-accented stroll of “Dawn” or the open-hearted sing-speak of closer “With You,” but even growing up allows space for uptempo rave outs like “Who Are You?” with its strobing energy.

It’s 80KIDZ’ continued determination to bring in others and let them join in the fun that really elevates CUT OUT. A younger generation gets the chance to shoot forward behind the pair’s elastic beats, with Taichi Mukai shooting forward on the pinpoint funk of “Keep Moving” while Maika Loubte bobs and weaves through the chirpy skip of “I’m Not Going Anywhere.” Cwondo adds levity to the zero-g “Field” while in one of the album’s more aggressive — but still aching — moments rapper JUBEE jumps into the pit on “Fuck It Up,” a track featuring electric guitar shocks pointing towards the pit but with vocal cut-ups adding melancholy to it all. Nearly 20 years on, 80KIDZ continue to avoid pitfalls by simply embracing what they want to do, resulting in a electronic album showing how to go two decades without losing the magic. Listen above.

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Dr.Anon — second opinion

In the recent history of Japanese “internet” music, rap/hyperpop trio Dr.Anon is one of the most influential acts for this corner of the country’s music. The trio of e5, HAKU and ponika (now killwiz) emerged as solo acts at various points before the pandemic, but came together to form this project which allowed each one to flex their own vocal abilities over music at times tumbling and others euphoric. The group’s sound and attitude seemed telling of where the nation’s underground would go, while the individual members have each gone on to release fantastic solo work too. To do that, though, Dr.Anon took a break.

With second opinion, they get back together to revisit the tag-team thrill of earlier releases but also as an opportunity for each member to check where they are in 2026. This EP functions more as a collective release, with some songs just featuring a solo member doing their own thing over a beat, not far removed from individual solo work. Yet the best moments are when all three hop on a song together to whizz around together, revealing an energy only capable with friends (“Dr.Anon Cypher”). It’s those moments that really show where they’ve come from…and what the trio still provides for one another. Listen above.

T.M.P — “Mawaru Isu”

Here’s how out of it I’ve been this summer — T.M.P released a whole album and I’m just now realizing it. Now, the twist is at time of writing it is only available physically, and it has been tough for me to get out over the last two months (summer vacation…man, hope those elementary schools lower air conditioning bills pay off later). “Mawaru Isu” arrived on platforms this past week and offers a hint of what lays within the project’s third album, dialing the digi-damaged hyperactivity down in favor of something closer to a group_inou-style ballad built on hiccuping beats and piano melodies. It’s still busy — this is still a web-born artist, and sentimentality can still be wrapped up in voice manipulation and electro stutters — but far more subdued, revealing T.M.P’s tender side. Listen above.

Ableton Sisters (asami and kotono) — “Inoculum”

Wow, here’s a name I haven’t heard in a bit. Ableton Sisters popped up at the start of the 2020s, a trio offering an eclectic mix of club heat built for late nights spent four stories underground. It was more of a collective, with individual members getting the chance to shine, with the highlights being some of the most intoxicating dance out of the country this decade (“Ginger Ale” off sewing machine damn, I can picture myself stumbling around Ebisu streets to that one). They were active for a bit and then…silence, for like two years. Yet now at least members asami and kotono have returned (and kept that Bandcamp page humming) with new single “Inoculum.” It’s a pounding one, choosing maximalism bordering on the bludgeoning while maintaining a rhythm you can move to, eve, if it approaches suffocation at times. A fantastic track to get lost in, and hopefully a sign of more to come. Listen above, or get it here.

Tamico Mukoda — “COLA!”

The breakout success of sasane’s Shibuya-kei-ed stroll “mosi mosi?” has been one of the year’s nicer surprises in J-pop. Musically, the architect of that one is Tamico Mukoda, self-described as “a musician still living in the Heisei era” who is able to channel the groovier elements of the ‘90s and Aughts into a sound that still pops today. Her big viral hit with sasane has gotten her attention, but I hope the fittingly fizzy synth-pop of “COLA!” can help further that love. It’s a lovely bit of late-summer pico-bossa anchored by slightly off-kilter electronic melodies and Mukoda’s own sing-rap style, adding the sweetness to this concoction. A great display of her songwriting and solo skills…and hey, sasane also shared a version, so even more can understand Mukoda’s talent. Listen above.

heykazma Featuring Fuki Kitamura — “blueberry”

Young producer heykazma showcased their jubilant dance mutations on the 15 EP, showing how they approach track construction with an eye for warping the edges. “blueberry” allows others to enter the sonic tumbler and underline the pop sensibilities underpinning the 15 year old’s approach. Now, that guest being Fuki Kitamura — herself a creator twisting ideas both wonky and accessible into something mutant — helps a lot, as she steps into the bubbly kawaii-bass jetstream and fits in just fine. heykazma themselves also steps more into the vocal spotlight, with a portion nodding to the long shadow cast by tofubeats, while the music itself is somewhere between DE DE MOUSE and Tomggg…but with a Reiwa perspective leading it somewhere new. Listen above.

Tokyo Manaka — “FOMO”

Vocaloid producer Tokyo Manaka wants to capture the sensation of being swept up in social media. “FOMO” completes a too-online trilogy of songs which started with the nihilistic bop “Doomer” before exploring the sensation of dopamine addiction via the wobbly garage of “Brain Rot.” As the title implies, the latest fixates of the feeling of missing out, using a slight French Touch to create a propulsive tune aimed at breaking out of the loop of trendiness and algorithmic drivel. Great use of syllables as digital trampolines too, with “Tik and Tak and Tok” plus the very clear Creepy Nuts reference “Bring and Bang and Born” turning viral lingo into fuel for escape. Listen above.

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Oricon Trail For The Week Of Aug. 17, 2026 To Aug. 23, 2026

Back in the day, the Oricon Music Charts were the go-to path to music stardom in Japan. Acts of all sorts traversed these lands, trying to sell as many CDs as possible in order to land a good ranking on a chart choosing to only count physical sales, even as the Internet came to be and the number of versions offered for sale got ridiculous. Today, with the country finally in on digital, these roads are more barren and only looked at by the most fanatic of supporters needing something to celebrate. Yet every week, a new song sells enough plastic to take the top spot. So let’s take a trip down…the Oricon Trail.

AKB48 — “Suki-ish” (559,066 Copies Sold)

The imperial days of AKB48 aren’t back, but the biggie-sized project still has plenty of sway in 2026. Whether because the recent anniversary the project celebrated offered a little extra buzz around the AKB verse or possibly because the J-pop-idol sound they have always embraced is at the forefront this year, the group’s singles are selling pretty well. That’s true of the vaguely retro-tinged twinkle of “Suki-ish,” a horn-tastic number with wacky details both lyrical (“one two maybe three,” and of course the backing shout of “chicken girl”) and musical (the surf-guitar wipe out before the hook). It all works together to create a cheery bit of idol fun balanced between the serious and silly, which tends to be the best operating mode for these guys. Same goes for the video…which also includes a pillow fight, some Akimoto touches are just timeless I suppose. Listen above.

News And Views

• An interesting continental pop development — J-pop group HANA, T-pop outfit 4EVE, and Filipino unit BINI will take part in something called ASIA POP GIRL FEST 2027. More of a tour than a festival, it finds the trio of acts visiting one another’s home countries — Japan for two shows in late January, Thailand on Feb. 13, and The Philippines a week later — in an effort to bridge pop scenes across Asia. I mean, the ones that aren’t from Korea, at least. An interesting idea, and one to keep an eye on.
  

• Ultra Japan becomes the first festival in Japan to sell tickets and passes on Amazon.
  

• Sony Music and mobile-gaming company GungHo signed a “business alliance agreement.”
  

• Maybe Sony Music should form an alliance with a VTuber company, because another homegrown project in the space, VEE, will end soon.
  

• Yoshitaka Amano created some alternative album art for The Weeknd’s releases aka the Weebnd arc continues.
  

• Utada Hikaru appears in…and shares a snippet of a new song…for JR Central’s forthcoming “Supreme Class Cabin.”

• Two members of WEST. leaving the group suddenly, future not looking too bright for this project.
  

• NCT WISH did a sorta-kinda cover of trf’s “Boy Meets Girl” on Music Station.
  

• New Spangle call Lilli line album this week!
  

• CUTIE STREET had to temporarily stop selling CDs outside their Budokan show last week because of the amount of discarded goods around the venue. Idol really is back baby!
  

• I talked to Hakushi Hasegawa for NME about their amazing new album!
  

• I also celebrated the 10-year anniversary of “PPAP” for The Japan Times.
  

• Number_i to throw out a first pitch at an upcoming Los Angeles Dodgers game.
  

• Ikura of YOASOBI says Sony Music has improved its toilet paper situation. Not sure next time I’ll be able to experience those bathrooms, so I’ll take her word for it!
  

• Hikakin went on NEET Tokyo.
  

Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
Check out the Best Of 2026 Spotify Playlist here!

Perhaps what is jarring me a bit about it is remembering their first album This Is My Shit in 2009, technically released a few months before I relocated to Japan but one I became hooked on after stumbling across it sometime in the fall of that year. Now 17 years later…they are still releasing dance tracks that quickly get caught in my head, whether I’m 23 or 39.

This has put me in a slightly reflective space over the last few days thinking about other electronic acts in Japan who have meant a lot to me over the years…which guided me back to two interviews I did with some acts fitting just that bill a decade ago. They originally ran on MTV 81, which means they currently don’t exist anywhere online owing to a pivot to video that produced three videos with next-to-nothing view counts. Yet I kept them, and this week am sharing them (ahead of a round-up post with a personal bend).

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°pbdb — qpep°1

Very little surprises Hakushi Hasegawa. The genre-destroying artist constantly pulls off left turns and sudden detours in their own music that, when I had the chance to interview them about their Honest Feeling Album for NME recently, I needed to know what surprised them.1

The answer, not featured in the story, went down two paths. The kind of literal physical answer was “someone jumping me from behind,” but the more artsy “music that caught me off guard” response was the solo work of Misaki Umei and Fuki Kitamura, two young creators seemingly influenced by Hasegawa’s own ethos and twisting it into something all their own.

Fittingly, the two of them have come together as °pbdb, and seeing just how much they can dissolve musically as a pair on their debut EP.

The brief but buzzy qpep°1 arrives after dual breakthroughs for both involved. Umei’s Asleep Above Creatures was a 2025 triumph in how it melded jazz arrangements and tinkering — but like actual Blue Note-ready material, not what Hasegawa often downplays in their own music that gets compared to jazz as “not really jazz” — while I’ve already rhapsodized about Kitamura’s Spira1oop. Here, the pair explore a side of their sound focused on where music can go when left to float rather than restricted, a frame established from the opening effervescence of “#scent” which then transforms into the twinkling sing-speak of “sparkling summer,” which lets near rap and sung sweetness intersect alongside electronic fizz that’s part Hasegawa, part Nini Tounuma.

From there, it’s a move to the unexpected…which is generally less abrasive than you might think. After the rush of segue “jiggling jelly touch!” comes the neo-bossa breeze of “aqua,” a display of the duo’s more reeled-in approaches with touches of a wilder side (some stray giggles). That carries over to the even more open “uta,” a display of vocal melodies and piano fingerings interrupted by electronic touches, the minimalist made jittery. The surprise from these two, then, is how even more stripped-down sounds can become a trip. Listen above.

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Native Rapper — You are into dance music EP

While on the topic of artists way ahead of the curve…Native Rapper was on the whole blur-of-genre approach to genre that has become the norm (see who appeared on the cover of Forbes below) before many, showing how seemingly disparate paths could all lead to a sense of sonic euphoria. Latest EP You are into dance music celebrates the titular style by blending styles together into something celebratory, using manipulated rapping and Super-Ball-bouncy electronics to construct songs carrying the same energy as floor-focused fare without restricting themselves to it. Get it here, or listen above.

Summer Eye — “Eiyoo”

It’s a bit lazy to lean on the warmer-climes vibe Summer Eye’s music inspires…but man, he does it well! “Eiyoo” uses synths to create a bouncy tune built for a drive along the coast, topped off by Eye’s own gleeful hop-scotch delivery (with female vocals adding rare balance). Yet what really makes it apt for the already-fading season are the horns, giving it real force even as the calendar turns. Listen above.

BBBBBBB — “Sexy Boy”

Next BBBBBBB album is called Poop Disco and if this first preview of it is anything to go off of…they are trying to be sexy in the only way the duo can possibly be. Pranksters sure…but they do know how to bend vocals into something at least approaching erotic in certain alien languages. Listen above.

the deep sleep — “you’ll turn away”

Not all dreams have to be escapes from reality. Tokyo project the deep sleep explores the balance between blurriness and harder feelings on “you’ll turn away,” a song approaching shoegaze in how the guitars whirr off, but featuring a vocal cutting through any of that haze to offer something more immediate even as the music tries to escape. That tension goes a long way, and makes for an emotionally twisty listen. Get it here, or listen above.

Kianna — “Supa”

You think you’re just getting another blown-out bit of Japanese hyperpop from Kianna with “Supa,” but in reality you get a mini-hyperpop epic. Over the course of just under three-and-a-half minutes, the young MC moves from squishy internet sounds to PluggnB interludes to heavier MF-Doom-referencing verses giving way to speedy dance-pop propulsion. If this corner of music is heavily influenced by how the web operates, “Supa” works as kind of an unpredictable example of how weird a browsing can get, down to the final rave out. Listen above.

Creepy Nuts — “Running Wheel”

When…I swear, when!…the “favorite albums 2025” list comes out, there’s a chance you dear reader my double take at how high Creepy Nuts’ LEGION appears. That’s largely because of how oddly introspective it is, exploring the bizarre nature of virality and how weird it is for a pair once spending nights eating free cabbage for dinner to become Spotify stars. No other J-pop star of the 2020s is dissecting their own route to global attention like what these two do.

That continues on new single “Running Wheel,” part car commercial but also part analysis of Creepy Nuts’ 2026. It’s about the borderline absurd fact they performed…and shined!…at Coachella, and the weird mix of feelings that confidence and doubt inspires in someone. How to convey that? Well for these two, you explore a somewhat viral musical style and see how you can make it fit to your own self analysis. Here, that’s the pound of phonk, turned into a battering ram for the group as they accept success and plunge ahead towards whatever is next. This does what I love about “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” — it takes a primarily internet-centric sound and goes all in on it, pushing it to its breaking points. Fitting for their 2026. Listen above.

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Oricon Trail For The Week Of Aug. 10, 2026 To Aug. 16, 2026

Back in the day, the Oricon Music Charts were the go-to path to music stardom in Japan. Acts of all sorts traversed these lands, trying to sell as many CDs as possible in order to land a good ranking on a chart choosing to only count physical sales, even as the Internet came to be and the number of versions offered for sale got ridiculous. Today, with the country finally in on digital, these roads are more barren and only looked at by the most fanatic of supporters needing something to celebrate. Yet every week, a new song sells enough plastic to take the top spot. So let’s take a trip down…the Oricon Trail.

EBiDAN — “Yes! Tokyo” (1,053,495 Copies Sold)

Even in an era where the Oricon Charts overall value has unraveled significantly from even a decade ago, a release selling over a million copies is a big deal. Factor in oshi katsu and special giveaways and whatever zany promotional trickery modern labels think up to juice numbers…seven digits requires true zeitgeist pizzazz.

“Yes! Tokyo” is the first single to move over a million units in its first week…technically over a million its first day…since Snow Man’s “BREAK OUT” two years ago. It’s also the exclamation point on a year defined by the full-hearted revival of J-pop idols to the top of the mainstream. They didn’t vanish, as evidenced by the previous million seller, but in 2026 a diverse set of hyperactive acts drawing from its home nation’s history of pop have swarmed the charts and beyond.

And here, with the highest sales numbers of 2026, is a fitting example of why this year is different. It’s EBiDAN, the collective of male groups under Stardust Promotion led by musical force M!LK but rounded out by a variety of other acts boasting plenty of popularity (with an anniversary angle also surely helping). It’s important that this isn’t a STARTO group…that agency’s acts are certainly wrapped up in this, but it’s vital they aren’t the only one, but rather joined (and, frankly, outpaced when it comes to general awareness) by others. Here’s a big, upbeat, and at times overbearing manifestation of that, fittingly an Oricon behemoth. Listen above.

News And Views

• Forbes Japan shared its annual “30 Under 30” list, with a variety of big musical names featured. You have AKB48 legend (and LE SSERAFIM member) Sakura, Young Coco, BABYMETAL, Cutie Street, Jeter from Peterparker69 and…wait what??? Yep, one half of this blog’s favorite contemporary Japanese acts not only made the list…but is on the cover. I didn’t even have to confirm yo, was my album of 2025!

  

• Fujii Kaze’s stadium show in Bangkok has been cancelled, with “unforseen circumstances” cited.
  

• In very funny timing, Official HIGE DANdism announced their Thailand show sold out.
  

• SCANDAL to call it a day in summer of next year following a final jaunt through the country.
  

• Cloud Nine President Takuya Chigira talked with Billboard Japan about his very busy year working with Ado, helping put together Zipangu, and more. I appreciate the little dig at CEIPA he works in there regarding their lack of ambition.
  

• My Summer Sonic 2026 report in The Japan Times!
  

• Billboard talked with Mrs. GREEN APPLE with what I think is their first English-language interview, looking at ambitions they have in going global.
  

• Morning Musume ‘26 to become Morning Musume ‘14 for new drama.
  

• Following an appeal, electronic artist Seiho has been found guilty again for sexual assault.
  

• MTV Japan’s Video Music Awards Japan will be held in Tokyo Dome…jeez, they used to hold this in some auditorium next to Disneyland, what a gamble.
  

• Despite being written about a lot this year, it might still be somewhat under-reported that J-pop idols have really formed a bridge into the South Korean market. Here’s =LOVE on a recent TV show singing a Korean version of a song!

• You know where they aren’t feeling the J-pop-idol love? Shanghai, where ongoing geopolitical tensions has resulted in local groups not being allowed to sing in Japanese.
  

• YOASOBI to appear at the Grammy Museum on Sept. 14. Perhaps shrewd games being played as they eye that Grammy award everyone hates? I hope they talk about this short clip of Ayase wrecking a stuffed duck. 2
  

• Super VHS back ;______; I prayed for days like these
  

• To celebrate their 10th anniversary, For Tracy Hyde will reissue its albums on vinyl. Very cool, but let me know when those Canata Records releases get that treatment too.
  

• This free festival happening along the Tamagawa River later this fall is like a fever dream for me.
  

• Haruomi Hosono sat down with one of the best in the biz…Puppet SUNSUN.

• And to close out with one more “life is beautiful” moment…here’s idol Yurapico performing a show in Kenya.
  
  Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
  Twitter — @mbmelodies
  Check out the Best Of 2026 Spotify Playlist here!

It’s the summer of Chiikawa in Japan. The first feature film in the series, Chiikawa the Movie: The Secret of Mermaid Island, has been a box office bonanza in the country, on the verge of crossing the ¥100 billion mark and being one of the top three-grossing films of the year in the country. Just as importantly it has generated discourse, with the deceptively cute characters fronting this franchise — the name roughly translates to “Something Small and Cute” — hiding from far heavier themes in the film, which has nudged many to check it out. Having special giveaways like stickers and, starting this weekend, retro-style car toys helps too.

Its success is so vast this summer its spilling over to other art mediums entirely. This past week, the soundtrack to The Secret of Mermaid Island topped the Billboard Japan Albums Chart, becoming the first movie soundtrack to do so since 2019’s Weathering With You, helmed by RADWIMPS.

You’d expect an established J-rock band with existing cinematic credentials to lead a movie soundtrack to the top of the charts. In the case of Chiikawa, though, the driving musical force is a critical darling whose closest commercial success before this point was the outskirts of the Oricon Charts. Even more beautiful, though, is that he’s done so while letting his own artistry shine through…alongside the antics of assorted cuddly critters.

Shugo Tokumaru was a Japanese dandy for Western music media. His 2004 debut Night Piece charmed critics from the get-go, offering a change of pace for what tended to get praise from the big names of the time. “Though Japanese names in Pitchfork pages most often point to experimental Powerbook artists or psych-rock freakouts, Shugo Tokumaru offers a wonderfully structured indie pop record, dense and infinitely considered: No note seems unnecessary, and everything is in its right place.,” goes the deck for Nick Sylvester’s positive review of the album.

Subsequent full-lengths…particularly L.S.T and Exit…received similar praise, placing Tokumaru in the rare space of being a Japanese artist embraced by non-Japanese listeners, leading to tours abroad and a surprising amount of coverage at a time when Japanese music give or take Boris was completely under the radar. He appeared on a Take Away Show and recorded a Daytrotter Session…those words might mean nothing to younger readers, but to a millenial of a certain age, these were signs of making it in the blog-centric indie space. He was one of the few Japanese artists I knew relatively well before coming here in 2009.

Which doesn’t mean Tokumaru was unknown in his home country. Thanks to his music and the bounce-back help of getting love in the West, he was on the rise by the time of 2010’s Port Entropy. I was actually in Japan for the release of that one, and can distinctly remember “Rum Hee” playing in the Lawson near my apartment in suburban Mie Prefecture. His fourth full-length offering proved to be his biggest commercial hit ever…entering the Oricon Charts at #33. I’m not sure how much he moved in the first week, but I have a feeling it was more impressive than what it takes to get to the same position on the charts today1.

I set all this up because it was in this context — of a bedroom tinkerer splitting his sound between delicate folk and playroom kaleidoscopes somehow breaking into the charts — I first interviewed Tokumaru for The Japan Times in 2012. My framing was “he’s getting mainstream attention, he makes music for commercials, he’s in a Tower Records poster! But he isn’t changing his style of doing everything in his bedroom.”

What sticks with me revisiting this piece about In Focus? are the bits about the tension underneath the whizzbang songwriting. He talked about how the title came from the very question of what he was doing had focus…underlying an anxiety beneath a generally zippy set of songs featuring xylophones and kitchen appliances. He seemed like a very private…and at the time tired…person, open to putting himself out there but most happy playing around at the comfort of home, though even that doesn’t sound as particularly playful.

“I trapped myself in a dark room, with all of my windows closed,” Tokumaru said. “That kind of depressing atmosphere made me want to write material that was positive, vast and expressive.”

In retrospect, he was perfect for Chiikawa.

Note the kazoo-tastic and generally playroom-ready sound here, about a character who is a bit of an alcoholic.

The world of Chiikawa is generally bright and colorful and borderline surreal. Calling it “dystopian” can feel like a bit of hyperbole when you watch a hyperactive rabbit play on giant pudding. Yet there is something a touch darker lurking beneath it all, which I explored for The Japan Times as the movie starting gaining traction.

What the series does in every form is a combination of nodding to kind of downer parts of our own reality (the easy reference here…the gig economy, which is central to the land Chiikawa and pals live in) along with heavier themes that can genuinely blindside those experiencing it. It puts a shadow around everything, but critically it never smacks you over the head with anything declaring “like our bad world, right2!?!?” It’s there causing bumps…but everyone still gets up to goofy fun all the same.

Since an anime adaptation of the original online manga started airing earlier this decade, Tokumaru has been handling the bulk of the music for Chiikawa (save for detours into idol pop and a few other lanes). The soundtrack to these shorts is minimal, at times feeling more like the bonus CD that came with In Focus? that was like six second snippets of every instrument used on the proper album…though other times coming closer to the more stripped-down compositions of Night Piece. It might be just a few guitar plucks or glockenspiel notes or bell rings, but they are undeniably from Tokumaru’s musical chest. And like his solo work, the bulk of it puts you in a great mood, or makes you think of brightly colored cartoon worlds to get lost in.

Yet sometimes…like when the sorta lush character comes in and the music gets tipsy or a monster appears to make the mood a touch scarier, the familiar glee turns to something more unsettling…without getting too creepy

That carries over to the most fleshed-out work in the Chiikawa musical overture, The Secret of Mermaid Island soundtrack.

Western reviews of Port Entropy felt very “mehhh” at the time of its release. The connecting criticism — it was all a bit too bright and cheery and perhaps childlike in its glee3. Consequence Of Sound called some of it “tooth-grindingly sweet” and compared it to a “ride,” while Tiny Mix Tapes knocked him for “creating his own cozy womb of sugar-rush melodies and sonic wonderment.” Pitchfork said “prolonged exposure to Tokumaru's flights of fancy grows tiresome at first and then, eventually, slightly creepy” and…kind of on to something4.

The Secret of Mermaid Island soundtrack — featuring contributions from Chikari Uemizutaru and the voice actors from the film — is never as dizzying as, say, a “Lahaha” but the same sonic palette appears, and in an often similar deployment. Many of the songs use twinkly instrumentation to project something cartoony. Given the film’s tropical setting, a handful of numbers here feature woodwinds and horns utilized to create a beach-side celebration (see “Shima No Uta” and its many variations). Purely from the perspective of Tokumaru, this is a great display of his instrumental dexterity and ability to give something a cheery, childish atmosphere…which is what a summer-break film in Japan will call for. This time, there’s also just a little more orchestral swell to it all (not to mention the rabbit rap up top, which is both totally new territory and old hat for Tokumaru, who probably has used the sound of a can top before).

Yet in the same way the generally low-stakes world Chiikawa resides in can suddenly turn dramatic, Tokumaru’s music has always had the potential to take an emotional turn. It’s easier to achieve when you have a narrative at your disposal to play with…not to mention the haunting singing of the voice actor behind Siren5, whose bellow adds a welcome chill to many of these songs…but listening to these songs in the theater and later from the soundtrack brought to memories all the numbers in Tokumaru’s catalog that are emotionally twisty rather than musically so.

Again, I hear a lot of Night Piece in the world of Chiikawa’s slower moments, along with “Wedding” from Exit and a lot of “Linne,” a delicate piano number on Port Entropy that the better reviews pointed to as a welcome shift from the sprints around it. That comes across in the instrumentals meant to heighten the emotional stakes, such as the particularly gorgeous “Futari No Himitsu” (“Their Secret”), but also the songs featuring the voice actors singing, including the end-credits song, which might actually be the most Tokumaru-album-ready inclusion here (but with a pre-teen singing, so close your ears those afraid of the childish) while still working with the weird “aftertaste6” of the movie.

This album is a clear sign of why Tokumaru was perfect for this series…he can provide the cartoony and propulsive when needed, but also switch into something more emotionally complicated when called upon. That’s because his very own music has always been the same way, darty up front but always concealing something more.

Now, millions more in Japan are getting that, to the point Tokumaru has made a genuine commercial smash.

Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
Check out the Best Of 2026 Spotify Playlist here!

ME:I At Tokyo Dome To Throw Out The First Pitch Before The Buffaloes - Lions Game On Aug. 18

I did not go to Tokyo Dome to see an emerging K-pop group and fledgling J-pop group inspired by South Korean music this past Tuesday. Honestly, I didn’t know the prior would be even showing up until like three hours before game time.

I had bought tickets to watch the Saitama Seibu Lions annual home game at Tokyo Dome months before, a kind of early birthday present for myself. I was there for baseball. I think 99 percent of people in attendance were too.

Which, actually did make me super curious to see how this would go down.

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RYOKO2000 — Slapping Flamingo

Wild things happen at Summer Sonic’s Beach Stage as the sun starts to set, and this past Sunday still feel particularly dizzying. Night Tempo leaning hard into Eurobeat en route to bringing out Maki Goto for a ludicrous rendition of “Love Machine” made me realize this might be the place to be before the headliners. I instantly realized I was right after diverting from my heart to see half of LE SSERAFIM…walking into the stadium, they were doing the dumb “Macarena” song, an ominous sign…before dashing back to get swept up in dance-pop theatrics of Real McCoy. Buzzing on that and perhaps one too many Suntory paper cups, I spent an additional 20 minutes just losing myself at the nearby “Red Bull Summer Vibes” space.

This energy carried over into my post-festival Monday and, despite a huge pile of new releases to sift through, I spent the day keeping the flow going with duo RYOKO2000’s Slapping Flamingo, via Maltine Records. Need a delirious dose of club energy with a wonky edge? They’ve got you.

The pair are digging into the “J-dance” underground, pulling from various strains of house and electro to create a set of high-energy tracks that wow as anthems but reveal wild touches when put under a microscope. Check the ecstatic rumble of “Slapping Slapper” and allow yourself to get swept up in the barrage of sounds…but also step back to pick up on how the actual fabric of the song is made up of a twisted Michael Jackson vocals, turning pristine pop into night-out hallucinations. “Disc Train” stomps ahead before introducing mutant “woo woos!” into the mix, fun to bob to but also reminding me of some bizarro-dimension version of the TV show Disco Train which…maybe hinted at by the title?

The premise of Slapping Flamingo reminds me a bit of tofubeats’ recent exploration of the concept of “J-club” — which seems especially apt as he himself pops up on closer “Get It!” a slightly ridiculous bit of funk-house punctuated by the Maltine staple’s cries of “free download” as he seemingly celebrates the nature of a netlabel alongside what sounds like synthesized horse neighs. Wild stuff…but keeps me moving at least. Get it here, or listen above.

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nerdneko — still mind

I touched on nerdneko’s blue web. project last week, and now we get a peek into how they operate alone. The key difference on still mind is on length — whereas blue web. approaches the intersection of Vocaloid and shoegaze with an experimental bend adding in breakbeats and other club (though…dare I say “internet” given how prominent they are in SoundCloud and netlabel spaces in Japan) touches, nerdneko themselves is approaching this purely from a place of “how does the syntheiszed voice of Hatsune Miku meld with guitar-born sound?” This almost serves as a sketchbook of ideas, with fist-up emo on the title track or the more slippery riffs of “Traces,” both dotted by the sound of computer-born singing delivering tear-soaked longing. That builds to more slow-burning catharsis on “My song is Your Cocoon?” and “Like That Blue Sky,” showing how well Vocaloid fits into the big-ol-closer space. Get it here, or listen above.

Friday Night Plans And The Bug — Ladybug 2

English electronic artist Kevin Richard Martin aka The Bug loved Friday Night Plans’ 2023 album Visitors, so much so that the two worked together on this, part of a series Martin has been doing lately. The release proper features a variety of mutations on the song “Miss U” but as someone mostly drawn to Friday Night Plans, it’s the original track — shadowy, mysterious, voices coming from down an alley as to be both unsettling and inviting — that works best. Get it here, or listen above.

Gyaru Gaoka Danchi — Gyaru, Soshite Ota

The more the merrier, yeah? Gyaru Gaoka Danchi boasts 15 (!?) members, each one of them a Vocaloid producer dabbling in a different corner of sound, but brought together to create music for a single fictional “gyaru” at the center of the project. You think that might be overkill…but listen to the debut EP, which loads up on sonic ideas, often to the point of songs turning into SoundCloud fever dreams of guitars, warped vocals and distorted electronics. Part of me is drawn to this project as it is another example of a kind of indie-level supergroup — a Nico Nico Douga PAS TASTA, or a conceptually weirder version of Kimiga Shikakuku Narumaeni — but I do love the wild ideas playing out in each song here, which really does sound like over a dozen people trying to shape a solitary version of “internet music.” Listen above.

Gliiico — The Veil

Another dispatch from the ever-elusive, always hard to pin down trio that once again makes me wonder how they ended up in the position they are, so I won’t dwell on the alchemy at play where a group existing out of step with anything else in the country ends up working with Chaeyoung or being tagged “sensations” by media with passing interest in Japan at this point. But again, that “cool” veneer is kind of a smoke screen at this point distracting from the actual songs on new EP The Veil, which are very solid distillations of a certain era of indie-rock cool. Multiple songs here carry the slightly hazy chug of Ariel Pink, a kind of craggy roughness working best when hallucinogenic electronics enter to spin “Secret Water” around. Forget any of the positioning…here’s a reminder of why Gliiico should be on a music lover’s radar. Listen above.

kurayamisaka — “summer film”

It’s potentially too on point for kyrayamisaka to have a song called “summer film” given how the band’s music up to this point has been both built for that specific season (listen to that album from last year again right now while it’s warm out, it’s perfect) and always takes a cinematic bend. Like…is this your calling card?

The answer might be “yes,” because this does serve as a gateway into the band as they continue gaining momentum and are discovered by types who weren’t there for the “is this shoegaze?” discourse of 2025. Here’s the chug of guitars and heart-felt vocals all over that debut album, alongside the short-worthy attention to detail. And at its core is the thematic pursuit of the band — moments of transition, of longing for once was even as everything plows forward. It’s only so obvious becuase it’s so on point. Listen above.

Koutei Camera Girl Fuenf — “Alpha Ha”

Gahhhh, OK sure…I’m ready to have my hopes ripped apart again.

Tapestok Inc. has been one of the most prolific and most unpredictable idol labels of the last decade, introducing a bunch of groups that could often be ahead of their time (Los An Jewels, we salute you) or simply great.  Look, that ame to kanmuri album…in a just world, it will get celebrated down the line. Yet the group I think about most with them is Koutei Camera Girl…errr, more accurately, the many manifestations of that project, the best touching on rave to rap.

So now comes a new one! Or perhaps just a mutation on what was there…Koutei Camera Girl Fuenf carries on where Drei left off with “Alpha Ha,” a rumbling house track calling on constant collaborator Masayuki Kabo (aka AVV, someone I interviewed…15 years ago!?!?!) to give them a bouncy song to rap and sing-speak over. I love it, as it captures the unpredictable energy that has always defined whatever direction they take. I just hope they stick around. Listen above.

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YOASOBI Burrito at Taco Bell out now…don’t miss out…especially because I did radio exercises to help prepare for this moment.

Oricon Trail For The Week Of Aug. 3, 2026 To Aug. 9, 2026

Back in the day, the Oricon Music Charts were the go-to path to music stardom in Japan. Acts of all sorts traversed these lands, trying to sell as many CDs as possible in order to land a good ranking on a chart choosing to only count physical sales, even as the Internet came to be and the number of versions offered for sale got ridiculous. Today, with the country finally in on digital, these roads are more barren and only looked at by the most fanatic of supporters needing something to celebrate. Yet every week, a new song sells enough plastic to take the top spot. So let’s take a trip down…the Oricon Trail.

≒JOY — “Summer Twin Tail” (308,148 Copies Sold)

Isolating to just the song itself…fun number! I was ready for a typical bit of summery idol bleh, but “Summer Twin Tail” zips ahead and refuses to let its nervous heart be silenced. The key for me are the little electronic trails following right behind the main melody, adding chirpy 8-bit texture to this one and helping it stand out.

Also…nearly every frame of this video is a work of art.

Let’s zoom out now…consider the success of “Summer Twin Tail” a preview for what will hold this spot next week (and which gets mentioned below), and another reminder of the upbeat, unstoppable return of J-pop idol energy to the center of the country’s pop space. This week saw something approaching a race between “Summer Twin Tail” and “Soda Soda” by HYBE project TWS. That one is fine and worth checking out below — nothing special but still more enjoyable than most contemporary male K-pop, offering light summer fun instead of incessant cling-clanging — but it is telling that it got outpaced on what amounts to a fandom chart by this female project…and, again, tune in next week to see what kind of men absolutely dominate this space to the tune of a million units moved.

News And Views

• OK, enough teasing…a special song released by Ebidan, the male outfits under Stardust Entertainment, titled “Yes! Tokyo” sold over a million units in its debut day, becoming the first single to do so since Snow Man’s “BREAKOUT” back in 2024. More on this one next week.

• Summer Sonic’s 25th edition happened over the weekend and…man, so much happened. Ado covered “Enter Sandman.” Sakanaction delivered one of the biggest crowds in Makuhari Messe I’ve ever seen. Maki Goto joined Night Tempo to do “Love Machine.” Yonce of Suchmos gave his shoes to a fan. HANA delivered a stunning crowd Saturday morning, while WEST did not replicate that Friday, probably due to recent natural disasters but also possibly because two members recently got married and pissed off their fans.
  
  Look, I have two articles about this festival due this week so expect more soon but…a big moment in Japan’s summer festival history, hinting at multiple directions it could go. Until then, read my interview with Creativeman’s President ahead of the gathering in The Japan Times.
  

• On the Creativeman front, two additional news items. Right before Summer Sonic (and right after my chat with Naoki Shimizu), Creativeman announced a strategic partnership with AEG Presents, implying further movement in the Japanese market and beyond. Talking about this at Summer Sonic this year, I was reminded that they did something similar with Live Nation back in 2012 that led to…nothing. So hey let’s see what happens, shall we?
  

• Also from my interview with Shimiz, but cut for length…this year’s Summer Sonic Bangkok was put on hold to focus on Summer Sonic’s 25th gathering. Yet Shimizu says a fest like it will happen…somewhere in Asia next year.
  

• Over at the maru mgmt. Substack, we looked at Cool Japan and what should be learned from it all.
  

  maru mogra

  Cool Japan’s ¥150 Billion Experiment to Discover What Makes Japan Cool

  Japan has never been cooler than now. Once maligned mediums from the nation such as anime and video games are now mainstream forces around the globe. Inbound tourism into the country continues to produce larger numbers. Food and drink associated with the country capture attention at both restaurants and on social media. Japanese mus…

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  a month ago · 10 likes · 1 comment · maru mogra and Patrick St. Michel

• AIRFLIP goes on hiatus.
  

• Melt-Banana open a Bandcamp page!
  

• Vocaloid producer Neru shared a new song…which they promptly took down owing to the line “I’m finna finna kill you,” which was met with criticism owing to its AAVE origins (don’t tell young Vocaloid fans about Vice!). Anyway, you can easily find like a dozen versions of the original on YouTube if you want for historical accuracy, similar to last year’s “Zako.”
  

• Important moments in Japan - America relations.

• After announcing an ambitious world tour, young J-pop act Akasaki cancelled it.
  

• Look, we will talk about the Grimes Vocaloid song soon enough, for now just study it.
  

• sasane on THE FIRST TAKE.
  

Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
Check out the Best Of 2026 Spotify Playlist here!

For a long time, I couldn’t imagine wrapping everything up I needed to while the sun was out.

Yet this post came together over the course of a morning and one afternoon. Even if I had tried to rush this out by pulling a late nighter, my body wouldn’t allow because over the past week I just…naturally start getting sleepy at like 9 p.m. What…what is this sensation?

For the time being, I’ve flipped my lifestyle. And it’s all thanks to the piano-assisted routine of Radio Taiso.

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Sono Kangeki To Koroku — Ha Ha Ha

The Japanese rock landscape is undergoing a particularly fruitful period, and beyond the sheer quality of so many young outfits is the different perspectives they approach the genre. A kurayamisaka plays arena-ready shout-alongs rich with narratives and details recalling short film. Trooper Salute are emerging as melancholy masters of versatility, with their debut featuring explorations of chamber pop, math rock and so much more while always letting its human heart sit in the center. TV Tairiku Ondo is pure limbs-flailing energy. We will get to them below, but Yukiguni moves slowly to create an icy emotional drift. On and on I could go.

With first full-length album Ha Ha Ha, Sono Kangeki To Koroku step up to offer up a set building and releasing, with lyrics closer to koans. On their longplayer debut, the band offers up a journey at times sludgy and explosive, pointed towards catharsis.

Listening to Ha Ha Ha can feel like trudging through some kind of overgrown forest, where the view of what lays ahead is always obscured. That seems intentional by Sono — a quartet consisting of folks from a variety of other existing indie-rock acts — with three “Iriguchi” (“Entrances”) dotting the album almost like checkpoints. It also seems like a declaration of intent, of this being an album you don’t shuffle through but follow as it goes from the lurch of that first “Iriguchi” and “ruri” before arriving at parts more knotty on “botai” and “HOUSE!!” There’s space to reflect bordering on slowcore (“Yo Wa Koru”) and sudden chases (“Iriguchi San”). It’s a balance between just what speed, but an album always in motion towards a goal while generating a sense of constant eeriness, unaware of what the next bend brings.

Yet none of that journey would matter without Rika Nakanishi as narrator, with her singing giving the spirit to Ha Ha Ha. The lyrics themselves appear as lines existing as self-contained poetry, translated into English they come out like “butterflies fluttering in the forest, lapis lazuli” on “ruri” or as downright surreal like how she says the word “tomato” on “HOUSE!!” Yet lurking beneath that is a sense of loss and pain, artistic expressions of hurt revealing quite direct daggers (“I resent my job and you” on “Kage,” damn) and a lot of references to blood.

Whether vague or aimed at the jugular, Nakanishi makes them sound fantastic thanks to a vocal range going from sing-speak to pure force, the latter on full pummeling display on the start-stop reckoning of “Saigo No Hanazoku.” It can be pained, wistful or even direct, but it turns the trip of Ha Ha Ha into an absorbing one, all the way up to closer, wherein she reaches something approaching resolution, and in the process shows how Sono fit into this new era. Listen above.

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blue web. — Blue Reverberation

Vocaloid as an instrument has always largely been used to reflect the creativity of the time. Early songs celebrated creation itself, while recently there’s been what I’d call a more “online aesthetic” built around unease and creepiness. To some degree, it’s a tool used to capture the state of online art.

Which in some way makes it a fitting compliment to shoegaze in the 2020s, a style absolutely embraced by too-online types. Yet what an album like Blue Reverberation, the first from the team of nerdneko and yaginiwa, reminds is how Vocaloid ends up being just a textural choice in this world. The songs here lean towards usual shoegaze lyrical thought — longing and love lost and a feeling of downer-ism stretching way back — but just delivered by Hatsune Miku. She sounds fine in this setting, especially when joined by more web-leaning touches like breakbeats and party-starting samples on “SUMMERENDS,” but largely just being a new sonic wrinkle to a long-running sound. Get it here, or listen above.

Yukiguni — claras

We already mentioned these guys above…and damn, are they good at doing what they do. Once again, Yukiguni translate the ho-hum existence of life in the sleepier parts of a city into something both warm (via the singing) and frosty (by the pace of it all). You’d think the band’s sound would start leaving people a bit cold by this point, but they know how to make every nook and cranny of space their songwriting approach, and here they show it again in how these songs build without ever toppling over. Listen above.

Acid Pink — DPGK

Acid Pink — fronted by genre-smasher Shirome, which is my gateway into this project — bill themselves as making "POP MUSiiiiiiiiiC" but there’s a very clear rock energy running through the DPGK EP, even if it is buried under rave-out electronics and Jersey Club squeaks. This is a fusion of the club and live house…so, Loft in Shinjuku, turned into a listening experience…featuring Skittles-bright dance-pop with guitars shredding across on “By Your Side” and a hyperactive garage band energy guiding the opening “Orutanatai MU.” Perhaps its the subversive edge that makes me associate it with rock so much. Listen above.

‘97,Kids Featuring Maruri — “LAKILAKI GIRL”

Pop-punk really needs to do something interesting to catch my attention, or at least be delivered by an artist generally upending things to get on my radar. Or…it can lean into gyaru imagery and make me interested. Such is the case with ‘97,Kids, who recruit singer Maruri for this summer hopper. It works best when her voice get multi-tracked into tanned euphoria. Oh, also when they pivot into rap for a little bit, adding some nu-metal edge to this otherwise poppy cut. Listen above.

Or! Check out their greater body of work to discover…a really weird trio not far removed from the hyperpop I regularly post, and an outfit openly celebrating their love of Vocaloid…which definitely bleeds over into how they play with their voices. If this is what everyone in California listened to when I was growing up, maybe I would have gone to the Warped Tour!

Milk Talk — “Milk And Honey”

I could go on about the funkiness of this all or just admit that I’m a Milk Talk superfan…or, for “Milk And Honey,” I can celebrate the smaller details leading to such a sweet listening experience. The extended food1 metaphor which turns this into the sexiest song the duo have released to date! The heavier guitar tone during the chorus that gives this intensity! The space given for “milk and honey!” The keyboard jamming in the second half! Listen above.

usabeni And A-bug — “Heart Lag”

OK, the rock theme couldn’t hold the entire way through. I’m sorry Mountain Day.

Former underground idol turned just-underground artist usabeni links up with producer A-bug for a jittery dance number about navigating love in the digital age. A great set of internet metaphors used for finding love, the duo find a nice driving sound that makes the chase for some 2020s love feel more urgent and fun than it might have any right to be. Listen above.

Become A Paid Member Of Make Believe Melodies For An Extra Post Every Week!

Given my August schedule…that might be the best way to get more writing from me until things lighten up in September (famous last words). It’s also your way to see what I think about K-On! after watching it for the first time recently.

Oricon Trail For The Week Of July 27, 2026 To Aug. 2, 2026

Back in the day, the Oricon Music Charts were the go-to path to music stardom in Japan. Acts of all sorts traversed these lands, trying to sell as many CDs as possible in order to land a good ranking on a chart choosing to only count physical sales, even as the Internet came to be and the number of versions offered for sale got ridiculous. Today, with the country finally in on digital, these roads are more barren and only looked at by the most fanatic of supporters needing something to celebrate. Yet every week, a new song sells enough plastic to take the top spot. So let’s take a trip down…the Oricon Trail.

timelesz — “Kienai Hanabi” (425,212 Copies Sold)

Pretty straightforward mid-tempo fare, complete with cliche lyrics about watching the fireworks in the summer and clinging to memories of good times spent with others. It is as standard as this gets, without being grating but also not leaving much of an impression…more a sparkler than a rocket.

I will say…the most interesting part of “Kienai Hanabi” might be the very we-know-what-we-are-doing music video. There’s fan service galore in every glance and shoulder leaned on here, with a lot of food worked in, including a really big chicken burger and this brief shot…

Very savvy for the modern male group fan! Listen above.

News And Views

• Rapper Tohji is currently heading towards “retirement” at the end of 2026, and just completed a big show this past weekend. As part of that, he announced his very last gig before heading off into the sunset. And it will be at…Tokyo Dome!?!?!

When I saw that I was pretty caught off guard, though there is precedent for something like this. In 2024, Kanagawa rap outfit BAD HOP held their final concert at Tokyo Dome, using it as one final blow out before heading separate ways. Based on a tweet shared by Tohji after this announcement, he wanted to just end things on a quieter note, but his team presented him with Tokyo Dome and he decided to go for it. This mostly makes me wonder “how much time do you actually need to book Tokyo Dome, as this implies they did it like with six months notice?” Yet beyond that, I am interested to see what I kind of think is the weirdest artist to hold a show here, and I’ll probably buy a ticket!

• YOASOBI is on a North American tour right now and every clip I see from it is like…damn they draw huge audiences. Also…YOASOBI burrito coming to Taco Bell Japan!
  

• The City Pop Waves festival was held in London this past weekend, and similarly had a great turnout. It also sounds like Masayoshi Takanaka teased an even bigger show in the city next year.
  

• New Snow Man album coming in a few months…I thought Mrs. GREEN APPLE would have a lock on highest-selling CD of the fall, but here comes the one group that could beat them!
  

• Speaking of the APPLE dumpling gang…they announced they’ll be taking a summer vacation. That really just underlines how big they are, that they can take a break right before the release of a new album and not sweat a thing.
  

• Otoboke Beaver apologized for an incident wherein member Yoyoyoshie threw a guitar into the audience at an April 9 show in Osaka, striking a customer directly resulting in serious injury requiring seven stitches. The real surprise is how this happened four months ago without being reported or resulting in the band saying anything until now.
  

• During a festival set, a guy with some hand-drawn signs appeared on stage during Golden Bomber’s performance. His message was about Epstein conspiracies involving the Japanese Royal Family and mass DNA spreading or something. In most circumstances, this would be noted as weird. But because Golden Bomber have long loved silly stunts, people had know idea if this was intentional or not…until the band revealed it wasn’t. Life, the funniest comedy of them all.
  

• Not sure that I’ve seen this before…but L’arc-en-Ciel shared a playlist of what songs they’ll play during their Summer Sonic headlining set this coming weekend. Spoilers below, but also a neat idea to get people excited / include those not attending.
  

• Tatsuro Yamashita announces his first live album in 37 years.
  

• NORI NORI CORE, the AI-centric YouTube channel I’ve written about previously for The Japan Times, ended its experiment with a dopamine-blasted remix of Kenshi Yonezu.
  

• Sound meets brewing.
  

• Asobi System launches Asobi System USA in an effort to tap into the growing American appetite for Japanese music. Good on them getting on this, it’s not like they had signs in the past to give this a go.
  

• New virtual artist incoming.
  

• Suiyoubi No Campanella performed at a Chiba Lotte Marines game.
  

• Ado goes down a slide inside a some store in Spain.
  

• Pure observation but…is JASRAC running some good will campaign? They got PAS TASTA to do a song and now they were handing out little fans at my local summer festival this weekend…is this targeted AT ME?
  

• Last…songs from the soundtrack to the recent smash Chiikawa movie are shooting up the Billboard Japan charts. Which funny enough means that Shugo Tokumaru is rising up the rankings.

Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
Check out the Best Of 2026 Spotify Playlist here!

To watch the anime adaptation of high-schoolers-saving-their-rock-club manga K-On! in 2026 is to be transported to a time that might as well be the stone age.

In what I think might be the most charming element of the series when viewed from today, K-On! offers an accidental snapshot of the end of the Aughts. If smartphones are on the market in this version of Japan, they are well out of reach of any of the adolescent characters making up our titular music club (keion being the Japanese for “light music” aka amateur bands comprised of students). Everything plays out in an older world where chunky flip phones are rare, and the internet they interact with (barely, really) is something else entirely.

Then there’s the hats. Specifically, the tiny hat vocalist Mio Akiyama wears in the ending credits of the show’s first season. When I moved to Japan 17 years ago…shortly after this season of TV aired, which I missed completely and have only attempted to watch in the past month…no shortage of bands wore similarly mini headgear. And they all played in a way reminiscent of the show’s Hokago Tea Time, part emotionally over the top but also lined with puns galore and a general approach to songwriting built for a ROCK IN JAPAN side stage. Osaka’s SCANDAL had already been doing this for a few years, little hats nowhere to be seen but with sailor uniforms proudly displayed.

Watching K-On! for the first time ever nearly two decades after it aired felt like stepping into a time machine. All the most interesting parts of it were seeing a way of life now completely consumed by different technology and platforms. The music and band parts of it…well, not so compelling.

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group_inou — YOU

Over the past year, duo group_inou have been doing shows with PAS TASTA and Peanuts-kun, a bill that’s both worth every yen to get in for but also a far more telling one in explaining recent Japanese music history. For over 20 years now, the pair have been creating often silly, always euphoric songs merging homegrown beats with energized rapping (though, as vocalist cp told me long ago, they do not see themselves as being anywhere as good as actual rappers…though that’s part of the charm). For me, they’ve always seemed like one of the 2010s most influential acts, with their genre-blending trickling down to Suiyoubi No Campanella and a variety of “hyperpop” acts. PAS TASTA, in particular, seem like a great stylistic comp, showing how group_inou’s eagerness to play in multiple styles and their love of goofing around carries on today.

Forget all of that connecting-lines type stuff, though. The real legacy group_inou deserve to be remembered for is the just-go-for-it attitude underlining every part of their career. That extends to how they operate — such as releasing latest album YOU to the world via Dropbox, Firestorage and Gigafile…the only places right now to get it.

I don’t even think you need to dwell on bigger structural issues such as bypassing subscription streaming or anything of the sorts. I subscribe to what artist seaketa writes about the duo, which is this is just them…doing something that sounds fun, and is kind of silly but the sort of thing that makes anyone extremely happy (Firestorage??? In 2026???). That’s always been the case with group_inou’s music, and so it continues on this short upload. Producer imai remains a pro at turning a limited sonic palette into an entire world, with the plinks of of opener “SHY” parts nervous and excited…and that’s before it dips into acid over which cp starts meowing like a cat (which also…kind of sounds like imai’s production? Hell of an imitation). That’s an energy all over YOU, with growls and shouts breaking up the trance of “SOON” or adding urgency via sing-speak on the title track.

There’s no major departures for the duo, and thank goodness for that — group_inou are one of Japan’s finest of the 21st century because of the attitude they’ve cultivated out of this bedroom electro, peppered with jokes and catharsis. The last song on YOU finds PAS TASTA offering up an aerobic rework of “HAPPENING,” a nifty way of connecting eras but of also showing how a new generation is also willing to take up the cause of just going for it. Get it here.

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safmusic — Slide And Escape [Deluxe]

Hyperpop-ish artist safmusic isn’t afraid to puff out his chest — he named his last album MASTERPIECE — but melancholy sits at the center of everything he does. New album Slide And Escape digs into the downer depths lyrically, with breakups and lost connections coloring the mood here (“u married” turns to pop-punk to scowl at someone else getting hitched, while you might not even need to hear a single woozy note or declaration of “I’m fading before you” to pick up on the vibe of “slow&sad”). Yet despite clearly going through some relationship woes, safmusic remains chipper when it comes to playing around with a bunch of sonic ideas, from a greater emphasis on Warped-Tour-adjacent rock to dabbling in R&B strolls to experiments in manipulating his voice even further. He’s earned the right to stunt, even if he does so with a frown on his face. Listen above.

CRZKNY — donate.

A powerful earthquake struck Kumamoto Prefecture last week, resulting in over 30 deaths and tons of destruction across the Western Japan region that has left many without power or water as of time of writing. Hiroshima producer CRZKNY is helping raise funds to help those impacted by the natural disaster with the direct-to-the-point donate. A great cause, but you also get a lot in return from him…34 tracks that are all over the place, finding one of the country’s most prolific acts mutating R&B and Eurodance among others into new shapes (plus…I think songs from or from the same era as the now-offline Bayside Joke City, making this an archive of sorts). Get it here.

woopheadclrms — little mode

Definitely not “little.”

Aichi experimentalist woopheadclrms offers a handful of snack-sized electronic meditations leading up to what feels like an improvised exploration of scattered ideas on the nearly 47-minute-long closer. In the past, they’ve been more focused on scrambling brains with their works, but here they use longer periods of time and a less frantic approach to create a work more atmospheric, albeit with the odder touches still coming through, just as a splash rather than a splatter. Get it here, or listen above.

Mamiko Suzuki — “Parmesan”

We’ve checked in on chelmico’s Rachel a bit since the duo went on hiatus…how about Mamiko Suzuki? She’s started getting back into the rap game, and with latest “Parmesan” she cooks over a spacious beat that rattles and whoozes, giving her all the space needed to showcase her dexterity. Listen above.

CVLTE — “Nani Mo Nai”

Speaking of groups in flux…at some point in recent time CVLTE went from being a band playing in the intersection between rock and “hyperpop” to just a solo project centered around Aviel Kaei. Not to be dismissive of what they were but…that’s probably fine, as “Nani Mo Nai” reminds that it was Kaei’s vocals and eagerness to let digital touches warp them into something weirder that give the best CVLTE songs their hook. That’s all on display here, with something that is at times Hot Topic tofubeats (positive!) in how it works in samples. Listen above.

r-906 — “Wonder”

We are about a month away from Backrooms coming out in Japan, meaning I have about another 30 days to write about the way contemporary Vocaloid culture has become wrapped up with that internet-born series and the general “liminal” unease of the modern web. The lyrics and especially video fro r-906’s “Wonder” offer another entry into this lore, and another reminder for me to get on this.

But today I’m fixated on the sound of “Wonder,” which uses some particularly sweet Hatsune Miku tuning in service of a sound I haven’t heard pop up in a ton of contemporary Vocaloid. I’m not the first to think the opening jog of the song and general tempo here recalls Sakanaction, which makes sense as they’ve become one of modern Japan’s most central groups. That’s a great touch, and I like how r-906 uses the repetition that band excels at for something more disorienting. But then…at certain points the producer switches this up to a more shuffling beat with a focus on the bass and I think I’m going crazy because it reminds me of Outkast? Specifically the parts in “Hey Ya!” especially after the first chorus. It’s a great nod, and one adding to the overall wooziness present. Listen above.

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Sometimes I review a show, sometimes I visit a music-related space in Tokyo…and other times I react to the news of the week.

Oricon Trail For The Week Of July 20, 2026 To July 26, 2026

Back in the day, the Oricon Music Charts were the go-to path to music stardom in Japan. Acts of all sorts traversed these lands, trying to sell as many CDs as possible in order to land a good ranking on a chart choosing to only count physical sales, even as the Internet came to be and the number of versions offered for sale got ridiculous. Today, with the country finally in on digital, these roads are more barren and only looked at by the most fanatic of supporters needing something to celebrate. Yet every week, a new song sells enough plastic to take the top spot. So let’s take a trip down…the Oricon Trail.

Nogizaka46 — “Zehi Ni Oyobazu” (509,783 Copies Sold)

A good pitcher doesn’t simply wow every time they take the mound. It’s about being reliable and staring down the other team even when you aren’t firing on all cylinders. Sometimes you stink…or are just kind of mediocre. But gotta still throw the ball.

I think idols are kinda similar. A group like Nogizaka46 needs to put out singles consistently…sometimes they go hard, other times they feel like a miss. And in some cases you get a number like this, which is just…sorta there. Even the guitar comes off like it’s eating innings. Listen above.

News And Views

• Rock band GEZAN announced it will be going on hiatus following allegations of “sexual misconduct” by vocalist MahiTo The People. The singer himself also shared a detailed post admitting to the claims…and going into detail about what he did, which is more like straight-up sexual assault (taking advantage of the victim while they were intoxicated and claimed to use a condom during it despite not actually doing so). The outfit’s shows have been cancelled, and MahiTo The People has been under heavy criticism since, both for the actions he admitted too and the tone of his apology.
  

• YOASOBI and Ado performed at Lollapalooza this past weekend…and it looked like they attracted big crowds.
  

• Number_i announced its first world tour…though only “Chapter 1: Japan” which involves dates at domes. So, they’ve really announced the idea of a world tour.
  

• The South Korean festival XMF — featuring Korean and Japanese acts — shared its lineup.
  

• I’m trying so hard not to talk about MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN anymore…but going on the Nante Japan Podcast to chat about it actually felt pretty fun (and, uhhhh, kind of stress relief…I think I’m happy to let some of my stress about this event out now).
  

• The Lethal Weapons came back to the Nakano Summer Matsuri.
  

• New Mass Of The Fermenting Dregs album out…next week?!?!
  

• New Tommy heavenly6 songs?!?!?!
  

• PAS TASTA made a song for a JASRAC campaign…I mean, they all can’t be winners.
  

• Tohji to livestream his final concert.
  

• mgk aka Machine Gun Kelly collaborated with Yuki Chiba for “JJK.” This one…could deserve a post all of its own, as I’m not sure if it’s the perfect snapshot of “cool, Japan!” theory or of weeaboo excess. Either way…mgk sure does know a lot of anime, which he basically lists.

Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
Check out the Best Of 2026 Spotify Playlist here!

Extremely low-resolution image of Pikotaro at The 59th Grammy Awards, completely unrelated to anything below.

Back in June, the Recording Academy of the United States announced the addition of five new categories for the 2027 edition of the Grammy Awards. One inspired a lot of talk, and I’m afraid it wasn’t Best Traditional Folk Album.

The eyes of the internet and whatever scraps of traditional music media remain focused on the Best Asian Pop Music Performance honor. “This Category recognizes artistic excellence in Asian pop music performances originating from or widely recognized within Asian markets, including but not limited to K-pop, J-pop and C-pop, with meaningful use of one or more Asian languages,” goes the official copy accompanying its roll out on the Grammy site.

What followed was a rarity in the social-media age…discourse lasting more than two days. Thanks to a variety of updates sparked by this new category and the perceived “othering” of “Asian music” at the awards ceremony, this actually stayed in digital air, reaching a crescendo this past week when BTS…who, you could make a strong argument, the Grammy people wanted to honor with this new trophy after years of not giving them any…announced they would not be submitting their music for consideration at the 2027 edition of the show. “I hope that music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language,” goes part of the statement, implying that the Asian Pop category played a part in this decision.

I think BTS made the right choice…but in the process, underlined why maybe this award isn’t as bad as people initially thought, while also making it much more interesting than before.

It’s very, very, very hard for me not to be cynical about the reaction to BTS’ move. Everything about it from a media perspective feels like a throwback to the peak-annoying period of 2019 and 2020, when streaming “Fake Love” was presented as an act of resistance. I think seeing the word “boycott” thrown around is especially eye-rolling, a term associated with like civil rights movements in the 1960s or protests against apartheid now rolled out for a single artist not submitting songs to an award’s ceremony. I won’t even get into renewed online debate about “is K-pop a genre” or “linguistic requirements,” largely because it is a game of discursive ping-pong where popular opinion on both change year after year.

But that’s a whole different bugaboo getting more at my persistent frowning at contemporary cultural journalism. The actual central story here…BTS skipping the Grammy Awards seemingly because of this pigeonholding Asian Pop category…is to me much more clear cut.

BTS does not need the Grammys. They are absolutely bigger than that ceremony and, like The Weeknd before them, boast plenty of accomplishments no piece of gold can capture. Hell, BTS really can lay claim to being a historic outfit for what they’ve done in bringing Asian pop to the West.

This decision to finally stop playing the Grammy game is easily the most interesting thing BTS have done since member Suga sampled Jim Jones in song. I think it’s the right move for them too, because they truly don’t need this or the validation of the Recording Academy when it comes to their status as biggest and most influential Asian pop group ever.

And yet…by pulling out, BTS to me have also made the Asia Pop award much more interesting than initially thought.

Best Nightcore Remix…hmmmm now there’s an idea…

Let’s cut through all the over-educated analysis and panicked worries that the Grammy people might overlook the contemporary sounds of Malaysia or whatever.

The reason this category felt so goofy when they announced it was because it felt like they FINALLY found a way to give BTS a win. Or maybe more accurately HYBE, the company behind them, which The Idol Cast breaks this down in what I think has been the best piece examining this category to date (largely because she doesn’t fall for the hysterics so many others have…which is to say, this is an awards show, not a revolution),

Bravo to BTS for taking a stand, but that doesn’t distract from another feeling I have…the songs they’ve been nominated for in recent years, which have all been shut out, absolutely deserved to lose. I get that most people see these awards as gifts for sticking at it…but c’mon, we can let a little critical thought into this, and I don’t think “cup of milk / rock and roll” deserves any respect let alone a victory. They also all represent HYBE’s “K-pop Without The ‘K’” initiative which…ironically probably helped spur this in the first place (and hey, the company itself is also like “this doesn’t include us, find some space for Katseye this year!”.

What I thought sucked about the Asian Pop category was how foregone a conclusion it was. BTS would probably win. If not them, some other major K-pop group, probably Blackpink. I was ruffled by the use of “Asian Pop” as a stand-in term for what felt like would just be “here’s a K-pop award!”

As I’ve argued at other times behind this paywall, I think the best function of music awards like the Grammys is of a time capsule, of being able to provide a snapshot of what popular music was like at that moment. An Asian Pop category, in theory and kind of implied by the Recording Academy’s speel around it when they debuted it, should capture the greater movement of sounds from the continent and what songs captured that best over a specific eligibility period. Simply being like “here’s some K-pop!” would be a disservice to it.

Now, I’m not sure it can, and actually has to consider things.

I’m never ever going to be able to actually escape MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN am I

The Asian Pop category appeared literally two days after the second edition of MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN wrapped up in Tokyo. I had already spent several months having to roll this event…blah blah blah full disclosure I technically worked for it blah blah blah…over in my head, especially what it meant. It was a show aiming to celebrate global music…but with a focus on J-pop. Though…what is even J-pop?

Everything considered, I think MAJ did a good job covering all its bases. What is J-pop, you ask? The ceremony declared…music from Japan, which is what the “J” stands for. That includes the rock of Sakanaction, the idol antics of M!LK and the all-English stylings of Fujii Kaze’s latest album.

Yet what impressed me even more was how MAJ offered a spotlight to music from across Asia. By working with the actual award-show bodies across the region, a broader group of artists had a chance to be featured and even appear. Cup Of Joe, from The Philippines, delivered one of my favorite performances of the weekend (above) with its smash hit “Multo,” sung in Tagalog.

The only moment of deflation came when the actual award for “Best Song Asia” went to…”Golden,” in a move that felt out of step with anything happening in Asia and very Grammy-like in action.

There’s two major points of contention regarding the Asian Pop Grammy category, which I’m mixed on:

1 The language requirement for this award is limiting and/or racist, with English being part of many songs from pop scenes across Asia, and some groups singing exclusively in them.

The Grammy people definitely played it a little loose with this one, in emphasizing language over actual region in its criteria. This gets to the ever-slippery debate if any of these things are “genre” or “industry,” with the prior implying an openness (via creativity) and the latter implying something closed off (via literal borders). I’ve always subscribed to idea two…J-pop is music from the Japanese industry, which is a very specific place compared to pop from Korea or pop from Thailand or pop from the UK.

I think a lot of conceptual headaches could have been avoided (but also spring up new ones) if this category specifically said the artists have to be from this region. In the linked Idol Cast piece, she notes how based on the wording if Lady Gaga recorded one of her songs in Thai, it could be eligible (for something even more concrete…I guess Chairlift could have won this in some alternate universe?). There’s loopholes here that hint at how unserious the people putting this together were.

And yet…I mostly think this is the right call. Context is key, and we are living in a decade of “global groups” and BTS releasing big singles (ones eyeing Grammys) in English and of K-pop companies creating groups that have nothing to do with the regions they are from. Language is a central component of culture, and if we look at this award as something with good intentions at its heart (I know, a bit of a gamble, but let’s imagine anyway) I actually think this is the right approach. To actually celebrate what’s happening around the world, you need to know what’s going on within their borders, and usually that is via music sung in local languages. Sure, some artists might miss out…but they were playing that game from the start, trying to be “global” at the expense of something else.

Perhaps my thoughts on this come from thinking this category is almost about introducing acts rather than acknowledging those already known. Which leads to concern two…

A recent banger from Thailand (which was filmed in Japan and also shows how English can be used in a clever way while retaining one’s mother tongue)

2 An Asian Pop category will inevitably fail to capture all of Asia, and default towards the biggest industries (which would probably be the ones actually mentioned in the announcement: South Korea, Japan and China though part of me thinks politics will result in that last nation actually being shut out).

This is true, and the obvious flaw of introducing such a sprawling concept for a category in the first place. Like…yeah, this is gonna get messy. Does India count? Do we go by FIFA rules and the Middle East falls under Asia too? Did you really make an award that FORCES YOU to confront the China-Taiwan dispute if you actually aim to highlight artists from those regions.

It’s bound to make people angry and raise questions I imagine the Grammy folks are not ready to answer. But what’s the solution? Well honestly…if you’re really caught up on this dilemma, the answer is not introduce it at all.

I don’t think that’s right, though. There’s a chance this category could actually highlight artists who would never have a chance to be in the Grammy light at all…which might be better than nothing.

I think a lot of very-online people might not grasp that, despite major leaps forward, Asian pop music is still a niche in the United States. K-pop obviously led the way…but I think it’s telling that this whole debate about the Grammy category fixates on BTS, hinting at the fact no other group comes close to matching what they’ve done (and, to be really cynical…I think that’s mostly in the past too, this whole awards kerfluffle feels like the most zeitgeist-y moment from the group this year, as everything else about their return has felt very “for the fans”). J-pop has done better in recent years but I’m not pretending I could walk up to the average person and ask “do you know Yoasobi?” Other countries receive even smaller awareness.

BTS backing off might be the best development for this award. They would have sucked up all the attention and easily taken it. Now though…Grammy types have to actually choose songs fitting this criteria that aren’t obvious. They very well and probably will fuck this up, but in theory…I have no idea what they’ll choose.

It would be so funny if Mrs. GREEN APPLE won, chaos option

It was bound to make people angry and come up short, but I do think there’s something important about the Grammys acknowledging Asia at all. This category can in fact highlight artists who would otherwise not get the chance to do so. It’s imperfect but the only other option from the Grammys is to not have it at all…and I think Asia should exist alongside Africa and “the Latin world” (another ill-defined one) as the continent does grow in pop visibility.

Here’s my doomer take — the Grammys are never going to actually acknowledge the vast scope of global pop in a satisfactory way. A Bad Bunny feels like an outlier…as does BTS, though even then they were only getting noms for English-language songs (here I give one mea culpa…looking over past winners for Song and Record Of The Year, I am struck by just how much crap there is, so maybe I’m being a little pretentious in acting like “Butter” shouldn’t be in the hallowed halls alongside “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” and “Use Somebody.”). Asian acts have always popped up along the edges of nominations, with plenty of winners too — Ryuichi Sakamoto and the guy from B’z to name two Japanese recipients — but always in smaller categories. Then again, the major prizes always go to artists who have a big presence in the market, which Asian performers usually don’t.

What’s the best case scenario here? I think it’s hoping the Recording Academy can find a way to actually highlight music from Asia best they can, giving artists who would never have a chance at appearing on the Grammys a moment to get attention…and maybe be introduced to new ears. No BTS (plus no English-centric songs, eliminating some of the biggest names) actually opens this up way more. Which is good…they don’t need it, but maybe it can help a different artist.

That’s all very optimistic thinking…but there’s part of me that thinks it could work, just based off of my experience in the J-pop industry.

See, J-pop had its own Grammy bait that would not be eligible for this award!

Much to my chagrin, the Japanese music industry is obsessed with the Grammys. I think that’s true of the K-pop space and beyond, too. Yet I’ve heard plenty of rumors about how certain labels and artists are hell bent on somehow getting a nomination. It stretches back quite some time, and has only grown louder as the years go on. I have no idea if Arashi’s English-language pivot back in 2020 was a play for Grammy attention…but it sure feels like one. I’ve heard of certain producers and performers who are now fixated on getting a nomination. With J-pop actually growing overseas in recent times, that ambition balloons alongside it.

Just last week, I was offered an English-writing job in support of an older Japanese artist. They are very famous in Japan, but quite unknown outside of their borders. Why, then, would they want more English materials and PR tools to help them moving forward.

The Grammys…specifically, THIS award just introduced.

Here’s where I think this award will secretly do really well. BTS can reject it…but many more are going to see it as their chance within the Asia-pop sphere, and go for it, even if it’s a long shot. I don’t think the act I’ll be working with is alone in chasing this…J-pop was already obsessed with capturing one of these, and now it will go into overdrive with an actual lane (one where the biggest 18-wheeler in the space has exited).

Is it worth the effort and time and paying me money to help sell it to the types who make these decisions? I don’t know. Yet it is happening, and while all the attention might be on the group stepping away from it…just keep in mind the many more now chasing it.

BONUS FREE IDEA FOR MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN: If MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN really wanted to make a splash, they’d do everything possible right now to get BTS to next year’s ceremony as a way to deliver a genuine attention-grabbing stunt. Give ‘em Best Song Asia! Let them perform! Hell, they can host! Just get them inside Toyota Arena Tokyo and you’ll give this silly event the boost it needs.

Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
Check out the Best Of 2026 Spotify Playlist here!

CHITAA — Youngirl

The draw of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu more than a decade ago…on a purely surface level…was of zany Harajuku fashion clashes and slightly unsettling aesthetics fashioned by 6%DOKIDOKI. Yet what really made her so fascinating was how she fixated on the greatest source of unease imaginable — the unstoppable march of time. Yeah yeah she could deliver a “PonPonPon” or a “Fashion Monster,” but some of her most affecting work dwelled on the nervousness about becoming an adult, saying goodbye to your old self and, finding a balance between youth and maturity.

Why nearly every “new Kyary” failed over the last 15 years was because their curiosity of what made Pamyu Pamyu pop ended at Takeshita Street. It was just eye-catching clothes and color galore to them. But there was a human under those outfits…one often freaked the fuck out about getting older. It’s this exact feeling that teenager CHITAA taps into on her debut EP Youngirl that makes her a far more fitting heir…despite boasting a sound completely different than anything conjured up by Yasutaka Nakata.

It takes just over 20 seconds for a bunch of trauma-induced anxiety to spill out of CHITAA. “2020 new virus / COVID-19 / I’m close to 18 / where the fuck is my teen dreams?” And with that we are off into the void that is Japanese adolescence in the 2020s over a fittingly nervous drum ‘n’ bass foundation, fitting for something so jittery about everything. CHITAA herself zips and pogos through it all, Skip-It-ing between English and Japanese to compare her uncertainity over the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (which end in 2030…had no idea!) and explaining what gives her the ick. This debut EP offers a showcase of her vocal loopiness, from the Hyperpop-indebted warp of “Kiss Ei Chuu” to the rap-sing emo on closer “Bluevery Pie.”

CHITAA’s nerves about growing up, though, are what power this Youngirl. The fidgety nature of the music works as a compliment with the lyrics’ uncertainity, a kind of inability to sit still making opener “Shesaw” and “Kiss Ei Chuu” more than simple dopamine injections. Her ability to adjust the music for something fitting the lonely “Beer” — wherein she finds herself caught between childhood and adulthood, a more melancholy “Drinker” — and the more rock-leaning closer, that one being the most outright downer moment here. Even when she embraces positivity and optimism on “PedOn,” her call for a life without constant stress sounds on the verge of a breakdown. That’s just the human condition, captured fantastically here. Listen above.

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Peterparker69 — “where 2 hito”

Look, when the “Best Of 2025” list comes out — and it will, I swear! — you can expect Peterparker69 to be very, very high up on it. The first peak of the duo’s forthcoming EP builds on the fizzy earnestness of last year’s yo, using an eagerness to play with electronic sounds as a canvas to spill out some heartfelt longing and sadness. Listen above.

Suiyoubi No Campanella Featuring Peanuts-kun — “Ichigo Got it”

At long last, two of my favorite VTubers come together.

What “Ichigo Got it” really captures is the continued oddness playing out on the edge of — but very much within the limits of — J-pop. Both Suiyoubi No Campanella and Peanuts-kun have enjoyed big viral attention and more sustained success in the middle of the nation’s music industry, but what’s actually impressive is that they’ve done it with an artistic approach refusing to sand itself out (and in the case of the latter…presenting as a rapping peanut).

Over a criss-crossing club thump courtesy of Kenmochi Hidefumi — who gets a shout-out in the song! — the pair do what they do best, which is take a metaphor (here, strawberry picking) and transform it into euphoria about the possibilities life presents. Suiyoubi No Campanella’s Utaha leans more into sing-rap, while Peanuts-kun steals it with a limber delivery packing in puns and references while still maintaining a sense of joy. Listen above.

Fetus — boost EP

I imagine it’s always the case when dance producers make new music — it’s their natural habitat, after all — but I’m seeing a lot more artists talking about making music based off club experiences, running from tofubeats’ latest to this EP from TREKKIE-TRAX-affiliate Fetus. Inspired by trips abraod, boost features a more pronounced bounce built for floors, working wonders with electronic flourishes like the electro whistle-style hoots hooting across “Too Much Whistle.” Of course, going out would be the ultimate test of this…but from my office chair, it works wonders at generating movement. Get it here, or listen above.

Aiobahn Featuring Kana Hanazawa — “fade into blue”

Aiobahn absolutely works wonders at a tempo-breaking pace, but I think my eternal melancholy side will always appreciate the less hurried and more heart-in-hand works like this one, which makes the most of Kana Hanazawa’s voice to create a ennui-dipped sensation. Listen above.

Gliiico — “Don’t Eat Don’t Sleep”

The grooves trio Gliiico have always excelled out are now joined by smeared vocals and a bit of sonic fuzz over top, giving “Don’t Eat Don’t Sleep” a slightly creepier edge than earlier works. Listen above.

sz2u — “Kurrute News Ni Sa Retanara”

Imagine if Etsuko Yakushimaru drew inspiration from adolescent LiveJournals to…create something closer to a sonic manifesto.

OK, a little extreme, but sz2u’s latest adopts a very Yakushimaru delivery and embrace of imagery to create something that basically teases about what would happen if they did something crazy and got on the news. It’s never that dark, but the lyrics matched with the frantic beat and party-ready percussion (!?) create a gap that makes this one all the more tense. Listen above.

Oricon Trail For The Week Of July 13, 2026 To July 19, 2026

Back in the day, the Oricon Music Charts were the go-to path to music stardom in Japan. Acts of all sorts traversed these lands, trying to sell as many CDs as possible in order to land a good ranking on a chart choosing to only count physical sales, even as the Internet came to be and the number of versions offered for sale got ridiculous. Today, with the country finally in on digital, these roads are more barren and only looked at by the most fanatic of supporters needing something to celebrate. Yet every week, a new song sells enough plastic to take the top spot. So let’s take a trip down…the Oricon Trail.

FRUITS ZIPPER — “Power Of Love / Sensation” (535,924 Copies Sold)

With “Power Of Love,” FRUITS ZIPPER emphasize their neo-kawaii crusade via a playroom’s worth of instruments, zippy energy and syllables acting like a musical trampoline. With a splash of Shibuya-kei thrown in, it’s very much in the group’s zone and a prime example of why they can move so many singles now.

With “Sensation,” they flex something very different…and, because I assume they wanted me to write a bazillion words about them in Oricon Trail, package it in a music video SET IN A NEWSROOM.

I appreciate the musical and tonal shift present here, deliberately playing with a less Technicolor palette in service of a song where the group can say “I hate you.” It still has chimes, but skews closer to like Ado or Zutomayo, complete with metal-lite breakdowns. Fun! But really, let’s celebrate FRUITS ZIPPER nodding to the media with a video where they represent all corners of the industry. Tabloids! TV! Sweet, sweet newspapers! You know I had to capture the frame featuring a layout of “Tokyo Pop Daily.”

My lapsed journalism school brain tells me they should consider putting a photo above the fold to get attention, as the headline right now is far too vague for a paper (really, it seems geared towards a web story, like one of those Slate pieces that trick you into thinking they have anything interesting to share). Still, definitely conveys “important!” even if the actual news here is “FRUITS ZIPPER doing well.” Listen above.

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Last week, I shared my experience seeing Mrs. GREEN APPLE and Ado back to back. This week…find out why I’ve been waking up at 5:30 in the morning everyday for seven days straight.

News And Views

• Fuji Rock held its 2026 edition over the weekend…the first I didn’t attend in a few years, though checking in on the Amazon Prime livestream I did feel a pang of remorse! An official press release from organizer Smash says 123,500 visitiors attended during the four days. Sounds like a solid start to summer festival season…we shall see how Summer Sonic, which I will be at, matches it.

• Intrigued by this: AKASAKI will hold a world tour, starting out in Australia before moving to a few European cities and then Asia. He becomes the youngest Japanese male act to go on such a jaunt, which is intriguing enough, though I’m just as interested why North America doesn’t appear here at all…could be telling about the state of J-pop tours (and geopolitics / economics).
  

• Big times for Australia, as yama also announced shows down under.
  

• ILLIT works with HANA members Jisoo and Momoka.
  

• BE:FIRST collaborates with Flo Milli.
  

• KAF performed at Off Kai in San Jose over the weekend.
  

• Zazen Boys appeared on Music Station, and gave us some great Instagram content among more.

• Lip Cream member Jha Jha has died.
  

• NiziU’s Rio going on a hiatus.
  

• This started last week, but Worldwide Skippa and 3Li¥en have beef, exchanging diss songs.
  

• New Nariaki Obukuro album on the way.
  

• I caught up with tofubeats for scrmbl.
  

• I also talked with Black Boboi for The Japan Times ahead of their Fuji Rock performance this year.
  

• OK wrapping it up with some KAWAII LAB loosies…look who Luna Nakagawa meets on TV soon.

  

• Most importantly…CUTIE STREET performed at a recent Saitama Seibu Lions game, which found the team rallying from three runs down to beat the loathsome Nippon-Ham Fighters 4-3. Thank you CUTIE STREET.

  Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
  Twitter — @mbmelodies
  Check out the Best Of 2026 Spotify Playlist here!

At long last, I come face to face with Japan’s monocultural behemoth.

Thousands upon thousands of people fill into the National Stadium, seemingly all of them emerging from the same JR station as me. They shuffle towards the venue, some stopping to snap selfies while others line up for a pre-show snack or glass of milk (one of the biggest vendors slinging the drink, in a car resembling a big cow). Then they enter, to catch the biggest musical act in the country today and a source of vexation for many following J-pop.

But first…I need to queue nearly 30 minutes to buy a special drink.

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no heavenly — ruin your faith in authority

To deconstruct the club, you must fully understand the club. Then you can break it apart…and turn it into a bludgeon.

Producer takaryu has been a present in the Japanese electronic space for over a decade, with 2018’s Resources serving as their first major step forward and a snapshot of the kaleidoscopic fractures present in the country’s dance space at the time. Since, they’ve dabbled in more traditional party-starting spaces while becoming a more pronounced presence in depressive hyperpop, primarily with nyamura. Over the years takaryu has seemingly had many vantages of this world, understanding the sonic trends and larger developments.

With new project no heavenly, takaryu tears it apart to reassemble sound into sludgy claustrophobia.

With ruin your faith in authority takaryu hammers electronic sounds into shards and lets them avalanche over the listener. It’s very much “deconstructed club” in how fragmented and furious the sounds can be, but no heavenly takes it even further on its debut while shattering modern trends along the way. The malfunctioning abrasion that is “apostasy” and the rumbling rave-&-M of “hauntology” offer more extreme examples of the style, but then you get “explicit content,” weaving in the synthesized voice of voice-bank-of-the-year-contender Nurse Robot_Type T to offer a metallic sheen to the juking rhythm and laser-light touches. It all reaches a particularly dizzying climax with closer “ritual,” where an on-trend baile funk bounce gets grafted onto a heavy metal texture, no heavenly so sure they’ve hit on brutal gold they include a vocal sample declaring “it is time to introduce you to a new type of music.” It’s well earned…and punishing. Get it here, or listen above.

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Kiyasume — silent

Bedroom artist Kiyasume created “negative pop songs” in her life, sharing them on YouTube and across three albums of sparse voice-and-guitar-only recordings. Those creations were often sparse, informed by the current anime-damaged world of online music but pushing past the sonic markers to instead dive into the emotional core of the world.

Kiyasume died earlier this year, and according to label Kumo Communication she was working on silent before her passing. Unlike the stripped-down works making up the bulk of her catalog, the songs here introduce experimental and electronic touches, which according to a comment from Kiyasume was a way to play with the feeling of being caught between life and death…of simply being, and needing to go on. They don’t offer a glow or buzz to her compositions, but rather discombobulation via heavy interruptions on the jittery “Wakaranai Koto” or emphasizing negative feelings on the echoing “Fuko Jiman.” It all culminates in the glossier synthesized strings of “Karaapo,” which add tension to a final number about the end of human connections owing to the realities of the world. A gorgeous, bittersweet moment. Get it here, or listen above.

Telematic Visions — “nightscale”

Odds are looking good that Telematic Visions’ forthcoming EP is going to be among the year’s best, if this (plus demos) are anything to go off of. “nightscale” turns the ennui-dabbed dance the producer has long explored and puts the focus on the floor, letting the beat itself do the heavy lifting and even the vocal samples feeling like percussive details meant to keep the energy going. At nearly eight minutes, it also has room to stretch out and let itself go. Fun with a hint of longing — imagine i-fls raised in Club Asia. Get it here, or listen above.

cero — “Globster”

The latest from experimental trio cero shows how their voices can be played around with to create something as compelling as the sound around them. Shohei Takagi goes from straight-ahead singing to rapping to pitch-shifted mutation. Underneath it all, an even more-warpred version of his vocals fiddles about, practically dueting with…himself. Get it here, or listen above.

masaboy — “Ii Igogoti”

At first blush, the usually unpredictable masaboy has made a tribute to the good vibes of Koenji along the Sobu Line. He sets the scene — walking along the neighborhood’s south side — and his at-peace flow plus the electronic whimsy serving as his beat makes this seem like a literal stroll. Yet like any good mosey around the block, it’s really a chance to reflect on relationships gone wrong and lessons learned, adding am ore sour taste to this one despite how bright it all comes off. Listen above.

America Minyo Kenkyukai — “Even if you’re a liar”

I’ve always been drawn to the speak-sing chaos of American Minyo Kenkyukai in part becuase of the humor lurking beneath it. The glitchy singing coupled with topsy-turvy songwriting is captivating and often funny, albeit sometimes in a surreal way. Their latest reminds of how emotionally gripping the project can get, using the same stuttering vocal construction and zig-zagging melodies to create something dramatic, focused on dealing with the self and how to navigate the world. Listen above.

untitled01 And Ido Kyo — “Fog Made Me Do It”

You know how the night gets kind of…wavy the more you enjoy yourself and the less sleep you get? Like, everything stars getting a touch fuzzier and dream-like? “Fog Made Me Do It” captures this phenomenon, starting as a only slightly wavy dance-pop number that turns into an out-of-body experience in its second half when the vocals get covered in electronic filters and the beat picks up. Real “3:30 and I’m invincible until first train” vibes. Listen above.

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Oricon Trail For The Week Of July 6, 2026 To July 12, 2026

Back in the day, the Oricon Music Charts were the go-to path to music stardom in Japan. Acts of all sorts traversed these lands, trying to sell as many CDs as possible in order to land a good ranking on a chart choosing to only count physical sales, even as the Internet came to be and the number of versions offered for sale got ridiculous. Today, with the country finally in on digital, these roads are more barren and only looked at by the most fanatic of supporters needing something to celebrate. Yet every week, a new song sells enough plastic to take the top spot. So let’s take a trip down…the Oricon Trail.

Pandadragon — “IDOL OF POP / Lovely Fighter” (106,544 Copies Sold)

Remember everything I wrote last week, about the exhaustion point we’ve reached with K-pop-indebted male idol groups in Japan? Well here’s the very welcome opposite, even if it approaches grating at times. Pandadragon go further than M!LK when it comes to high-energy pop, and these two songs illustrate just how maximalist their Technicolor sound can get. I think “Lovely Fighter” (above) offers a better example of the highs and lows this style is capable of. There’s A LOT going on here, and the Broadway madcap-ness can be a bit much (the rapid-fire sing-speak) but you also get buried Jersey Club squeaks and a genuinely nice hook.

“IDOL OF POP” is a little more childish, though I appreciate any number where idols examine their idol-ness. But J-pop songs that are 12 years old have done this fidgety sound way better, just revisit those. Listen above.

News And Views

• Zazen Boys to make their first-ever appearance on Music Station next week.
  

• LAUSBUB to make major-label debut this fall.
  

• Interesting look at a Japanese artist trying to make it in the Filipino market.
  

• James Hadfield talks to Maya Ongaku for The Japan Times ahead of the trio’s appearance at this year’s Fuji Rock Festival.
  

• Bandcamp reviews the newest from Foodman.
  

• Takuya Kimura worked with guitarist Rei for his forthcoming solo single.
  

• It’s official…Spanish Miku. (aka the World Cup ended, with Spain winning and finishing a chain of Hatsune-Miku ownership that went Japan-Brazil-Norway-England-Argentina-Spain).

• Hatsune Miku (I guess the Japanese one now) and Hoshimachi Suisei appeared at this Sunday’s Chiba Lotte Marines game as part of their summer Coolish collab (TV spot here). Suisei also threw out the first pitch which…well, check out how that went below.

Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
Check out the Best Of 2026 Spotify Playlist here!

The Cool Japan Fund teeters on financial collapse. Recent reports say the government program to invest in projects and companies that could in theory help spread Japanese culture around the world racked up ¥54 billion in cumulative losses in fiscal 2025, surpassing expectations of loss for a project already seen as a money pit by most over the last decade. Many expect it to be merged with some other Diet-approved initiative…or just scrapped entirely.

The potential death spiral of the government’s Cool Japan efforts means it’s a great time to once again dance over the hobbled attempt to spread Japanese pop culture to the globe via the least cool bureaucrats imaginable. How did it fails? What did it actually accomplish? Did Danny Choo and his doll assistant actually accomplish anything at the meeting they attended?

It’s also an opportunity to sigh at all the missed opportunities Japanese entertainment seemingly had to grow in the 2010s…until you remember it actually did. The success of Korean entertainment globally along with the perception that the South Korean government played a huge role in making that happen meant all Japanese cultural developments would be tied to or compared with Cool Japan.

Problem was, growing interest in anime, food or the country itself was well underway even before the Cool Japan Fund was officially established. One of the more annoying legacies of Cool Japan is how its existence and subsequent shortcomings distract from all the real breakthroughs and changes in the Japanese entertainment space during the 2010s, which bloomed into something even bigger in the 2020s.

That’s true for J-pop too, and a reality music journalists Kenta Terunuma and Shun Fushimi (who also operate the YouTube channel Teke & Shun Music Information) explore in J-POP 3.0 Disc Guide 2015 - 2025. It's a collection I enthusiastically recommend to those interested in modern J-pop, largely in part because it’s one of the best efforts to date in charting how the current music landscape in the country came to be…and how it connected with the wider world, far earlier than you might remember.

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Various Artists — INNER SYNC

Various Artists — HOLLOW HYPE

No music publication in Japan is doing a better job capturing the ever-fragmented “underground” like AVYSS. Key to what makes it so successful is casting a wide net without losing the sensibility helping it stand out from other efforts. It aims to spotlight independent artists but with an online perspective, aware new ideas can come from anywhere and the best place to find them is often by firing up your browser (almost certainly inspired by site director Nobuyuki Sakuma being one of the first Japanese blog darlings as Jesse Ruins nearly 15 years ago). It’s also not limiting coverage by genre, with rock and rap and hyperpop all colliding…and as artists gain mainstream attention, AVYSS doesn’t shy away. Like any good journalist, they’re documenting how scenes and artists mutate.

A new pair of compilations curated and released via AVYSS underline this ethos while doubling as a great temperature check of the Japanese underground in 2026. Whereas the last offering from the site found younger creators covering J-pop classics to connect past with present, the duo collections this time feature all originals, built around different approaches to sound and self. Listening them back to back can feel disorienting, but that’s the ecosystem AVYSS captures so well.

INNER SYNC turns towards the self, using rock as a foundation for introspection. While it certainly has its moments of more emo reckoning — punk-popper yuzuha takes a more sullen turn without losing the energy on opener “Invisible,” while Blume popo let their emotions flow over dexterous guitar playing on “Yuame” — this isn’t a personal pity party. Yuka Nagase channels Soutaiseiriron for the synth-accented skip of “Hana Uranai” and the dance-pop of XAMIYA’s “MECHANICAL LOVE,” hiding regret under its skip. It all builds towards the band soccer.’s closer “I will never return to that place,” a Slint-indebted bit of catharsis ending building towards screams and cacaphony. It’s a moment of outward release on a set usually turning away, and a good bridge to AVYSS’ other side.

HOLLOW HYPE spotlights rap and electronic, featuring a more swaggering energy but one often concealing a mood just as downer as on its twin (I mean, one song is called “Downer” for goodness sakes). There’s moments of escapism delivered via the Latin-gone-Atlanta party track “Tight” courtesy of MEZZ and anything BBBBBBB provides is going to be beyond any basic human emotion (love ‘em to death), but that’s countered by the zero-gravity reflection of cyber milk chan and the jagged longings of lazydoll. The sonic palette changes, but across both releases AVYSS pinpoints the heart connecting it all. Listen above.

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kinoue64 — Otona Ni Naru

The shoegaze-indebted rock Hiroshima’s kinoue64 makes has always had a feel of something slowly fading away, unable to stay the same forever. That’s largely been because of their use of Vocaloid as a singer, embracing the digital nature of the singing-synthesizer to create vocals that often sound like they are vanishing in real time. Newest album Otona Ni Naru extends that to the music itself, with the title track opening with a chipped texture via the way the guitars and keyboards are recorded to create a feeling of something in mid dissolve. That effect carries over to most of the other songs here, whether featuring Hatsune Miku or kinoue64’s own singing, creating a fitting mood for a set looking at the transition from kid to adult…and what gets lost. Get it here, or listen above.

AKKOGORILLA — “I’m ChatGPT”

How do you emphasize your human nature in a song touching on generative AI? Well, if you are flesh-and-blood festival AKKOGORILLA, you let some wild sax blurt all over a song where you lurch all over the place. It sounds completely unhinged and a little bit monstrous…which no computer could ever replicate (well, at least for now). Listen above.

sasane — “otukare”

One of the hardest situations to be in is trying to recommend new music to a pop-centric cynic. I found myself in such a position recently, with a friend with a fondness for older J-pop lashing out at the modern state of…everything…after a few highballs too many. Me, the eternal optimist, said there’s always something worth checking out. Big mistake, because you can’t be like “have you checked out Trooper Salute???” to someone who largely finds music via Music Station. I offered up sasane and her delightfully silly neo-lounge “mosi mosi?” “Oh, she’s kind of drawing from Shibuya-kei and…”

Big mistake, as mentioning anything from the past resulted in an exasperated “gahhhh no new ideas” that made me feel like I had opened up Twitter…something I never want unless I actually open up Twitter.

Sort of a botch on my part, though, because sasane’s whole musical approach to this point isn’t retro recreation, but rather a slightly off reinterpretation of already eschew takes on Shibuya-kei. Latest song “otukare” gets at that, reminding of the Serani Poji of her sound as she embraces a slightly crooked bossa-nova groove to urge herself to take it easy (with a few hiccups along the way). I presented it as revival, when really, it’s the younger generation opening up their parent’s closet, dusting off the Dreamcast and trying to make whatever is inside work for them. I mean hey, I was a few highballs deep too, not the best place for a music debate. Listen above.

F!C!O! And Swami Sound — “Solar Beam”

The most important thing happening on “Solar Beam” is the realization the groove itself demands the most attention. In another context, F!C!O! member ONJUICY could jump all over a beat like this and try to make it his, but what the Tokyo trio plus producer Swami Sound conjure up proves to be so damn lithe and heart-racing that he ends up being the hypeman for the track itself as he bounces along the French-touc-ed beat. Get it here, or listen above.

f5ve And Utaha — “Tropical Paradise (3am girls)”

Second straight single made for the “Bacardi Sound Distillery” better than 90 percent of what appeared on the group’s debut album…maybe the liquor company knows what’s up.

OK, let’s not give a rum conglomerite too much credit. These tie-up songs simply allow f5ve — a group whose identity has been a messs since the beginning, after the whole Sailor Moon gimmick got ripped away and they turned into something between hyperpop idols and meme lords, most recently seen trying to leech good music from much-better pioneers — to be a fun dance-pop group with no stabs at subversion but just a driving beat. It also helps when they let others into their world, with Suiyoubi No Campanella’s Utaha offering a nice vocal shift to keep everything fresh. And hey, credit where it’s due…I think this is the most sturdy production BloodPop has given the group yet, and really brings out their best. Listen above.

ZUTOMAYO — “Fig Smoke”

Smoking…is it cool? Is it the next evolution of Japanese culture’s gloomy swing?

That’s a trendpiece waiting to be written as the summer anime slate delivers TWO series centered around nicotine. I feel the breakout is going to be Yani Neko (Chainsmoker Cat), which puts a bleak-but-familiar premise (young person with no prospects and nearly no money addicted to smokes) through an anime filter (she’s a cat girl!). Two episodes in and I love it…perhaps I’m not the go-to for anime recs, but the way this offers a gritty read on modern Japan (this is maybe the grossest anime I’ve ever seen Netflix promote) while also making it fun (god, the American equivalent of this…nothing but “my trauma!” and overly serious acting, basically The Bear as it became grating sometime around season two, unwatchable by season three).

The opening for that one is fantastic — a tribute to cinema’s great cigarette scenes! — but the song used for it is kinda ho-hum to me, the one knock I have against it. That’s not the case with the other smoke-em-if-you-got-em-becuase-life-stinks series, Super No Ura De Yani Su Futari (Smoking Behind The Supermarket With You), which I have not yet watched but certainlly will just for the potenial essay within…but I have checked out the intro song, courtesy of ZUTOMAYO. I think it’s telling that this project…part of the initial “depressive wave” alongside YOASOBI and Yorushika…was called on to make a song about chain-smoking nobodies, and they step up for the occassion. The evolution of the down-and-out in modern Japan is celebrating the small respite and connection a smoke break might bring, with ZUTOMAYO turning this experience into something with just enough Showa sparkle to make what amounts to a blip in a busy day into a triumph. Listen above.

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Oricon Trail For The Week Of June 29, 2026 To July 6, 2026

Back in the day, the Oricon Music Charts were the go-to path to music stardom in Japan. Acts of all sorts traversed these lands, trying to sell as many CDs as possible in order to land a good ranking on a chart choosing to only count physical sales, even as the Internet came to be and the number of versions offered for sale got ridiculous. Today, with the country finally in on digital, these roads are more barren and only looked at by the most fanatic of supporters needing something to celebrate. Yet every week, a new song sells enough plastic to take the top spot. So let’s take a trip down…the Oricon Trail.

BE:FIRST — “Missing” (94,108 Copies Sold)

The M!LK-fed return of gloriously goofy Japanese idol pop has been a blast for many reasons (while also bringing a few negatives alongside it, that’s for another day), but I personally appreciate this mainstream renaissance in all pop sequin in how it has exposed how boring try-little so much music from what was supposed to be J-pop’s epoch shift has been.

Wasn’t this K-pop-inspired stuff supposed to be high energy? At least a little sexy? “Missing” is right when you tackle these questions. BE:FIRST try to do something over a vaguely tropical production that’s more of a siesta than anything else. Everything feels low energy, and the hook is mostly just logy syllables. It’s tough to find anything redeeming about this at a time when so much genuinely FUN music exists in J-pop’s mainstream space. Listen above.

News And Views

• HYBE JAPAN hired former SMAP manager and all-around entertainment powerhouse Michi Iijima to become the company’s new “J-pop Executive Producer.” The news report from Oricon states her role will be “further developing local IP and advancing strategies in the J-pop sector. A very interesting development on the industry side, though I have to say…very funny for this news to come out during the 10th anniversary of SMAP’s implosion, in which she was a central player. I just like coincidences!
  

• Salt jingle shines at karaoke.
  

• Variety interviewed Psychic Fever.
  

• OK enough fiddle-faddlin’ around…the most important news of the week was T.M. Revolution went on THE FIRST TAKE to do “HOT LIMIT” in the iconic outfit from the video. Summer has truly arrived.

• I feel like it’s a real light week for news…everyone taking the summer off? Waiting for something to happen? I don’t know here’s a guy from ONE N’ ONLY throwing out a first pitch at a Chiba Lotte Marines game.
  

• iVy to do a small Asian tour later this year.
  

• Peterparker69 announce new EP out in early August.
  

• Ahhh finally, Tom Holland and Mrs. GREEN APPLE, together at last (the band contributed a song for the Japanese release of the forthcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which you can listen to here if that’s your thing).

Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
Check out the Best Of 2026 Spotify Playlist here!

Which is crazy to think about in 2026, where the landscape for writing and general media about Japanese music has grown so much. It’s one of the things that makes me most happy about the way J-pop and every corner of this nation’s sonic community has spread further in recent years. Allow this geezer a chance to be sentimental — in the early 2010s, the number of people really keeping up on this stuff in a way meant to introduce it to a wider audience was slim. But now, there’s sites and Substacks and YouTube channels and Instagrams devoted to this. This came rushing back to me a couple days ago when a friend showed me a whole-ass Instagram page by a guy focused on INDUSTRY NITTY GRITTY. A decade ago you were lucky to get Vice writing about BABYMETAL in a dismissive way.

I do not know why this made me nostalgic about those early days…but it coupled with the fact I interviewed tofubeats this past Monday (stay tuned!) brought me back to a Tumblr memory long vanished. That would be a week sometime in 2014 where I, still very much learning about Japanese pop history, dug into the catalog of Chisato Moritaka. It was an experiment that I’m not sure I’d broadcast now (though also…12 years ago…) wherein I admitted my ignorance about a beloved pop star and explored some of my favorite songs from her, spurred by an artist I did very much know.

I deleted Tumblr long ago…but this is one of my favorite series I ever did, only dwarfed by my One Week, One Band on Perfume which literally got me a book deal. It’s a fun throwback and an adventure in going backwards in time before that became the norm…oh my god, people screaming about “city pop” as being “tourist” music? Again, a decade ago this would have been unthinkable we’ve come so far!…and the sort of wading into deep waters I don’t really do now, but am happy I did. It is reprinted in full below, with bonus 2026 commentary!

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Aoi Shibata — 15

I am walking through a Seiyu grocery store, staring at various cooking oils and seasonings while Aoi Shibata’s 15 plays. Something about the intersecting melodies and digitized beats fits the mood of a supermarket just right, and I find myself wandering as one half of Pasocom Music Club’s solo album rings in my ear. This isn’t quite Music For Supermarket, but something about the plasticy coating of these songs feels right as turn towards the cereal aisle.

What I’m experiencing while listening to Shibata’s solo offering and the first release from seaketa’s Yuyu label is something familiar but alien, earnest but artificial. This is fragmented experiences put together into an at times jaunty, at times melancholy set of mostly instrumental songs. It’s a return to the artist’s origins, but also a new detour.

What the rollicking synths of “Jinsei Game” and the weatehr-report-featuring “Tenki Yoho” among more reminds me of is the earliest Pasocom Music Club releases, specifically Park City on Maltine Records. That one played with nostalgia, dipping into “city pop” textures while updating it all for the internet age. The duo moved on from that, and is now a premier club act. On 15, something similar plays out but in a more direct way, with the songs boastin a plastic edge but with the borders feeling more fuzzy, shaped by ambient music and its exploration of memory. It’s like going back to a childhoood home, but seeing it in a new light.

Which is maybe why 15 ends up such an affecting listen, whether at home or parousing the bread section of your local supermarket. Very stiff and at times synthetic sounds get re-arranged into patterns revealing depth, with unexpected touches like actual vocals on “Rehabilitation” adding a sudden human warmness to a jittery set. It’s an album fit for textural appreciation — the percussion on “Kinkajuu” — but also playing with an emotional haziness via its construction. There’s something familiar, like your local supermarket, but also much more lurking within. Get it here, or listen above.

Moto Kawabe — Yukuefumei

The debut solo album from Moto Kawabe carries reverberations of his previous band mitsume — near impossible to not, given he was the vocalist for that outfit and he didn’t pivot into drift phonk for Ykuefumei, but rather continues to stroll through the mid-tempo indie-rock that introduced him to listeners. Amidst the jaunt of “Curve Mirror” or acoustic strut of “Calamari” comes songs showing new ways for Kawabe to expand his sound. The previously shared “Alien No Koi” utilzies space and echo to add depth to his sound, while cuts like “Doushite” goes even further in stripping the sound down, only utilizing the backing band to up Kawabe’s more emotional moments. The mitsume spirit still hovers, but he’s seeing where he can take it on his own now. Listen above.

Kizuari —  daydream.sketch

It’s so common to imagine internet-damaged music in the “hyperpop” or “digicore” framework as being maximalist and like a malfunctioning YTMND that it’s easy to forget…a lot of the hallmarks of these very-online styles can be used to create something spacier. Producer Kizuari’s garage-brushed daydream.sketch inverts the formula, letting piano melodies morph into more slippery electro arrangements that tease going full lilbesh ramko (opener “daydream” does feature a brief bass blow out, matched by Hanna-Barbera sound effects) but largely choosing minimalism. Get it here, or listen above.

Various Artists — Petalscape

I will fully cop to being drawn into the concept more than the source material. I don’t grasp the main points of the Love Live! Hasu No Sora Jogakuin School Idol Club branch, and how it relates to the greater whole. Yet I do love a bunch of independent artists choosing to create an aching tribute album to the aspiring J-pop stars from this fictional Kanazawa, via instrumental numbers gathered as an “image compilation.” Forget any multi-media projects though, and you still have a heart-racing set featuring skittering unease courtesy of 1K3’s “Torn Triangle,” piano fluttery via 40K1_’s “figaro” and revelery glitch from OKAPi on “yours ever.” That’s just a sampling — one full of bird samples to give it a school-court feel, I’ll add — and an example of how fiction can spark something wonderful. Get it here, or listen above.

sysmo — “homework song”

Youth is such a weird thing in retrospect. I spent so much time as a late teenager staying up until the break of dawn working on assignments and eventually engaging in all kinds of other nerd shit (mostly journalsim related) with friends. It left me exhausted, often stressed…and usually pretty happy, with my late-30s mind being able to realize those were some of the happiest and carefree times of my life.

And it helps me appreciate the fading memories of sysmo’s “homework song,” a fizzy number by a trio barely into adulthood about longing for the days of “homework parties” which is really about the fear of growing up. Interspliced with samples and Mac-talk about crying, it’s an emotional reckoning with the realities of aging, trying to grasp on to youth but being aware it is impossible. But the attempt to grip means so much. Listen above.

Natsume Kungfu — “Paper Star”

Nervous energy bottled into a song. Natsume Kungfu wants to just explode and let her feelings flow on the nervy “Paper Star,” yet this is ultimately a monologue as she can’t bring herself to bring it out. The synth twinkles and anxious beat convey that, though, giving a tension to it all that never gets released…but feels so close. Listen above.

Yosuke Shimonaka — “Private Jet”

A wild development in the 2020s…the general awareness of Japanese music among “online music fans’ has gone up crazy compared to 10 years ago, but the contextual understanding about it has seemingly collapsed (though…I think this is true of everything related to arts, including what one would assume someone grew up with).

I thought about this while very, very briefly checking in on the latest round of “city pop” discourse over the weekend at X, the everything site. A younger me absolutely would have ruined his two days off by digging deeper into this, but thankfully I live a fulfilling enough life where I could step away from the computer and not dwell on the ramfications of “Plastic Love” for 48 hours. Yet I saw JUST ENOUGH to know…people will just say whatever they want, and have managed to turn “city pop fan” into a bogeyman worth throwing digital rocks at. I’m scared I’ll write more about this, someone hijack my Substack.

Unfortuantely, I also think about it while listening to the guitar theatrics of Yosuke Shimonaka’s “Private Jet,” a clearly Takanaka-indebted (hell, he brought in his back-up singers) stab at digging into the ongoing fascination with fusion-jazz. It’s a lux experience — Shimonaka, a member of never young beach and DYGL, knows how to play, and this allows him room to stretch out — but I’m just as fascinated by the context, of someone both nodding to Takanaka’s presence in many a parent’s record collection while also having some fun with the Bubble imagery by calling this “Private Jet” in the first place. Here’s something both reverential and winking, aware of the genre’s history in the country…and actually playing with it, rather than whining about it. Listen above.

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Oricon Trail For The Week Of June 22, 2026 To June 28, 2026

Back in the day, the Oricon Music Charts were the go-to path to music stardom in Japan. Acts of all sorts traversed these lands, trying to sell as many CDs as possible in order to land a good ranking on a chart choosing to only count physical sales, even as the Internet came to be and the number of versions offered for sale got ridiculous. Today, with the country finally in on digital, these roads are more barren and only looked at by the most fanatic of supporters needing something to celebrate. Yet every week, a new song sells enough plastic to take the top spot. So let’s take a trip down…the Oricon Trail.

≠ME — “Ai Kudasai Mase / Koko De First Kiss” (310,023 Copies Sold)

If the story of 2026 J-pop to date is the return of a very Japanese type of idol, ≠ME’s latest chart-topping pair of songs shows two perspectives on this renaissance. “Ai Kudasai Mase” aims for something more dramatic and almost macabre via its piano dash plus string accents, with spoken-word interludes to really up the creepiness (see also: the doll-centric video). Arguably even more unnerving is the touch ripping this out of potential retro-ism. The bridge is an EDM-style wobble rippling through the orchestral build and turning it unnerving.

“Koko De First Kiss” is much more Showa coded, with its horn-rush of a melody and late-song guitar solo. Really though, all you need is the video above to get what they are going for. Fun bit of pop, and fitting for 2026! Listen above.

News And Views

• Idol group Tokimeki Sendenbu surprised many last week by announcing plans to call it a day come Spring 2027. The outfit has been doing very well lately and felt like a player in the ongoing “idol boom,” so this is a bit of a turn from them.

• STARTO — an agency constantly under scrutiny from its international fans for dozens of reasons — has launched an international news portal geared towards those very supporters.
  

• Interesting interview with sakanaction’s A&R about their viral success this year, featuring insights into how the song earned streaming plays beyond just TikTok imitation and how they were able to avoid being a “meme band” (it helps a lot to be…sakanaction, who have been popular for nearly two decades now).
  

• Anime Expo happened this past weekend in Los Angeles, and there’s probably no shortage of news I’ll be picking up over the next week. One of the biggest came via news of a new EP featuring the digi-croon of Hatsune Miku paired with artists such as Grimes, slayr, MOLIY, Odetari, George Clanton and more. It’s an effort to present her as more international — what, Big Boi wasn’t good enough for you??? — and features a variety of Japanese producers working on the tracks themselves.

• Meanwhile, at home, Hatsune Miku links up with Hoshimachi Suisei to promote ice cream.

• “Exceleration Music and Japanese rights company NexTone have acquired the recording and publishing catalog of Ryuichi Sakamoto, purchased directly from the late composer’s estate,” reports Music Business Worldwide.
  

• Sheena Ringo appeared to be on a date with some economist, and Shinsei Kamattechan member Noko did not hold back his thoughts.
  

• Tsunku produced a song for Ado that appears in Rhythm Tengoku.
  

• New Fender Cafe open in Shimokitazawa.
  

• Takanawa Gateway City trying to be artsy, not really working.
  

• f5ve covered “Electro World.”
  

• In The Japan Times, I wrote about the YouTube channel NORINORI CORE and the emerging AI-powered “norinori remix” sound. Whoever runs this channel isn’t shy about their use of AI, though they add a twist by claiming the music is managed through YouTube Content ID and advertising revenue goes to the original rights holders. This has been gaining attention on social media for about a month now, and the same week my story was published, music YouTuber Mino made a video about it.

  Really, I’m fascinated by the sound of NORINORI CORE. Read the article for deeper thoughts but the gist of it — this is the first time AI-centric music has sounded interesting to me because of how wrong it can get, pulverizing J-pop into a new pulp in the process. A lot of it stinks, but a fair amount of it runs from catchy rework to completely new perspective on the song. While many have honed in on the TikTok-addled nature of NORINORI, I find the weird juxtaposition of eras present within — Eurobeat, anime rave, Village Vanguard comps, future funk, Ultra EDM — resulting in music that’s generally novel, with the jankiness of AI actually working in this context.
  
  My main point at the end of the article is new technology becomes interesting when people start using it the wrong way, and here’s the first development in Japan where that’s happening. And, cards on the table, it has surprised me precisely in how it takes music I largely don’t like — overly serious ‘90s indie-rock songs and Aughts ballads — and mutates them into something fun. The humanity is still embedded within (people wrote these songs, after all), but now it becomes something totally new and, in my opinion, often stupid enjoyable. Which is probably a better use for this tech.

  
  Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
  Twitter — @mbmelodies
  Check out the Best Of 2026 Spotify Playlist here!

When I close my eyes and try to imagine what the visual trademark of “city pop” is, my brain avoids the usual trappings of neon lights or City Hunter metropolises or ritzy clubs. What comes to me is a red car racing down a bridge surrounded by the sea.

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