Have a Merry Jpop Christmas
We have the Waitresses “Christmas Wrapping,” Wham’s “Last Christmas”, and Paul McCartney and Wings’s “Wonderful Christmastime”. Here are a few of Japan’s classic Christmas songs! A special holiday addendum to Jpop 101! It’s important to note that Christmas in Japan has something of a romantic connotation that it’s missing in America (where it’s a family holiday) or in other majority Christian countries where it may have a more religious flavor and so on. This isn’t meant to be a complete list but just a sampling of some of the great Jpop Christmas songs.
“Koibito ga Santa Claus” (lit. “My lover is Santa Claus”) appeared on the tenth original album of one Matsutoya Yumi aka Yuming. Surf&Snow was released December 1, 1980 and despite the song not being a single, it was extremely popular and has been covered extensively--including by one of my all time favorite artists Miyamoto Hiroji in 2020.
Moritaka Chisato’s “Jin Jin Jingle Bell” was her 27th single, released December 1, 1995. The song reached number two on the Oricon charts, selling over 250,000 copies. Moritaka wrote “Jin Jin Jingle Bell” as a Christmas themed riff on her popular “Gin Gin Gin” Suntory Gin commercial jingle and the holiday flavored version proved to have a lasting shelf life. Moritaka is an interesting idol and certainly worthy of a longer write-up in the future but for now all you need to know is Moritaka, her miniskirts, and this song are still going strong in 2021.
Yamashita Tatsuro’s “Christmas Eve” was his 12th single, released December 14, 1983, and which reached number 44 on the Oricon chart. The song took on a second life when JR Railways used the song in a Christmas-themed commercial in 1989, reaching number one on the Oricon chart and eventually going on to sell over a million copies. The song and commercial are a popular source of parody, including by my favorite Golden Bomber in their video for もうバンドマンに恋なんてしない.
The B’z might not be the first name you think of when you think “Christmas” but “Itsuka no Merry Christmas” (“Someday we’ll have a Merry Christmas”) is a classic Christmas song. It originally appeared on their EP Friends, released December 9, 1992, but the song developed a life of its own and has become one of B’z signature songs. Please also enjoy this duet version from Gackt and Hamasaki Ayumi.
Kuwata Keisuke’s “Shiroi Koibito tachi” (lit. “The white lovers”) doesn’t strictly reference Christmas but it’s become associated with the holiday, whether through the jingle bells that appear or just the imagery of the freshly fallen snow and love and hope. The song was his seventh solo single, released October 24, 2001, and was a smash hit, earning a nomination for best song of the year at Nihon Record Taishou and becoming one of the songs of the year at Japan’s Golden Disc Awards. A special shout out to Kuwata’s “KISSIN’ CHRISTMAS” which while not the classic “Shiroi Koibito tachi” is, is also a delightful Christmas song.
Kinki Kids’ “Cinderella Christmas” was their 5th single, released December 9, 1998, as part of a double A-side with “Happy Happy Greeting”. The single reached number one on the Oricon charts and was the second best selling single of December that year. While “Happy Happy Greeting” is a perfectly fine song--written by Yamashita Tatsuro even!--it’s been “Cinderella Christmas” which has lingered on in popular memory. Kinki Kids still perform it to this day. Memorably, in 2020, they did so wearing matching Christmas tree costumes.
Sexy Zone’s “Sexy Summer ni yuki ga furu” (lit. “It snows in Sexy Summer”) was the group’s third single, released October 12, 2012, reaching number one on the Oricon charts. I remember this song being a source of confusion in English-speaking fan circles because… Christmas? Summer? Released in October? What is going on? The explanation here circles back to the idea of Christmas as a romantic holiday. The lyrics are about finally making a move on the girl you like and kissing on the beach at night is like... snow falling at Christmas. It’s cute. Trust me. The “sexy” is simply part of their schtick, just go with it. You won’t regret it! Sexy thank you for this one, Johnny’s & Associates!
To complete the Johnny’s hat trick, here’s A.B.C-Z’s “Shuden wo koete ~Christmas night” (lit. “Missed the last train ~Christmas night”). The song was the group’s fourth single, released December 13, 2017, as a double A-side with “Bounenkai”. While I believe “Bounenkai” has had the longer shelf life (speaking perhaps to the strong tastes of A.B.C-Z fans), “Shuden wo koete” is still a fun, wintery, Christmas song with strong echoes of Yamashita Tatsuro’s “Christmas Eve.” Showing just how deep that JR Railways commercial runs in the Japanese collective imagination.