＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49) on X
(Reference) Original article in Japanese
・昭和レトロブーム！昭和歌謡のカバー人気や駄菓子コアシガレットの再ブレイク
I belong to the baby boomer generation, turning 72 this year. We lived through more than half of our lives—40 years—in the Showa era.
Therefore, when it comes to music, we are a generation deeply immersed in Showa-era popular songs.
While the number of singer-songwriters who wrote and composed their own songs increased from around the 1970s, before that, many Showa-era songs were created by professional lyricists and composers.
There’s a program on BS TV Tokyo every Friday night at 8 PM called “Tetsuya Takeda’s Showa Was Shining,” which introduces Showa-era popular songs, and I watch it occasionally.
By the way, recently, there’s been a surge in “Showa-era pop song covers,” and Aimyon posted a photo on Instagram of herself holding Cocoa Cigarettes, a “Showa-era snack,” which has seen a resurgence in popularity. It feels like the Showa era is being re-evaluated (or perhaps re-appreciated?).
Perhaps the Showa era has now become a “retro” phenomenon.
1. The resurgence of popularity of Showa-era pop songs
(1) Covers of Showa-era pop songs are extremely popular
Actress Ai Hashimoto’s cover of Hiromi Ota’s “Momen no Handkerchief” (Cotton Handkerchief), posted on YouTube’s “THE FIRST TAKE,” garnered immense popularity after its Christmas release last year, with her powerful voice and expressive performance resonating deeply with many and exceeding 2.6 million views by February of this year.
It is scheduled to be included in the tribute album “Kyohei Tsutsumi SONG BOOK,” released on March 24th.
She also performed the song on the “Music Station Love Song 3-Hour Special” on February 19th, generating considerable buzz.
The song’s popularity likely stems from its beautifully portrayal of a sad breakup drama across its four verses.
In addition, “Showa-era pop song covers” are also very popular.
The following is a list of the top 10 Showa-era pop song covers, along with their cover counts:
① Kyu Sakamoto’s “Look Up at the Stars at Night” (176 times)
② Miyuki Nakajima’s “Thread” (87 times)
② Kaguyahime’s “Lingering Snow” (87 times)
④ Yumi Arai’s “If I Were Wrapped in Kindness” (84 times)
⑤ Hibari Misora’s “Like the Flow of a River” (77 times)
⑥ Yumi Arai’s “Contrail” (68 times)
⑥ Saki Kubota’s “The Stranger” (68 times)
⑧ Seiko Matsuda’s “Red Sweet Pea” (65 times)
⑨ Yumi Arai’s “Graduation Photo” (61 times)
⑩ Shokichi Kina’s “Flower ~Flowers in Everyone’s Heart~” (60 times)
(2) The TV program “Tetsuya Takeda’s Showa Era Shone Brightly”
This is a historical information program dealing with the Showa era.
Each episode picks a theme from the “people,” “things,” and “events” that symbolize the turbulent Showa era, and explores the charm of the Showa era through studio discussions with those involved, accompanied by footage and photographs from the time.
The program features a relatively large number of popular song specials, and 2-3 hour specials are frequently broadcast.
Now, with “Showa being a distant memory,” there are many generations born in the Heisei era who do not know the Showa era. It feels as though our generation, once called “children who do not know war,” has become the “storytellers of the Showa era.”
(3) “Showa-era popular songs” created by professional lyricists and composers
While many recent songs are “fast-paced” and have “meaningless (or unintelligible) lyrics,” Showa-era popular songs often had dramatic lyrics that stirred people’s hearts.
I believe this is solely because they were created by professional lyricists and composers. Of course, some songs felt a bit formulaic…
Representative lyricists include Tetsuro Hoshino and Yu Aku. Composers include Masao Koga, Minoru Endo, Shosuke Ichikawa, Toru Funamura, and Takashi Miki.
(4) Songs by singer-songwriters of the Showa era
① Kei Ogura
He was active while working as a bank employee, and his song “Shikuramen no Kaori” (The Scent of Cyclamen) was a huge hit. His other masterpieces include “Ai Sansan” (Sun-Sun Love), which he provided to Hibari Misora, and “Yume Shibai” (Dream Play), which he provided to Tomio Umezawa.
② Shinji Tanimura
A former member of Alice, “Subaru” (Subaru), released as part of his solo career, is his signature song. “Ii Hi Tabidachi” (A Good Day to Travel), which he provided to Momoe Yamaguchi, is also a good song.
③ Eigo Kawashima
He passed away at the young age of 48, but “Sake to Namida to Otoko to Onna” (Sake, Tears, Man, and Woman) and “Jidai Okure” (Out of Date) are quite masterpieces. He brilliantly sang about the strength, sadness, tenderness, and feelings of a man and a father.
I saw him perform “Sake to Namida to Otoko to Onna” as a guest at the Takatsuki Festival, singing passionately on the elementary school grounds, but he passed away shortly afterward.
2. Aimyon posts a photo of “Cocoa Cigarettes”
The “Showa retro boom” among young people seems to have exploded in popularity, starting with Fujifilm’s disposable camera, “Utsurun-desu.” I fondly remember the TV commercials featuring Kirin Kiki.
In February 2019, young singer-songwriter Aimyon (born 1995) posted a photo on Instagram of herself holding a “Cocoa Cigarette” (Orion’s flagship product and a 70-year bestseller), a nostalgic Japanese candy, in her right hand. This photo reportedly sparked a resurgence in the popularity of Cocoa Cigarettes.
For those of us in the baby boomer generation, it’s a very nostalgic candy, but for her, it might have seemed “cute with a retro feel,” or perhaps “something interesting she’d never seen before.”
On the internet, comments like “Cocoa Cigarettes are so nostalgic,” “I remember this candy,” “I thought it was a cigarette,” and “Cocoa Cigarettes? How stylish,” spread from the Showa generation to young people born in the Heisei era, causing a resurgence in popularity for the product and even leading to shortages at one point.
Orion is reportedly releasing a new product, “Cocoa Cigarette Ice Bar,” this spring.
The slang term used by young people today to describe their attraction to “Showa retro” is apparently “emo.” This term originates from “emotional” and refers to a state of being emotionally moved or a strong emotional response that deeply resonates.
It seems to evoke a sense of attraction to “inconvenient things” and “things that take time.” Having been forced to eat barley rice and canned mackerel to my heart’s content, and having lived deeply immersed in the inconvenient and impoverished Showa era, I do feel “nostalgia,” but honestly, “I can’t go back to those inconvenient and impoverished times.”
3. A blog called “Showa Spot Tour”
There’s a unique blog by Yu Hirayama called “Showa Spot Tour,” which introduces his home, the “Showa Housing Museum,” which recreates the lifestyle of the mid-Showa era, and reports on his search for and photographs of Showa-era spots throughout Japan. Mr. Hirayama was born in 1968 (Showa 43).
He seems to have an even stronger “love for the Showa era” than our baby boomer generation. Indeed, things from the Showa era, whether records or anything else, had a certain “warmth,” a “comforting, nostalgic warmth.”
The “Showa retro” atmosphere of the now-rare “pure coffee shops” seems fresh and appealing to “Generation Z,” born in the 2000s, as it offers a sense of the extraordinary.
