Summer Playlist: Japanese Music Edition | A Selection of City Pop-Style Summer Japanese Music

The second installment of my summer playlist.
Japanese music edition.
I wanted to make something like an all-time best of City Pop.
Before I knew it, the music I liked was being called City Pop.
The City Pop boom, centered overseas, which no longer needs explanation, was an afterthought.
I started creating playlists on Spotify simultaneously,
and as I dug into nostalgic tracks and Kayokyoku (classic Japanese pop), naturally,
I was listening to music in real-time in the 80s, but I didn't pay it any mind back then,
or rather, the songs were too mature and didn't stick in my ears, and then years passed.
This is good; a rediscovery and a pleasant sense of nostalgia.
It's personally fresh because I haven't overplayed it.
And the times are welcoming things that are a bit mellow and groovy,
and that trend is in J-POP too.
I prefer that even more.

I've made City Pop playlists for the 70s and 80s,
but I wanted to line them up all-time, including the present,
and since the definition of City Pop is broad,
I also gathered my personal summer songs.
Japanese summer music I want to listen to now.
KIRINJI, Rikon Densetsu, Kiyotaka Sugiyama & Omega Tribe, Eiichi Ohtaki,
Yoshitaka Minami, Seiko Matsuda, Yuming, Taeko Onuki, Minako Yoshida,
I wanted to make it stylish, but I didn't want it to be too stylish,
and I also wanted that Kayokyoku-style theatrical flair in a good way.

With that in mind, I put more effort into this than the Western music version.

On a summer beach.
Though, a summer beach was never a part of my daily life then or now,
and if I'm being honest, I'm not even fond of them,
but the summer sung about in City Pop is wonderful,
and perhaps it's good that it's an ideal world, a fictional world.

Longing for some summer, some beach, some city, I'll listen to wonderful music again today.

1 Gemini Graffiti KIRINJI
2 Marude Tenshi sa Rikon Densetsu
3 Futari no Natsu Monogatari -NEVER ENDING SUMMER- Kiyotaka Sugiyama & Omega Tribe
4 Koisuru Karen Eiichi Ohtaki
5 Poolside Yoshitaka Minami
6 Komugiiro no Mermaid Seiko Matsuda
7 Umi Southern All Stars
8 Umi ga Hoshii no ni Miyuki Hatakeyama
9 Saturday paris match
10 napori Vaundy
11 Kimi ni, Mune Kyun. -Uwaki na Vacance- YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA
12 Kimi wa 1000% 1986 OMEGA TRIBE
13 ENDLESS SUMMER NUDE Magokoro Brothers
14 Asahi no Ataru Michi Original Love
15 Candy Naoko Gushima
16 DIVE Hitomitoi
17 Tenkiame Yumi Arai
18 Natsu ni Koisuru Onnatachi Taeko Onuki
19 Umi Minako Yoshida
20 P.D.M. KIRINJI
21 Kimi wa Tennenshoku Eiichi Ohtaki
22 SHYNESS BOY Anri
23 Mystical Composer Momoko Kikuchi
24 Ocean Blue Junichi Inagaki
25 Emo-me no Natsu Lucky Kilimanjaro
26 Ginger TOMOO
27 Season iri
28 Sweet and Sour Nulbarich
29 Hizuke Henkousen Yoshitaka Minami; Taeko Onuki
30 SUMMER DREAMIN’ Junko Ohashi & Minoya Central Station
31 Natsu Nandesu Happy End
32 SUMMER BLUE Bread & Butter
33 Enoshima Sunny Day Service
34 Cider no You ni Kotoba ga Wakiagaru never young beach
35 Baby cruising Love Perfume
36 Nagisa imase
37 Wasurenai no Sakanaction
38 Machikado Twilight Chanels
39 Natsu wo Akiramete Southern All Stars
40 Ame no Wednesday NIAGARA FALL OF SOUND ORCHESTRAL
41 Summer in Summer ~Omoide wa, Suhada ni Yaite~ (feat. Hikari) Tokimeki Records; Hikari
42 Kanashii Kurai Diamond RYUSENKEI; Hitomitoi
43 Moe Rikon Densetsu
44 Umi to Shounen Taeko Onuki
45 Natsu no Koibito Mariya Takeuchi
46 Toki yo Minako Yoshida
47 Asai Yume Takao Kisugi
48 Kaze ni Nareru nara Ginji Ito
49 Ippon no Ongaku - Single Version Kazuhito Murata
50 Natsu no Hi Off Course
51 Kimi no Heart wa Marine Blue Kiyotaka Sugiyama & Omega Tribe
52 ONE DAY KUWATA BAND
53 Boy no Kisetsu Seiko Matsuda
54 Garasu-goshi ni Kieta Natsu Masayuki Suzuki
55 Wakamono no Subete Fujifabric
56 Summer Jam '95 Scha Dara Parr
57 Uchiage Hanabi Kenshi Yonezu
58 Zutto Yomikake no Natsu Tomita Lab; CHEMISTRY
59 Natsukaze no Ikitsuku Hate Port of Notes
60 After Hanabi -Listen To My Beats- Nujabes
61 Kumo ni Naru Yorushika
62 Summer Beauty 1990 / Latin de Let's Love matawa 1990 Summer Beauty Keikaku Flipper's Guitar
63 Juuyoji-sugi no Kagerou KIRINJI
64 Yakan Hikou Yoshitaka Minami
65 Mr. Summertime Circus
66 Toki yo Tomare Eikichi Yazawa
67 Love Squall (Lupin the Third Theme) Sandra Horn; You & The Explosion Band
68 Umikaze Kaze
69 Mahou Sunny Day Service
70 Sunshine Romance Original Love
71 Mabushii, Mabushisugiru Rikon Densetsu
72 99 Steps STUTS; Kohjiya; Hana Hope
73 Pacific Suchmos
74 Summer Soul cero
75 Crazy Summer KIRINJI
76 3-gousen RYUSENKEI
77 Natsu no Hikari ni Sumiko Yamagata
78 Yuusuzumi Yumi Matsutoya
79 Sora to Umi no Kagayaki ni Mukete Yumi Arai
80 Natsu no Riviera ~Summer Night in Riviera~ (DEBUT AGAIN Version) Eiichi Ohtaki
81 Saigo no Rakuen Haruomi Hosono