Yui was one of the first Japanese artists that I loved way back. Like many, I loved Again from Fullmetal Alchemist, but I came to like many of her other songs like Cherry, Happy Birthday, and Merry Go Round. I was also a big fan of Rie Fu as well, who wrote “Life is Like a Boat”, the first ending of Bleach. “Decay” is still one of my favourite songs of all time.
In more recent years, I’ve noticed more singer-songwriting guitarists getting a lot of recognition. Yuuri who created “Shutter” and “Dried Flower” topped charts, and even young artists like Sayuri and Minami who was busking on the street not that long ago are now making anime themes.
Right now, I’ve been learning guitar for almost 3 years, and now that I understand Japanese music theory, chord progressions, and song structure a lot more, I was hoping to find more artists like the one above so I could hear how they use guitar and gain inspiration from them.
Perhaps, there’s people out there like me, so I decided to compile a list! If you’re a guitarist or a singer-songwriter who is looking for inspiration, or just prefer to listen to acoustic guitar, here’s a bunch of artists you should definitely check out and add to your playlist.
If you’re interested in more articles like this one, be sure to check out my articles on Why Japanese Music Sounds so Different, Interviews & Advice from Japanese Guitarists, Breaking Down 15 Anime Chord Progressions, and Japanese Song Structure Insights. I have compiled many other articles about Japanese Music & Theory on my Japanese Music Resources page.
And if you’d like to learn more about Japanese music theory so you can understand and create your own Japanese inspired music, check out The Complete Japanese Music Theory Course!
UPDATE DECEMBER 2024: “No Longer Dreaming” Published!
If you’re a beginner or inexperienced musician who wants to break out in this competitive field, check out my new eBook! I started this blog when I was still a rookie guitarist with no experience, but with confidence and a plan, I created a band and we performed at a venue, conventions, and a festival in the span of 2 years.
As a solo musician, I’ve played for a church, got to be part of a high production music video, and was offered to perform at a huge event and play on an album. In this guide book, you’ll learn how to choose your style, niche & target audience, what to practice, how to find bandmates and organize rehearsals, how to promote yourself and/or your band, where to look for gigs, how to dress for photoshoots and the stage, how to network with people, and so much more! If you’re interested, click here for more details!
AIMI
To start of this list, let’s take a look at Aimi, full name Haraguni Aimi (原国愛海). Some of you may know her from the all-girl band Stereopony who’s breakout hit “Hitohira no Hanabira” was used as an ending for Bleach. She was given credits for lyrics and/or composition for 9 of Stereopony’s tracks. (source). After they disbanded, she was the singer and guitarist for ALiCE IN UNDERGROUND.
In 2016, she announced the start of her solo career and released her first demo “AIMI demo bootleg #1”. On September 4, 2019, she established her own label “OHELLO RECORDS”. She has released quite a few singles since then. You can check out a more recent interview from her here.
Aimyon (あいみょん)
Aimyon was born on March 6, 1995, and only started her music career in 2014, but she is certainly one of the biggest songwriting guitarists on this list. She was influenced to become a singer-songwriter in part because of her grandmother, who herself aspired to be a singer.
In middle school, she began writing songs and doing covers with the acoustic guitar her English teacher left her. When she was in high school, her friend sent her application to an audition without her knowledge, and she qualified for the final rounds. After graduating from high school, a YouTube video of one of her performances caught the attention of her first music label, Lastrum Music Entertainment. (source).
Between 2017 and 2020, she won every award she was nominated for, which includes 61st Japan Record Awards Excellence Album, Billboard Japan Music Awards Artist of the Year, Mnet Asian Music Awards Best Asian Artist, Space Shower Music Awards Best Female Artist, and MTV VMAJ Best Video of the Year.
Eden Kai
According to his own website, “Eden Kai has earned his reputation as being a ukulele and guitar virtuoso, a Pop/R&B vocalist, and an accomplished actor. While many were first introduced to Eden when he joined the cast of Netflix and Fuji Television’s Terrace House: Aloha State, the young star’s success had already been years in the making.”
“He has since gone on to make additional appearances on Terrace House: Tokyo 2019-2020, appeared on Shiro to Kiiro on Amazon Prime and has performed at the Fuji Rock Festival (the largest outdoor music festival in Japan), Nisei Week Festival in Little Tokyo, OC Japan Fair and ANA Honolulu Music Week in Waikiki. Eden’s accomplishments have earned him interviews by NBC News and The Yomiuri Shinbun (the world’s most circulated newspaper).” (source)
Hanare Gumi (ハナレグミ)
I couldn’t find much about him, but according to Deezer, “Hanaregumi is an alias for Tokyo-born singer and musician Takashi Nagazumi. He began his musical career as the singer with a local band called Super Butter Dog in 1997 before he left to go solo in 2002. It was then that he adopted the name Hanaregumi.”
“In 2005 Nagazumi paused Hanaregumi to work as part of the Japanese supergroup Ohana that featured members of Yusuke Oya and Ikuko Harada from two big bands, Clammbon and Polaris respectively, to play live and produce one EP. He returned to solo work in 2006.” (source)
Ichiko Aoba (青葉市子)
Ichiko Aoba is a Japanese folk singer and songwriter who releases music under her own label, hermine. Her main instrument is guitar, but she also plays the piano, clarinet, accordion, and flute. Ichiko Aoba began to learn how to play classical guitar at the age of 17, and her music has been inspired by Disney music and Studio Ghibli, both of which she listened to growing up. Aoba is known for her acoustic sound and songwriting, which is inspired by her dreams. (source)
Kaneko Ayano (カネコアヤノ)
Ayano Kaneko, born January 30, 1993, is a Japanese singer-songwriter who debuted with a mini album royalties life in May 2012. The same year in June she served as the opening act of the TOUR Tokyo performances for SCANDAL and then also at the center of Tokyo. (source)
Kazuyoshi Saito (斉藤和義)
Kazuyoshi Saito was born on June 22, 1966 and made his professional debut in 1993. He is also one-half of the rock duo Mannish Boys with Tatsuya Nakamura and a member of the supergroup the Curling Sitones. In 2013, Saito became the first Japanese musician to have a signature model acoustic guitar with Gibson. As of 2020, he had six signature models with them and one with Epiphone. (source)
His songs have been covered by a lot of artists. For example, his song “Aruite Kaerou” has been covered by Bank Band, alüto, Ooyama Yurika. He has also written and composed music for artists like Isa Koutarou and PUFFY, and television shows like the 2008 drama FISH STORY. His song “One More Time” was also featured in a Detective Conan movie (source)
Keisuke Kuwata (桑田佳祐)
Keisuke Kuwata is a Japanese multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, and frontman for the Southern All Stars, as well of his own solo band, the Kuwata band. He has also done a significant amount of scoring music for films. He went to Aoyama Gakuin University.
In 2010, Southern All Stars was ranked No. 1, and Kuwata’s solo band, the Kuwata Band, ranked No. 12 on a list of the top 100 musicians in Japan. Kuwata has worked as a record producer, a movie director, has recorded albums as bandleader of his own band, the Kuwata Band, and has worked on projects scoring music to film. (source).
LiSA
I’ve written a lot about LiSA on my blog in my past. I was a big Angel Beats fan and listened to that album on repeat. She’s become quite a big anisong singer since then, singing songs for Crossing Field, Nisekoi, Fate/ Series, and of course, Demon Slayer! To my surprise, after publishing this, someone from a Jmusic Facebook group informed me that she plays guitar and writes her own songs too! Apparently, voice acting was not her origin story.
Oribe was born in Gifu Prefecture on June 24, 1987. She took piano lessons starting at age three, and later took dance and vocal lessons, which continued through her junior high school years. While in elementary, she participated in an audition held at the Nippon Budokan, and it was during this time she decided to become an artist. In junior high school, she formed a band which covered songs by Avril Lavigne, Love Psychedelico, and Ego-Wrappin’.
Oribe began her singing career in 2005 during her first year in high school when she formed a cover band playing indie rock band called Chucky. She chose not to attend university to focus on her work with Chucky, but it eventually became difficult for them to continue performing. Following the band’s disbandment in July 2008, she moved to Tokyo to continue her singing career.
In Tokyo, Oribe formed the band Love is Same All with members from the indie band Parking Out and began using the stage name LiSA, which is an acronym for Love is Same All. The band performs with LiSA during the latter’s solo live performances. In 2010, she made her major debut singing songs for the anime series Angel Beats! as one of two vocalists for the fictional in-story band Girls Dead Monster.
LiSA made her solo debut on April 20, 2011, with the release of the mini-album Letters to U by Aniplex under Sony Music Artists. The songs on the album were composed by dōjin and major artists, and she composed the first song “Believe in Myself”; she wrote the album’s lyrics. On November 12, 2011, she appeared at the Anime Festival Asia in Singapore. She released her first solo single “Oath Sign” on November 23, 2011, which was used as the opening theme to the 2011 anime series Fate/Zero. The single peaked at No. 5 on the Oricon weekly charts and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ).
Her story is long and she has only released more and more music since then, so be sure to read the full story here. Here’s also a non-Youtube video of her singing and playing acoustically.
Masaki Suda (菅田将暉)
Taishō Sugō, known professionally as Masaki Suda, is a Japanese actor and singer. He won the Japan Academy Film Prize for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role. His first album “Play” debuted at #2 on the Oricon Album Chart. His single “Sayonara Elegy” was used as the theme song of Todome no Kiss, and reached #9 on Billboard Japan 2018. He has worked with Kenshi Yonezu, Huwie Ishizaki and Aimyon. (source, source).
Minami (美波)
Minami, born in 1997, is a Japanese singer and songwriter from Saitama. Influenced by the live performances of Yutaka Ozaki in high school, she took up guitar and participated in music activities.
In 2017, the first mini-album ETERNAL BLUE and the first single “main actor” were released. Minami won the second FlyingDog Audition Grand Prix in 2017, and later signed onto FlyingDog under Victor Entertainment in 2019. On June 30, 2020, she transferred to Warner Music Japan.
Minami is best known internationally and in the anime world for her song “Kawaki wo Ameku” (Crying in the Rain) which was used as the opening of Domestic Girlfriend. The song currently has over 169 Million views, along with countless covers from fans.
miwa
“miwa was born in Hayama, Kanagawa, moving to Tokyo at a young age. Since her father had a great love for music, miwa naturally began to enjoy music as she grew up. miwa began writing songs at 15. She began to teach herself how to play the guitar after she entered high school, but gave up and paid for professional lessons after discovering she wasn’t making much progress on her own. Her high school had a ban on students having part-time jobs. Despite this, miwa secretly worked and eventually used these savings by her second year of high school to buy a Gibson J-45 guitar.”
“miwa played live concerts mostly around Shimokitazawa in Tokyo and in Okinawa in the summer. Due to her high school also having a ban on students working in the entertainment business, she had to do these gigs in secret. During this time, miwa released two self-published independent singles, “Song for You/Today” and “Soba ni Itai Kara” in 2007 and 2008.”
“miwa was signed to Sony Music Entertainment Japan during her third year of high school.[4] She debuted as an artist in 2010 while attending Keio University. Her debut single “Don’t Cry Anymore” was chosen for the drama Nakanai to Kimeta Hi’s theme song. The single was a minor commercial success, breaking the top 20 on Oricon’s single charts and in April 2010 the song won the award for best drama theme song at the 64th The Television Drama Academy Awards. Her third single “Change” was the twelfth opening theme song for the Bleach anime, and was a top 10 single.” (source)
Miyavi (雅)
Takamasa Ishihara (石原 崇雅), born September 14, 1981, better known by his stage name Miyavi, is a Japanese guitarist, singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor known for his finger-slapping style of playing a guitar.
He has been active since 1999, first as guitarist for the now defunct visual kei rock band Dué le quartz and then as a solo artist starting in 2002. In 2007, he became a member of the rock supergroup S.K.I.N. and in 2009 founded his own company, J-glam. He toured worldwide several times, with over 250 shows in 30 countries as of 2015. As of 2016, he released ten solo albums and 27 singles. (source)
Miyuu (みゆう)
Miyuu is Japanese singer-songwriter under Avex. After graduating from junior high school, she started to translate western music to understand the lyrics better but gained a deep interest in Western music. She started to cover songs like Bruno Mars and Maroon 5 on her Youtube channel and they went viral. She won a female Youtubers audition run by Avex. Within her first couple years, she released 3 singles, all written by her, often mixing English and Japanese. (source)
Momosu Momosu (ももすももす)
Momosu Momosu was born in 1995 is the former vocalist of Melancholic Sharaku. I wasn’t able to find a whole lot about her, but she has released quite a few singles and albums in the last few years.
Motohiro Hata (秦 基博)
Motohiro Hata is the youngest of three brothers. He began playing the guitar at age 3, after his eldest brother received a cheap guitar from a friend. In junior high school, he began writing songs, and after entering high school started working fully as a musician.
In 1999, he performed at his first big concert at the F.A.D Yokohama live house, after a referral by one of his friends. In 2004, he released an independent EP, “Orange no Haikei no Akai Seibutsu“. In 2006 he was signed to Augusta Records after catching the attention of one of the staff members. He was the opening act of Augusta Camp 2006 in July. He debuted with the single “Synchro“.
His 2008 single “Kimi, Meguru, Boku“, was his first top 20 hit, reaching No. 15 on Oricon charts. “Kimi, Meguru, Boku” was used as the opening theme for the anime series Itazura na Kiss. Since then, he has had six top 20 singles and two top 10 albums.
In 2010, his song “Tōmei Datta Sekai” premiered as the opening for the seventh season of Naruto: Shippuden. In 2012 he sang the song “Altair” under the name “Motohiro Hata meets Sakamichi no Apollon” for the ending of the anime Kids on the Slope, which premiered on 12 April 2012. The song “Goodbye Isaac” was the fourth ending track to the anime Space Brothers.
In 2013, his cover of “Rain” by Senri Oe was featured as the ED for The Garden of Words by Makoto Shinkai. In 2014, “Himawari no Yakusoku” was used as the theme song for the 3D-animated movie Stand by Me Doraemon. (source)
Nagaoka Ryousuke (長岡亮介)
Ryousuke’s first learned piano at the age of 9. He was introduced to bluegrass music at an early age, as his father was an amateur bluegrass musician. He started playing the guitar as a junior in high school, and joined a country band.
Nagaoka is an old friend of Shiina Ringo’s, and he had played in a band with her elder brother Shiina Junpei, Evil Vibrations. He also participated in the recording of her third solo album, Kalk, Samen, Chestnut Flower, on which he played guitar on the songs “Camouflage”, “Consciously”, “Fig Flower” (which he also arranged and composed), as well as being credited on vacuum cleaner and “vocal percussion” on two more songs.
In 2005, after the departure of Mikio Hirama from Sheena’s band, Tokyo Jihen, he became the band’s guitarist and background vocalist. Upon joining the band’s “Phase 2”, he was given the pseudonym Ukigumo by Sheena. With them, he released four albums and a mini-album, and he remained with the band until its 2012 breakup. He has penned numerous songs as a member of the band, including the single “OSCA”, and was also the lead arranger for the single “Shuraba”.
Since 2005, he is also the guitar player and singer for his own band, Petrolz. The band has released three albums and two mini-albums to date. (source)
Nana Kitade (北出 菜奈)
Nana Kitade, born in May 2, 1987 is a Japanese singer-songwriter and musician. In February 2002 Kitade passed a Sony Music Japan audition and was chosen as the Sapporo area representative and was given the opportunity to debut as a singer.
In March 2003, the demo which she submitted caught the attention of Susumu Nishikawa, session guitarist and Ringo Shina’s sideman at the time of the debut. She signed a deal with SME Records, a subgroup of Sony Music Japan.
On October 29, 2003, she debuted with the single “Kesenai Tsumi“, which was used as the first ending theme song of the popular anime Fullmetal Alchemist. The single reached number 14 on the Oricon charts and stayed on the charts for twenty-two weeks. Kitade then released “Kesenai Tsumi: Raw ‘Breath’ Track”, a slower version of the song, which charted on the Oricon charts and peaked at number 87. On November 1, Kitade appeared on the NHK television program Pop-jam.
In addition to being the lead singer of the rock band The Teenage Kissers, she has (or had) success as a solo artist, model, actress, and fashion designer. Kitade is particularly known for her songs appearing in various anime, TV shows, dramas and movie opening and endings. Kitade was featured on the cover of the Gothic & Lolita Bible, as well as featured in Neo and Kera magazines. She has toured Asia, Europe, and North America. She has a pretty long biography! You can read the full story here.
Predawn
Miwako Shimizu began playing the piano at the age of 4 and composing songs by 6. She then started playing the guitar in junior high school and won a prize with her original song for 2 consecutive years at a creative music competition hosted by her school. For high school and college years, she was active in the music scene as a band member and a composer.
She finally began her solo project in 2008 as “Predawn.” The name was inspired by Mimei Ogawa, the father of modern Japanese children’s literature. Predawn is based in Tokyo but she has performed at many festivals in Japan including Fuji Rock Festival and apbank fes in 2009 and 2010.
In June 2010, she released her first mini-album, Te no naka no tori (“A Bird in the Hand”), which she recorded by herself and on which she played all instruments. She has collaborated with other artists in Japan such as andymori, Eccy, Marble Sounds and Rayons. (source)
Rie Fu (リエ フゥ)
In 2002, while in high school, Rie Funakoshi (舩越 里恵), learned guitar, and almost immediately began coming up with songs and recording them with a small tape recorder. She sent the demo tape off to a record company (Sony) and they signed her to their Palm Beach label.
Her first single, “Rie who!?”, featuring the song “Decay,” was released in March 2004, while she was attending university in London. Later that year, her song “Life Is Like a Boat” was chosen as the first ending theme for the anime series Bleach, garnering her widespread recognition. In 2005 she released her first full-length album, self-titled, and her song “I Wanna Go To A Place…” was used as the Gundam SEED Destiny third ending theme and released as a single.
In 2006 she released her second full-length album, Rose Album, and her song “Until I Say” was used as the theme song for the Japanese release of the 2005 British film Heidi. In 2007 her song “Tsukiakari” was featured as the ending theme to Darker than Black.
Rie fu’s songs are often bilingual, since she is fluent in both English and Japanese. Although most of her songs are primarily sung in Japanese, many feature entire verses written in English. Of her songs written entirely in Japanese, several have later been released as English-language versions. (source)
Sayuri (さユり)
In 6th grade, Sayuri was impressed by the fact that, despite being idols, Kanjani Eight formed a band. They inspired her to take up guitar as a hobby. Sayuri began composing music during her second year of junior high school, aspiring to the lyrics and songwriting of Kanjani Eight.
Afterward, she joined an acoustic duo called LONGTAL and started performing in the streets and live houses. By this time, she had dropped out of high school. In 2012, Sayuri (with LONGTAL) was awarded the Grand Prix at the finals of the fifth Music Revolution. Afterwards, she became active as an indie artist. She adopted the name Sanketsu Shōjo Sayuri which is symbolic of her calling herself a 2.5-dimensional parallel singer-songwriter. She usually performs barefoot and in a poncho.
On December 7, 2016, she collaborated with Yojiro Noda of RADWIMPS to release her 4th single “Furaregai Girl.” On March 1, 2017, Sayuri released her fifth single “Parallel Line,” which was featured as the ending song to the anime adaptation of Scum’s Wish. Her first album Mikazuki no Koukai reached first on Oricon’s Daily Album Ranking and 3rd on its Weekly Album Ranking.
She continues to release songs that are used in media, such “Tsuki to Hanataba“, the ending theme of anime Fate/Extra Last Encore. “Reimei” with My First Story, which was the ending for Golden Kamuy, Featured in “Me & Creed” by Hiroyuki Sawano, which is used in the mobile game Blue Exorcist: Damned Chord, and “Koukai no Uta“, an ending for My Hero Academia.
Seiko Oomori (大森靖子)
Oomori moved to Tokyo to attend Musashino Art University in Kodaira. Starting from 2007,[4] Oomori performed in one of Kōenji’s “live houses” named Muryoku Muzenji, singing while playing an acoustic guitar. In 2011, Oomori formed a band named “Seiko Oomori & The Pink Tokarev”. During her time in Kōenji, Oomori’s music pushed back against the dominance of Japanese idols on the music charts, a style that Ian Martin of The Japan Times compares to Jun Togawa and Ringo Sheena. Oomori held multiple concerts within Tokyo, including a first appearance at the 2013 Tokyo Idol Festival, a venue she would continue to appear in. Her growing popularity attracted the attention of Avex Trax to offer a contract in 2014.
Oomori’s first album with Avex Trax, Sennō, sees her depart from her guitar-wielding “anti-idol” image to explore other types of music by incorporating more electronic elements, but her lyrics still explore darker themes, similar to Avex Trax’s other band BiS. Her subsequent albums saw her continue to adapt to a more mainstream-friendly style and adapting from even more genres.
In 2018, Oomori created an idol group named ZOC (short for “zone of control”) in which she was both a member and a producer. On 9 June 2021, ZOC released their first album PvP, a double-album produced by Oomori herself with additional contributions from Kenta Sakurai, the producer of now-defunct idol group Maison Book Girl. Later that year on 9 November, ex-BiS and Maison Book Girl member Megumi Koshouji debuted her new idol group MAPA with the full-length album Shitennou, produced entirely by Oomori. (source)
Suzuka Harada (原田珠々華)
Harada Suzuka is a Japanese idol singer-songwriter and guitarist under Tower Records Japan Inc. She was a member of the Japanese pop idol girl group Idol Renaissance from 2016 until their disbandment in February 2018. She made her solo debut on September 2, 2018 with the limited single “Fifteen / Anata e”. (source).
Tavito Nanao (七尾旅人)
Nanao was born in 1979, and grew up in a rural area of Japan. Until 13, most of the music Nanao had listened to was jazz, due to the influence of his father. From the beginning of middle school, however, Nanao began to listen to musicians such as a rock band B’z.
In the summer of 1994, he discovered grunge music and would often be absent from school. On New Year’s Eve of 1994, Nanao decided to write music, by humming tunes and writing down lyrics, and throughout the next year began writing songs daily. After copying the styles of several bands he enjoyed, Nanao found songwriting a spontaneous activity.
In 1996, after a year of high school, Nanao decided to drop out of high school, and in September took a friend’s acoustic guitar and multitrack recorder and moved to Tokyo. In a year’s time in 1997, Nanao sent in a demo tape for the Sony Soytzer Music Audition, which led to Nanao being signed to Sony.
Nanao’s initial recordings were in Los Angeles in March and July 1998, where he bought acoustic and electric guitars. In September, Nanao debuted with the single “Omoide Over Drive.” After several other singles, Nanao recorded his debut album throughout early to mid-1999, and released it in August, titled Ame ni Utaeba…! Disc 2. In March 2000, Nanao performed his first live at the Shinjuku Liquid Room.
Nanao slowly worked on his second studio album, Heavenly Punk: Adagio, throughout 2000 and 2001, releasing two singles in 2000. In May and June 2002, Nanao performed his first tour alongside Hiroya Komeiji, performing at four cities across Japan. Nanao continued to work with Wonderground, releasing a self-accompanied album in 2003 and a single+DVD set in 2004. The single was the first of Nanao’s works through both Sony and Wonderground to chart on Oricon’s albums and single charts.
In 2007, Nanao released a three CD musical album called 911 Fantasia, themed around the events of the September 11 attacks. Nanao considers this the peak work of his teens and 20s. The release of this album lead to Nanao’s introduction to rapper Yakenohara, and the pair collaborated with the single “Rollin’ Rollin” in 2009. This, along with Nanao, 2010 album, were both releases that charted in the top 50. (source).
Tomoyasu Hotei (布袋寅泰)
Tomoyasu Hotei, also known simply as Hotei, is a Japanese musician, singer-songwriter, composer, record producer and actor. With a career spanning more than 35 years, Hotei claims record sales of over 40 million copies and has collaborated with acclaimed artists from around the world. Hotei first rose to prominence in the 1980s as the guitarist for Boøwy, one of Japan’s most popular rock bands, before starting a solo career.
In 2003, he was ranked number 70 on HMV Japan’s list of the 100 most important Japanese pop acts. He ranked second in a 2011 poll on who the Japanese people thought was the best guitarist to represent Japan. An iconic artist in his native Japan, he moved to London in 2005 and continues to perform and release music globally. Hotei’s song “Battle Without Honor or Humanity” has been featured in numerous films, commercials, video games, and events, including Quentin Tarantino’s feature film Kill Bill. (source)
Yamasaki Masayoshi (山崎まさよし)
Masayoshi Yamazaki is a Japanese singer-songwriter who plays guitar-driven blues, rock, and pop music, though he has also recorded piano ballads. Though he primarily plays the guitar, he has played the drums, piano, percussion, saxophone, and glockenspiel on some albums.
He released his second album in 1997, which contained his breakout and most famous single “One More Time, One More Chance.” This song was used in Makoto Shinkai’s anime film 5 Centimeters per Second. In September 2002, he performed the Beatles song “All My Loving” for Sir Paul McCartney. (source)
YUI
Yui, born March 26, 1987, is a Japanese singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and actress. In her solo career, she sold more than 5 million physical copies in Japan. She is popular in Japan and in surrounding countries, ranking number one in 2011 Count Down TV “Dearest Female Artist” and Music Station “Artist You Most Want to Marry” polls, as well as Radio Television Hong Kong’s “Most Popular Japanese Artist”.
Born and raised in Fukuoka prefecture, she played live at various locations in her hometown before being noticed by Sony Music Japan when she was 17 years old, and released her debut single months later. Her singles, however, were only met with moderate success until the breakout “Good-bye Days“, which charted for 44 weeks on Oricon and marked her as one of the Japanese music industry’s rising stars.
Since Yui’s debut album, From Me to You, each of her soloist album releases has topped the charts, with at least one single reaching number one on the Oricon charts from 2007 until her second hiatus in 2012, including five straight from mid-2008 to late 2010. After retiring from music as a soloist in 2012, she formed the band Flower Flower in 2013. She has a very interesting background, so I recommend reading the full story here.
Yuuri (優里)
Yuuri began his singing career as a vocalist for the four-man rock band, The Bugzy, until they disbanded in May 2019. After the group’s disbandment, he began performing live on the streets of Tokyo.
On October 10, 2019, Yuuri was singing “Hana” by My First Story at the scrambled intersection in Shibuya, and Hiro, the vocalist of the band, jumped in and sang with him. After this incident, Yuuri was called out from the crowd to perform spontaneously for the encore final performance in Saitama Super Arena as a part of their country-wide tour “My First Story Tour 2019.”
Yuuri’s originally composed “Kakurenbo” whose recording was supervised by Hiro and My First Story’s “Hana” were performed together. On December 1, Yuuri released “Kakurenbo” independently. It ranked in 4th place on the general chart on iTunes Japan, and the music video garnered over 40 million views.
On February 28, 2020 he released his second independent song, titled “Kagome“, which later topped the USEN indies chart on March 18. He made his official debut with Sony Music on August 9 with his single “Peter Pan“. On October 25, his second major single, “Dry Flower” was released.
On February 1, 2021 “Dry Flower” exceeded over 100 million streams on the Streaming Songs chart on Billboard Japan. He achieved this number after charting for 13 weeks, becoming the first solo male artist to achieve this. On March 22, 2021, “Kakurenbo” also exceeded over 100 million streams on Billboard Japan’s Streaming Songs chart. It is the first time in Billboard Japan history for an artist to have two songs exceed 100 million streams only 8 months after their major debut.
On September 1, 2021, “Dry Flower” exceeded 400 million streams on Billboard Japan’s Streaming Songs chart. Since it exceeded 400 million streams within 44 weeks of charting, Yuuri became the first and fastest solo male artist to achieve this record, and the second artist overall following BTS’ “Dynamite.” He also became the first Japanese artist and solo male artist to exceed 500 million streams on December 22, 2021. (source).
YeYe
Natsuko Hashiguchi was born in 1989. She started playing the piano in elementary school, but she stopped almost immediately. Later, thanks to the influence of her three older brothers, she started playing guitar around fifth grade and electronic drums after entering middle school. In high school she studied for a year in New Zealand, this experience was put to good use in writing and singing in English. She claimed to have made her first song about her when she was in high school.
He started solo activity in 2010 under his real name. The following year she changed her name to YeYe (which means grandfather in Chinese). The debut album, Asa or ake dashite, yoru or tojiru made, was released by CAPTAIN HOUSE REC’S in 2011, and she won the Best New Artist Award at the CD Shop Awards for the same work.
After moving to the label Rallye Label released in 2013 the second album Hue Circle and in 2016 the third album Hito , she also collaborated with Gotch (a member of ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION), Fullkawa Honpo and Hiroshi Takano and provided music for commercials.
After moving to Melbourne, Australia, she released Mottainai in 2017. In the same year, she provided the theme song for “Love and Goodbye and Hawaii” film directed by Shingo Matsumura. In 2020 she released her fifth album Di lei 30, the name of the album refers to the age of the singer. From 2020 to 2021 you have published songs in collaboration with Fumitake Ezaki, Motoi Kawabe ( Mitsume ) and BASI. (source).
Yuzu (ゆず)
To end this list, I’m going to bring up a songwriting guitar duo. Yuzu debuted in 1997 and their members are Yūjin Kitagawa (北川悠仁) and Kōji Iwasawa (岩沢厚治). Their songs “Hyōri Ittai“, “Reason“, and “Nagareboshi Kirari” were used as ending themes of the 2011 anime series Hunter × Hunter.
Yuzu started out as street musicians. At first, the band’s name was “Light’s”, but Kitagawa disliked it, so they changed the name to “Yuzu”. At that time, Kitagawa was eating a yuzu sherbet, so he named the band after the fruit. (source).
Conclusion
Hope you all discovered new artists that you can gain inspiration from. While I knew quite a few of these, it was also fun learning about other artists. I love that in their backstories, many of them simply applied for a competition or were busking on the street and now they have full on careers. I have come across many upcoming guitarists as well.
Were there any big songwriters that I missed? Any songwriting guitarists you personally love and look up to? Leave them in the comments below.
And if you’re interested in more articles like this one, be sure to check out my articles on Why Japanese Music Sounds so Different, Interviews & Advice from Japanese Guitarists, and Japanese Song Structure Insights. I have compiled all my articles on my Japanese Music Resources page.
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