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We simply cannot accept the results and now feel compelled to rectify this grievous generational lack of knowledge among the youth of Japan.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n As far as legendary solo singer-songwriters of Japan<\/strong> go, perhaps no one is higher on the list than Masaharu Fukuyama (\u798f\u5c71 \u96c5\u6cbb), <\/strong>nicknamed Masha<\/strong>, who turned 57 years old earlier this month. Known for his myriad of accolades in the entertainment industry including his prolific acting career, Fukuyama<\/strong> is THE celebrity of choice that the vast majority of middle-aged and older Japanese women are infatuated with (though his unrivaled popularity extends beyond gender as shown by his successful male-only and female-only concert runs in 2014). That\u2019s why my brain simply couldn\u2019t process what I was reading when I saw the headline of a recent research survey concluding that about one in five current high school students in Japan don\u2019t even know who he is.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u25bc \u201cWhaddaya mean they don\u2019t know who he is?!\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s like this\u2013think of the most famous solo musician\/singer in your country, and then try to imagine members of Gen Z drawing blank stares when you say their name. The headline was in fact so shocking\u2013and downright disturbing\u2013to me that I promptly messaged some Japanese friends who were born in the Showa period (1926-1989)<\/strong> or early years of the Heisei period (1989-2019).\u00a0<\/strong>Their reactions matched my incredulity:<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s ridiculous.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI mean, how can that be possible???\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cMy mom and aunt will die of shock when they hear the news.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n And yet, that\u2019s exactly what Japanese marketing website Wakaimono Research<\/strong> concluded after distributing a survey last month to 343 current high school students<\/strong>\u2013both male and female-identifying\u2013in Japan. The initial question the research team posed was as follows:<\/p>\n Do you listen to Masaharu Fukuyama\u2019s music?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u25cf Yes, I listen to him\u201359.5 percent<\/strong> Based on the comments of the \u201cNo, I don\u2019t listen to him\u201d camp that indicated a lack of any recognition of Fukuyama, the research team was able to calculate that 19 percent\u2013or about one in five\u2013of all survey respondents didn\u2019t even know who he is.<\/strong><\/p>\n For further context\u2013we\u2019re talking about the same Fukuyama who, in September 2015, inadvertently created whole new entries in the Japanese lexicon for \u201cFukuyama Shock\u201d<\/strong> and \u201cMasha Loss\u201d<\/strong> when he announced his marriage after enjoying a long life of bachelorhood up until then. News outlets across the country reported that many single women left work early because they were so in shock that they couldn\u2019t focus on anything, subsequently drowning their sorrows by drinking or impulse buying expensive things like new apartments. Current high school students were likely in preschool when this news broke, so they probably weren\u2019t even aware of the unique phenomenon as it was unfolding.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u25bc We\u2019re not sure which is more devastating\u2013reliving the emotions that came with the news of Fukuyama\u2019s marriage, or realizing when exactly today\u2019s high school students were born\u2026<\/p>\n OK, so by coming to terms with that last point everything starts to make sense, even if it doesn\u2019t make me me feel any better.<\/p>\n In fact, among those survey respondents who noted that they listen to Fukuyama\u2019s music, many of them noted that they became familiar with his music because their parents often play his songs (especially while driving in the car). Fukuyama\u2019s melodies and arrangements\u2013even those of his most recent works\u2013are certainly reminiscent of times past and are a far cry from the catchy idol tunes<\/a> and K-pop that today\u2019s youth tend to gravitate to.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, Wakaimono Research was determined to dig a bit deeper, and so it uncovered which of Fukuyama\u2019s songs are most popular among the current high school students that are familiar with him. While some of his biggest overall hits such as \u201cSakurazaka\u201d and \u201cHello\u201d made the list, it\u2019s a bit surprising that neither of them clinched the number-one spot. The results are summarized below.<\/p>\n What are your favorite Masaharu Fukuyama songs?<\/strong><\/p>\n 7. \u201cHello\u201d (1995)\u20133.2 percent<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cHello\u201d is the oldest song on this list, serving as Fukuyama\u2019s 10th single. Its cumulative CD sales of about 1.87 million made it his second biggest hit after \u201cSakurazaka.\u201d<\/p>\n\n 6. \u201cSobo\u201d \/ \u201cLonging\u201d (2023)\u20133.8 percent<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cSobo\u201d was a digital single released in 2023 which served as the theme song to the time-traveling live-action film Ano Hana ga Saku Oka de, Kimi to Mata Deaetara <\/em>(English title: Till We Meet Again on the Lily Hill<\/em>) of the same year.<\/p>\n\n 5. \u201cMokusei\u201d feat. Koshi Inaba \/ \u201cJupiter\u201d feat. Koshi Inaba (2025)\u20135 percent<\/strong><\/p>\n The newest song on this list, \u201cMokusei\u201d was released as a digital single on Christmas Eve of last year as a special collaboration with Koshi Inaba<\/strong>, the vocalist of best-selling J-rock duo B\u2019z<\/strong><\/a>. The two also performed the song on last year\u2019s Kohaku Uta Gassen<\/em>, a longstanding singing competition show held annually on New Year\u2019s Eve. It was the theme song of the film The Last Man -First Love-<\/em>, also released on Christmas Eve.<\/p>\n\n 4. \u201cKusunoki ~ Gohyakunen no Kaze ni Fukarete\u201d \/ \u201cCamphor Trees ~ Blown by 500 Years of Wind\u201d (2025)\u20136.7 percent<\/strong><\/p>\n Released last summer as a digital single, this song is a rearranged version of his 2014 single \u201cKusunoki.\u201d As the child of survivors of the 1945 bombing of Nagasaki, Fukuyama donated the funds from this song to help preserve the city\u2019s camphor trees that also survived the nuclear blast.<\/p>\n\n 3. \u201cNiji\u201d \/ \u201cRainbow\u201d (2003)\u201314 percent<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cNiji\u201d is definitely one of Fukuyama\u2019s most popular works, first released as part of a triple A-side single and used as the theme song of the hit TV drama Water Boys <\/em>and its sequel.<\/p>\n\n 2. \u201cSakurazaka\u201d \/ \u201cCherry Blossom Slope\u201d (2000)\u201316 percent<\/strong><\/p>\n Anyone of a slightly older demographic would likely choose \u201cSakurazaka\u201d as Fukuyama\u2019s representative work, having sold about 2.3 million CDs at the time of its release, making it his best-selling single. Keep an ear out for it if you\u2019re ever walking around Japan during springtime.<\/p>\n\n 1. \u201cKazoku ni Narou yo\u201d \/ \u201cLet\u2019s Become Family\u201d (2011)\u201329.4 percent<\/strong><\/p>\n Gen Z likely got to know this song after it was featured in a commercial for wedding magazine Zexy <\/em>and was sung as the White Team\u2019s final song on 2020\u2019s Kohaku Uta Gassen<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n In summary, while I still can\u2019t quite accept the fact that a growing chunk of Japan\u2019s population isn\u2019t acquainted with one of its biggest stars, I CAN turn my disbelief into action and do something about it. If you have any contact with the youth of Japan, we humbly ask that you also help in spreading Fukuyama Awareness. Perhaps it\u2019s time to start preemptively educating the children about other Heisei-period legends of the Japanese music scene<\/a> as well.<\/p>\n Reference: PR Times<\/a><\/em> We simply cannot accept the results and now feel compelled to rectify this grievous generational lack of knowledge among the youth of Japan. As far as legendary solo singer-songwriters of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4730\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/guitar-2.jpg?w=640\")
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\n\u25cf No, I don\u2019t listen to him\u201340.5 percent<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/guitar3.jpg?w=640\")
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\nTop image: Pakutaso<\/a><\/em>
\nInsert images: Pakutaso (1<\/a>, 2<\/a>)<\/em>
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