Refashioning Pop Music in Asia

10 Raising the ante of desire

Foreign female singers in a Japanese pop music world

Christine R. Yano

 

 

Let me begin with a puzzle whose pieces interlock seamlessly, yet fit only with great irony. The time is August 1992; the place is Tottori, Japan, a coastal city on the Sea of Japan; the event is a sunset concert by Korean and Japanese pop singers broadcast throughout Japan by NHK (Nihon Hōsō Kyōkai; Japan Public Broadcasting Corporation).¹ With torches blazing and trumpets blaring, the announcer narrates:

The Japan Sea. One ocean containing two countries which from times past had commingled, their emotions running even deeper than the seas. And now, from the shores of Tottori, voices go out in song, and two hearts become one. We present, ...