2025 - My favourite Japanese records and CDs

Hi everyone. RPD here.

I'm not a music expert. I don't know music theory, composition, nor know how to play any instruments. But I listen to a lot of music.

When I first moved out of Japan back to Europe, I lost access to my Japanese spotify account and was unable to easily listen to many of my favourite artists. I used to be very pro-streaming, but after that I realized how important it is to actually own the music you enjoy. 

This year, after moving 5 times across 3 countries, it seems like things have finally settled. I knew what I wanted—a turntable, a CD player and a journey to rediscover Japanese music. There's still plenty I don't know, but I wanted to commemorate the end of the year with an article looking back to my favourite albums of the year.

There's so many I left out, and ranking them wouldn't feel OK, so I'll just go over them by release date.　I'll leave a Youtube link for those who are available. If you enjoy listening to City Pop/AOR/J-Pop, I'm sure you'll find something of your liking here!

Taeko Ohnuki - Grey Skies (1979)

I have particularly fond memories of this one, as I bought it on my first trip to a record store. I remember searching through the boxes, not really able to read most of the artist names, I ended up asking the store clerk if he had anything of the artists I liked, while showing him my old spotify playlists. He went on a backroom, brought out a bunch of boxes and started searching through his unsorted materials. He didn't have of the exact ones I had saved, but he pulled this one, as well as Awakening from Hiroshi Sato (also in this article) as he thought I may like them. Oh, he was right!

Taeko Ohnuki is known as one of the pioneers of the City Pop genre, mostly known by her album Sunshower. This is her first album. Quite jazzy, perfect for a chill morning with a toast and coffee!

Tatsuro Yamashita - Moonglow (1979)

The guy is as anti-streaming as it gets, and at least in Japan you must buy a physical copy of his works to listen to them. Both Spotify and Apple Music have absolutely nothing. On Youtube, he is the Noel of Japanese pop, and will take down your video if he finds it. If you're able to find this album somewhere on the web, don't say it too loudly.

In any case, the guy is onto something. He is famous in Japan for being extremely particular about his sound. His vinyl and CD masters are spotless, and I heard from a friend that works in the industry that his live sessions are extremely good. He even has his own record label (Moon records) so he can release exactly what he wants.

There's several albums from him which I enjoyed, including Sonorite and Circus Town, but I think Moonglow takes the crown. The coherence within each album is impressive and really rewards you for listening from start to finish. I can't say much more, if you have a chance to listen to his songs, do so.

Minako Yoshida - Monochrome (1980)

Minako Yoshida is a major songwriter of the 80s/90s in Japan. If you check her wikipedia page you'll be surprised at how many big names are there. Nowadays she's mostly known within City Pop fan circles for her solo works, which at the time didn't sell much. That makes her LPs quite scarce and expensive, which only adds to the aura of mystery she already has. In her solo works she likes setting the mood for her songs and has no restraint at making them long and progressive. For some people this may feel drawn out. It's definitely a love it or hate it thing.

The album I have is Monochrome. Probably the most famous song here is Midnight Driver, but my favorites are Rainy Day and Sunset. How she uses the tension build up and instruments as metaphors of nature is incredibly satisfying.

Mai Yamane - Tasogare (1980)

This album got quite known after Playboi Carti sampled the main song of the album, Tasogare. How he found it? No clue. Is Playboi Carti secretly a massive Japanese music connoisseur? Doubt it. In any case, I had a good month I couldn't stop replaying this song. Mai's deep voice paired with the great mastering of the drums on this track makes it quite an addictive listen.

Hiroshi Sato - Awakening (1982)

Another vinyl with an absolutely spotless master. When I want to demo to a friend how good my table/speaker setup sounds, I use this record. The third track, Blue and Moody Music, is something else.

Yutaka Ozaki - Seventeen's Map (1983)

Another album super hard to listen to online. On Youtube you can only find videos from his lives, which are amazing, but the studio sound of Yutaka Ozaki is also worth listening to. Yutaka Ozaki is, sadly, famous for his tragic death at only 26 years old. Another album for which I can only say, listen to it if you can, it's a worthy legacy.

Yasuko Agawa - All Right With Me (1985)

Yasuko Agawa is one of the pioneers of Jazz in Japan. Japanese people singing in English can be a bit of a hit or miss, but she's definitely a hit. Her most famous album is Gravy, but I'm particularly fond of this one. By the way, I discovered her because I saw this jacket at a shop and thought this particular cover art looked great lol.

Akina Nakamori - Crimson (1986)

Akina Nakamori has been one of my favourite artists since I was in university. I was never too intentional with my listens, as it was mostly Spotify shuffle and recommended. After moving back to Europe, Akina was one of the only artists I was able to find the full discography online, and I started listening to her works in order. Her evolution is crystal clear when you do so—from the early idol songs in which she talks about how she can only date someone with a compatible blood type to her (yes, Japan's weird) to her later transition to a more fully fledged artist.

Most people consider Crimson to be her best album, and I never got why. The vocals are muddied by post production effects, not as much as in Fushigi but still enough to make it somewhat unpleasant to me. Why would you do so, when you have such a beautiful voice?

The answer is simple—depression. She was going through a heartbreak, borderline harassing campaign, from someone who used to be the love of her life. It wouldn't be more than two years from the release of Crimson to the point she would try to take her life. This is how she felt. All lyrics and songwriting here are done by women (hey, even Minako Yoshida is here!), and that gives the album such a particular vibe. In retrospect, it is indeed her best work.

Meiko Nakahara - Moods (1986)

While living in Europe I had a time in which I was nonstop listening to Meiko's works on Youtube. In particular I really like the song So Shine. After moving, this album was one of the ones I was the most excited about to get.

Moritaka Chisato - Mi-ha (1988)

In Japan, the year CDs were becoming mainstream was 1988. That year, CDs and vinyl records were both sold in stores, but records sales were incredibly low. That makes most records from that year stupid rare and expensive. I feel quite lucky to have found this impeccable copy of Mi-Ha (Copycat) from Chisato Moritaka.

I guess everyone has their own read on what happened with idols in Japan in the 80s and 90s, but mine is the following. Momoe Yamaguchi, Seiko Matsuda and Akina Nakamori were so massive at the time that trying to compete with them in the same vector was meaningless. Chisato Moritaka's first album is rather unremarkable, but this second one is different. The synth-pop vibe is much stronger, but most importantly, one of the songs is written by her. That was unheard in Japan at the time—idols should be just cute faces and nice voices for the masses, they don't make the songs! Mi-ha- isn't a particularly well written or well composed song. It's unrefined, the musical equivalent of the drawing that you get from a kid. But that's exactly what makes it fun, quirky and new! The song was a hit, and her next album, Mite, would go on to be completely self-written.

Mari Hamada - Anti Heroine (1993)

I've never been super into rock, but there's something about Mari Hamada that makes her very enjoyable for me to listen to. I'll tell you what, it's definitely not her taste for album covers, which are the tackiest in my shelf (is it on purpose? I wonder).

Boa - The Race of a Thousand Camels (1998)

It's been a while I haven't watched anime, but when I was learning Japanese I did watch a lot. My favorite by far is Serial Experiments Lain. I wouldn't call it techno-optimism nor techno-pessimism, it feels to me more like techno-uncertainty. But even to this day I'm amazed someone in the early 2000s was able to look at a new technology like the internet and make a series so, so spot on with how things would turn out. If you like anime and have never watched this one, definitely give it a shot as it's a classic.

This album contains the opening theme of the anime, Duvet. I bought this CD just because of that song, but I was caught off-guard by the whole album being good. The whole album has this early 2000s moody and uncertain feel, yet clean sound, that makes it so matching to the anime.

Naoko Gushima - Mellow Medicine (1999)

This was one of those mythical-level pulls from the Youtube algorithm, that then I went on to search in physical form. You'll most probably never come across this artist in a physical shop, and no Japanese person that isn't an AOR fan will know about her. I find it such a shame, she has an absolute no-skip discography and ended up distancing herself from music after this album, probably because of the low sales. In recent years, thanks to the influence of Youtube she's come back and released a few new singles.

Uwanosora - Yogiri (2019)

For the last album of the list, I'm ending it with a mythical record store pull. When I want to disconnect I just go to some second hand record store and start listening to random albums I find on the shelf. This one froze me, how is it so good? The production is impeccable, but the vocals as well. Then I found that the group only has 4000 followers on Youtube, and less than half on Instagram. Come on...
When I find artists like this I wonder how many of them are actually able to make a living out of it. I wonder how much impact a subscription, a CD sale, a blog post can have on them. Could I be the difference between this people making a living out of music or quitting? I don't know, but I hope so.

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Thanks for reading until the end! It was a bit of a different article but I hope you enjoyed it. There's more pen spinning content to come in 2026 for sure.