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A country’s lyrics say a lot about where that country is at culturally. Whether it is American lyrics that call out Japanese designers as a way of expressing socio-economic superiority, or Japanese lyrics about the pre & post-Olympic Tokyo, it’s always interesting to see what is causing people to break into song.
Today we look at three song lyrics by Yasushi Akimoto, polymath producer behind the modern-day mega-girl group idol phenomenon in Japan.
These lyrics show women & girls as being in turn fawning, ditsy and hot for sex. What this says about the Japanese zeitgeist I will leave up to the reader to determine. It’s worth having a look at these though, especially if you are fan of the 48 girl group franchises.
Who is Yasushi Akimoto? 秋元康 Lyrics
Yasushi Akimoto is the man with the midas touch in the Japanese entertainment industry. His activities span the worlds of music, television, novels, anime, even women’s entertainment wrestling. But he’s most well known as the producer, lyricist and co-creator of the outrageously successful “48” groups that started in Akihabara with AKB48 before expanding, rather like a chain of fast-food restaurants, to have franchises across Japan and later across many parts of Asia.
He got his start working as a writer for the broadcaster Nippon Housou in the 70s, and wrote his first lyrics for the pop group The Alfee in the early 80s. He came to greater prominence as producer and lyricist with comedic-sometimes-musical duo Tunnels.
Yasushi Akimoto enters the “idol” trade
But it wasn’t until 1985 that he was to come across the formula that would be his bread and butter, or perhaps caviar and truffles, for the greatest part of his life, the marketing, production and promotion of young girls. Specifically, he hit upon the idea of creating large groups of cute, largely subservient and more or less sexualised teenage idol groups. Starting with the smash-hit group Onyanko Club, and eventually mutating into the gargantuan, factory-like fun-machine that is the 48 phenomenon.
It was an inspired, and lucrative, modus operandi, that allowed an older, somewhat portly, bespectacled man in a suit to have a potentially indefinite lifespan as a provider of fun times, earworms and entertainment.
It was as if Yasushi had discovered the pop “fountain of youth” where he could vicariously live through an ever-changing array of hostess bodies. He was parasite and queen bee rolled into one.
The funny thing was that his product, of the sweet, innocent singing and dancing girl, multiplied by powers of ten, was just what the mostly, but not exclusively, male public needed.
It was also as if large parts of Japan, later the world, were looking for some kind of idealised body corporate to vicariously live out their lives.
Kaori Shoji, on the Japansubculture blog, has gone as far as calling Yasushi a “Zegen” 女衒, which was the term used for the middle-men merchant pimps who bought and sold girls into both the sex trade and entertainment industry half a century ago.
Though I think this characterization goes too far, it is worth looking at, and being aware of, some of the overtly sexist lyrics that he writes and has his girl groups deliver. And we’ll look at three examples today.
セーラー服を脱がさないで (don’t take off my sailor-style school uniform) lyrics
This was the 1985 debut hit for the idol girl group Onyanko Club. The song turned heads at the time with it’s quite straightforward voicing of the somewhat conflicted sexual desires of a school girl – sung as it was by a group of innocent-looking school-age girls. The song voices a “no-means-yes” playing out of women’s sexuality that can still be seen today.
The song is probably more of a cultural phenomenon than its top ranking at number 5 on the Oricon charts might suggest.
セーラー服を脱がさないで
今はダメよ 我慢なさって
セーラー服を脱がさないで
嫌よダメよ こんなところじゃ
Don’t take off my sailor-style school uniform
Not now! Please be patient
Don’t take off my sailor-style school uniform
I don’t want you to, no, not in a place like this
女の子は いつでも
“MI・MI・DO・SHI・MA”（耳年増）
お勉強してるのよ
AH- 毎日
Girls are always
Mi mi do shi ma (acting like they know all about sex)
Everyday
友達より早く
エッチをしたいけど
キスから先に進めない
臆病すぎるの
週刊誌みたいな
エッチをしたいけど
全てをあげてしまうのは
もったいないから…あげない
I want to have sex
Before my friends do
But I’m just so timid
That I find it hard to get past kissing
I want to have sex
Just like the weekly magazines
But going ahead and giving it all to you
Just seems such a waste. So I won’t.
セーラー服を脱がさないで
スカートまでまくれちゃうでしょ
セーラー服を脱がさないで
胸のリボン ほどかないでね
Don’t take off my sailor-style school uniform
You’re going to even lift up my skirt, aren’t you?
Don’t take off my sailor-style school uniform
Don’t untie the ribbon on my breast
男の子はその時
どうなるの?
興味津々 しちゃうのよ
AH- 不思議ね
How do boys get at times like these?
I get so intrigued!
It’s such a mystery
デートに誘われて
バージンじゃ つまらない
パパやママは知らないの
明日の外泊
ちょっぴり恐いけど
バージンじゃ つまらない
おばんになっちゃう その前に
おいしいハートを…食べて
It’s such a bore to be a virgin
When someone asks you on a date
Mum and Dad don’t know
About where I’m staying tomorrow night
I’m a slightly scared
But it’s such a bore to be a virgin
I’m going to be an old maid!
Before I do
Eat out my tasty heart
アインシュタインよりディアナ・アグロン (Forgot about Einstein, How about Dianna Agron) lyrics
Amongst Yasushi Akimoto’s canon of lyrics, these ones written for HKT48 are the reigning kings of portraying women as a bunch of right royal dimwits. The song rightly drew a lot of flak from both international and domestic Japanese media on it’s release.
難しいことは何も考えない
頭からっぽでいい
二足歩行が楽だし
ふわり軽く
風船みたいに生きたいんだ
Don’t try and think of anything demanding
Being empty-headed is just fine
There’s enough comfort in just bipedal walking,
Soft and gentle
I want to live my life like a balloon
女の子は
可愛くなきゃね
学生時代は
おバカでいい
今 一番 大切なことは そう
キャピキャピと
Girls,
They’ve got to be pretty, right?
When you’re a student,
It’s best to be dumb
Thing that matters most for the time being
Is to be bubbly
アインシュタインより
ディアナ・アグロン
テストの点以上
瞳(め)の大きさが気になる
どんなに勉強できても
愛されなきゃ意味がない
スカートをひらひらとさせて
グリーのように
Forgot about Einstein
How about Dianna Agron
I’m more worried about the size of my eyes
Then the marks on my exam
It doesn’t matter how much you study
If nobody loves you
Like the fluttering skirts in Glee
世の中のジョーシキ 何も知らなくても
メイク上手ならいい
ニュースなんか興味ないし
たいていのこと
誰かに助けてもらえばいい
You don’t need to know anything about common knowledge
You just have to be good at doing make-up
I couldn’t give a damn about the news
Whatever happens,
Someone or other will come to your rescue
女の子は
恋が仕事よ
ママになるまで
子供でいい
それよりも重要なことは そう
スベスベの
お肌を保つことでしょう？
Love, is a woman’s job
Until you’re a mum,
Just stay a child
Instead of all that
You should just have to make sure you have nice skin
アインシュタインって
どんな人だっけ？
聞いたことあるけど
本当はよく知らない
教科書 載っていたような
なんか偉い人だった
好きなのはディアナ・アグロン
Who was Einstein again?
I think I’ve heard of him
I don’t really know
He was, like, some great due
In some textbook
But I like Dianna Agron
もっともっともっと
輝きたい
人は見た目が肝心
だってだって
内面は見えない
可愛いは正義よ
チヤホヤされたい
アインシュタインより
ディアナ・アグロン
I want to sparkle
More and more
The way you look to others is important
Because, you know,
What is inside can’t be seen
Cuteness is righteousness!
I want to be pampered
Less like Einstein
Than Dianna Agron
テストの点以上
瞳(め)の大きさが気になる
どんなに勉強できても
愛されなきゃ意味がない
スカートをひらひらとさせて
グリーのように
I’m more worried about the size of my eyes
Than the score on my test
It doesn’t matter how much you study
If nobody loves you
Like the fluttering skirts in Glee
君に叱られた
This is the newest entry in Yasushi’s unflattering portrayals of women. It was written for Nogizaka 46 and reached number 1 on the Oricon charts. Full lyrics of kimi ni shikarareta are here, but here are a couple of excerpts.
“ずっと素直になれなくてごめん
言い負かされて悔しいけれど
一人きりじゃ 何もできない
言葉が 言葉が刺さってるのに
反論しても無駄な抵抗だ
プライドなんかどうでもいいよ
それより僕は 君に叱られて嬉しい
Though it hurts to be talked down to
I can’t do anything on my own.
For some reason, even though our words as so piercing
Even if I try and argue, it’s just a hopeless resistance
Who cares about pride?
Rather than that, it makes me happy when you set me straight”
“愛は甘えられるもの 許してくれるもの
だからいつだって 一方的だった
やりたいようにやっては 誰か傷つけて来たのか
例えば世界にたった一人の君には
叱ってもらいたい
Love is being spoilt rotten, and being forgiving
And for that very reason, it’s been so one-sided
Doing whatever I want, maybe I was always hurting someone?
Even though there is only one of you in this world
I want you to scold me.”