[Hidden Gems] A Collection of Songs About Part-Time Jobs: Music That Resonates with Working People

We set out on a journey again.Takehara Pisutoru

Takihara Pistol: We Set Out on a Journey Again

When you’re short on money and you start looking for a part-time job, that’s amateur hour.

Those words pierce the heart in this underrated, shadowy gem by Pistol Takehara.

Unlike an amida lottery, you can’t advance in a tournament unless you win—this is a heavy track that could only come from Mr.

Takehara, who’s lived a life like that.

Baito Royalemisokkasu

Baito Royale

A track that single-handedly serves as an antithesis to the modern age, expressing the realities of the so-called working poor through aggressive guitar riffs and lyrics.

While a theme like this tends to skew dark and negative, the band’s innate performance and vocal prowess elevate it, making the expression truly work.

byte / part-time jobThe Misspergers

byte / part-time job

“This isn’t what the job listing promised!” This track by The Misspergers depicts the pent-up frustration of a part-time worker being spit out like a curse in rap form.

Billing themselves as a “work-drone dance! mad-song rock band,” their lyrics speak the raw truths of working people and have struck a chord with many.

This song appears on the EP ‘Long Live Labor,’ released in December 2023.

Despite its breezy four-on-the-floor beat, the biting lyrics that slam the bait-and-switch treatment leave a powerful impression through their stark contrast.

On nights when you trudge home feeling wronged, put this on and you might just feel that strange spark of energy—‘Guess I’ll manage to get through tomorrow too!’

2 a.m. and a highballnakigoto

2 a.m. and a highball

On the way home after a shift, the 2 a.m.

air mingles with the languor of a highball.

It’s a song about a night like that—one almost everyone has lived—by the female rock duo Nakigoto.

Written by Emiri Minakami with the aim of creating a “song that saves,” it beautifully captures the delicate moment when, in the depths of dejection, an offhand word from someone close suddenly lifts you up.

First released on the September 2019 mini-album How to Make the Night, it was later re-included on the full-length album NAKIGOTO,.

If you listen on a night when work has drained you and you’re on the verge of losing sight of your own worth, won’t you find yourself in the protagonist, and feel—somehow—that you can get through tomorrow?

DAREDEVILNanahoshi Orchestra

DAREDEVIL

This rock number by the Nanahoshi Orchestra captures the lethargy of repeated night shifts and the frustration with time through a sense of exhilarating speed.

The track channels a rebellious spirit yearning to break free from a dull routine, carried by distorted guitar riffs and GUMI’s razor-sharp vocals.

Its aggressive sound may well mirror the impulse to shatter the status quo that everyone feels at least once.

This is an early fan favorite included on the April 2013 album “MONSTER BEERGARDEN.” Listen to it on your way home after an unfair day at work, and it will blow away the pent-up gloom in your heart and fuel you for tomorrow.

Quit my part-time job.bakkudoroppu shinderera

Quit my part-time job.

The lyrics that give voice to frustrations every worker feels—pressure from colleagues, stagnant hourly wages, workplace relationships—are striking! Set to an irresistibly upbeat ska rhythm, this song blows your worries away in exhilarating fashion.

When the protagonist shouts, “I’m quitting for good!” you can’t help but project your own feelings onto them, and it somehow lifts your spirits.

The track was included on the October 2014 album Cinderella wa Ii Anbai and later selected for the best-of compilation BEST desu, making it a fan favorite! If you let yourself ride the song’s sense of speed, the stress built up from work might just become something you can laugh off.

As you listen to the whole band’s call-and-response, try shouting out your pent-up feelings together!

How do I look to you when you think back to those days?gagaga supi

How do I look to you, the way I was back then?

A classic by Gagaga SP that captures vocalist Maeda’s feelings from his youth, when part-time jobs weren’t going well and school life was nothing special.

Their emotional guitar sound is as strong as ever, resulting in an engaging, high-energy track.