A collection of classic songs about friends: friendship songs for children
Once children enter kindergarten or nursery school—or even before that—they make close friends, don’t they?
Friends who spend time together from a young age will likely become lifelong best friends.
In this article, we introduce friendship songs you’ll want to listen to with your children.
We’ve gathered songs that depict friendship from among children’s songs, anime theme songs, and trending J-pop that are popular with kids.
Take this opportunity to listen and sing along together and have fun!
Friendship songs for kids: A collection of classic friend-themed hits (1–10)
That’s a friend.Sakushi: Higurashi Shinzou / Sakkyoku: Morimoto Kiyoto
This work stays close to children jumping into a new environment and sings about the wonders of friendship.
Singing it together to the bright melody can be a great way to deepen bonds.
It was selected as the Monthly Song on NHK’s program “Okaasan to Issho” from July to August 2011, and it became popular in the anime “Tomodachi 8-nin” as a song featuring the full cast of characters.
It was included on an album released in October of the same year, as well as on various special compilations, and it remains enduringly popular.
It’s especially recommended for first graders starting their new school lives.
Be sure to listen to this warm message song that cherishes dear friends.
Everyone falls in love with someone.Sakushi: Sakata Osamu / Sakkyoku: Hayashi Akira
This is a song with lyrics by Osamu Sakata and music by Akira Hayashi.
It was featured as the “Song of the Month” on NHK E-TV’s program Okaasan to Issho in February and March 2012, and was included on an album released in October 2012.
The imagery flows from the sky and clouds to people, carrying a warm message that everyone cherishes someone.
Children entering elementary school are often full of anxiety, but listening to this song can encourage them to think, “I’ll try to make friends with the child sitting next to me.” At the entrance ceremony, if everyone sings it as a gift to the new first graders, it might make them feel excited, thinking, “Elementary school is a fun place.”
This is the friend-making factoryKannuim Kumiko
An entrance ceremony is a place where you meet new friends for the first time.
Some children may feel anxious.
This work is aimed at those children, carrying a message to the friends with whom they’ll be spending fun times together.
You can almost feel the warm spring air, and it gives a cozy feeling.
Published as a magazine supplement in April 2014, this song features a very bright and energetic melody that leaves a strong impression.
At an entrance ceremony, you might be sitting next to a child you don’t know at all.
But once you start singing together, before you realize it, you’ve become good friends! It’s also recommended to sing it together with the children to ease the tension of the entrance ceremony.
best friendSG
A song by SG that I want to give to a dear friend.
As the title suggests, it’s a warm message song themed around the bond with a friend deeply connected at heart.
Life brings many partings—graduations, turning points—but this song straightforwardly sings about an unchanging friendship despite distance, and the hope of meeting again.
Released as a single in March 2022, it resonated with many people, ranking high in LINE MUSIC’s real-time music video charts.
Known for “Bokura Mata,” SG penned this track in his own words, offering not only the sorrow of parting but also the courage to look ahead.
It’s perfect as BGM for graduation season, as well as for times when you want to express gratitude that’s hard to say, or when you’re thinking of a friend far away.
Dear.achanyu i
A heartwarming number by Chanyu-i that sings of gratitude to an irreplaceable best friend and a bond that will never change.
It conveys honest feelings toward a friend—someone even more precious than a lover.
Originally released in December 2020, a band arrangement version came out in 2022 and was used as an insert song for a segment on ABEMA’s “High-Teen Bible.” It was written at the request of a best friend during the artist’s early childhood education student days, and the story of how it resonated widely on social media is lovely, isn’t it? This work reminds us anew of the importance of friends who stay by our side in both joyful and difficult times.
Friend’s Songberii guddoman
A passionate number by Bring Good Mann that sings about friendship and bonds that don’t change, even when you’re apart.
The trio’s powerful harmonies and unpretentious words seem enough to blow away any anxieties about a new chapter in life! The lyrics carry a fiery message to a friend you rarely get to see, promising to accept both their complaints and their true feelings.
It’s included on the April 2018 album “SING SING SING 6,” as well as the best-of compilation “BEST BEST BEST.” This track also fired up the venue as the theme song for the “ABC Food & Smile Fes.” It’s a song you’ll want to listen to with a dear friend at the start of spring’s new beginnings—one that makes you want to shout, “How’re you holding up?!” to a friend fighting in a new environment.
proofflumpool
A number by flumpool produced in 2011 as the set piece for the NHK All-Japan School Music Competition (Junior High School Division) and also broadcast on “Minna no Uta.” The bond with friends is something invisible to the eye, but the time spent together and the days of crying and laughing side by side surely remain in our hearts.
This work sings about that unseen yet undeniable certainty that we are companions.
It peaked at No.
4 on the Oricon Weekly Singles Chart and was also included on the album “experience.” Not only the fun times, but even the clashes—everything was necessary to deepen the bond.
It’s a song that gently gives a push to friends facing life’s milestones, such as graduation or moving on to the next stage.