What comes to mind when you hear the word “youth”? For some, it’s the club activities or studies you poured your heart into; for others, the friends you spent joyful days with, or a straightforward, mutual romance—the images differ from person to person.
In this article, we’ll introduce many songs themed around different scenes of youth.
Among them, we’ve especially picked tracks that can overflow the feelings you’ve kept in your heart and move you to tears.
Be sure to listen while reading the lyrics!
- [Guaranteed to resonate!] Youth songs that strike a chord with teens. Recommended coming-of-age tracks.
- [For adults too] Youth songs that let you look back on your memories
- A collection of songs you’ll want to listen to when retiring from your school club [Youth]
- Club Activity Youth Songs: Motivational Anthems and Timeless Tracks of Memories with Teammates
- A classic, bittersweet youth song. Recommended popular tracks.
- A youth song with great lyrics. A lovely message that stays with your heart.
- [A moving friendship song] For dear friends and best friends. Songs of friendship that make you feel the bond.
- [Clubs, Friendship, Romance] Youth songs middle schoolers should listen to
- Packed with everything from friendship to romance! Youth anthems recommended for Gen Z
- A poignant masterpiece that sings of adolescence. Popular songs you’ll want to hear during your teenage years.
- [Tearjerker] Songs that make your heart tremble with tears & moving tracks with lyrics that touch the soul
- Popular Youth Songs Ranking [2026]
- Tear-jerking songs recommended for high school students: classic and popular Japanese hits
Tear-jerking youth songs: Recommended masterpieces and popular tracks (1–10)
If you laugh at the skywacci
This song, wacci’s “Sora ni Waraeba,” was released digitally in 2018.
It was the first single in their four-month consecutive digital release series.
While the word “youth” often carries a pleasant ring and a refreshing image, this track focuses on youth’s shadowy side—the single-minded effort to devote yourself to something, the strong resolve to keep going, believing it will pay off.
Whether it’s club activities or entrance exam prep, hitting walls is part of the struggle, but this coming-of-age song gives you the strength to know that your efforts will never be in vain.
horizonback number
The more carefully you read the lyrics, the more this song, “Suiheisen,” pierces your heart and brings you to tears.
Back number released it as a surprise for high school students who were struggling after the Inter-High School Championships were canceled due to COVID-19.
You often hear the phrase “light and shadow,” but this song gives voice to the pain of being on the shadow side—of feeling like a sacrifice—and at the same time it offers salvation.
It shines a spotlight on feelings that seem impossible to deal with.
While it’s a coming-of-age song, it resonates deeply across generations.
MiracleGReeeeN
Speaking of youth anthems, this song is a must.
Well-known as the theme song for the drama ROOKIES, it’s GReeeeN’s “Kiseki.” Strongly tied to the coming-of-age ensemble drama’s image, it’s a moving song about youth.
Released in 2008 as their seventh single, it’s also one of GReeeeN’s signature tracks.
Not only is it a quintessential youth song, but it’s packed with feelings for many people—especially heartfelt emotions for someone special.
ultramarineYOASOBI
YOASOBI is popular not only among the younger generation but across a wide range of ages.
In 2020, they performed on NHK’s Kōhaku Uta Gassen, which rapidly—and even more—boosted their name recognition.
Ikura’s clear, gentle voice that’s easy on anyone’s ears is a big part of their appeal, and the song “Gunjō” is one that pulls you right in.
The handclap, chorus-like section before the hook and the build-up into the chorus drive the song higher and higher.
“Gunjō” means a vivid blue; it’s a perfect youth anthem in that color, a song you’d want to dedicate to people who channel pain and frustration into strength and keep pushing forward.
It doesn’t meltmakaroni enpitsu
They made their major debut in 2020.
“Tokenai” is included on their major debut EP, “Ai o Shirazu ni Mahō wa Tsukaenai,” released in November.
When people talk about youth, they often picture something sparkling and radiant—but that’s an image seen from the perspective of those who’ve already moved past it.
For the people actually going through it, it’s a highly sensitive time filled with worries and confusion on the path to becoming an adult.
This song portrays that gloomy, back-and-forth emotional state, and for anyone feeling something similar, it really hits home—piercing right where it hurts.
Youth SicknessFuji Kaze
This song, aptly titled “Seishun-byo” (Youth Sickness), feels like a quintessential Fujii Kaze coming-of-age anthem.
The title might make you expect something breezy, and it is easy to be swayed by that freshness, but if you listen closely, it sounds like a song about parting ways with youth.
Youth is a vague concept we tend to equate with being young, and this track slices through that vagueness, urging you to take a step forward.
It’s a slightly unconventional youth song that I’d especially like those in that hazy in-between—caught between being a child and an adult—to hear.
Gray and Blue (+Masaki Suda)Yonezu Kenshi
Both Kenshi Yonezu and Masaki Suda are artists whose every release becomes a hot topic.
This song is a collaboration between the two, and it’s easy to see why it’s been a long-running hit.
It’s included on Kenshi Yonezu’s fourth album, BOOTLEG, released in 2017.
With a nostalgic feel that looks back on the past and brings to mind one’s youth, it’s the kind of track that may suddenly make many listeners think of someone.
It’s a song that grips you, as if awakening feelings that had been sleeping deep in your heart.