My heart aches with bittersweet pain! Breakup songs I’d recommend to Gen Z
Timeless masterpieces about heartbreak have always existed in the J-POP scene.Listening can heal you, make you empathize without even realizing it, or even let you dive headfirst into your sadness—love and music are deeply connected, aren’t they?So this time, we’re introducing heartbreak songs we recommend for Gen Z!From well-known hits to hidden gems, we hope you’ll find tracks that resonate with you.
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- Breakup songs sung by male artists that I’d recommend to Gen Z
- Recommended breakup songs for high school students: classic and popular J-pop tracks
- Recommended heartbreak songs for women in their 40s: classic and popular Japanese hits
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- Recommended breakup songs for women in their 50s: classic and popular Japanese tracks
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- For men in their 30s: Heart-touching breakup songs—masterpieces that can move grown men to tears
- Heisei-era heartbreak songs: A roundup of classic tracks from the ’90s to the 2010s
- Only masterpieces that color the season of meetings and farewells! Spring songs recommended for Gen Z.
My chest tightens with heartbreak! Breakup songs I want to recommend to Gen Z (21–30)
Night of Osmanthuskinoko teikoku
A song by Kinoko Teikoku that continues to captivate fans with its uniquely immersive world.
Featured on the album “Time Lapse,” this track seeps into the heart with its dreamy guitar sound and wistful vocals.
Its lyrics, which recall tangled feelings for someone you’ve parted with—revived along with the scent of fragrant olive—stir that distinctly autumnal sentimentality.
The beautiful yet melancholic ensemble invites you to sink into the chill of the season—a rock tune overflowing with bittersweet emotion.
Released in September 2018, the track is included on the album commemorating the band’s 10th anniversary.
LAST NOTEWashio Reina
It’s a song that lets you sink into a quiet, profound afterglow, like watching the end credits of a film.
This piece closes out Reina Washio’s mini-album “freivor,” released in November 2025.
As the final installment of a trilogy themed around perfume, it delicately portrays the feeling of not forcibly erasing past loves or painful memories, but gently accepting them—like a scent that lingers on the skin.
Telling yourself “I’m okay now” as you try to face forward and walk on alone—that image is truly moving.
Why not give it a listen on a quiet night when you want to spend time with yourself?
rendezvousshaitoopu
The rock band Shytone, which rose to prominence after a viral hit on social media, released a signature track in April 2023 that sings of a man’s searing emotions after a breakup.
Unable to accept parting from someone he loved deeply, he longs for an impossible reunion; the loneliness of his lover’s traces fading from everyday life is expressed through vocalist So Sasaki’s superb word choices—so moving you might be brought to tears.
The song is also known for surpassing 100 million total streams in November 2023 and is included on the album “Hors d’œuvre.” Why not entrust your heart to its somehow comforting melody that stirs up those bittersweet feelings?
Stars are falling.Senchimirimentaru
This is a winter ballad that sings of lingering feelings for a former lover.
Released by Centimillimental in November 2025, the song was written as the commercial theme for the Laguna Illumination “Carnival of Light and Water,” held at the Laguna Ten Bosch resort in Gamagori, Aichi Prefecture.
Grand piano-and-strings arrangements are layered with Atsushi’s delicate vocals to paint a poignant world where longing and bravado intersect.
The protagonist, torn between wishing happiness for the person they parted from and emotions that won’t fade, resonates powerfully alongside the image of lights pouring down the winter night sky.
It’s a track I especially recommend to anyone trying to face forward after a heartbreak.
Lilia.Watashi janakattanda ne.
Singer-songwriter Riria, who rose to popularity after posting acoustic performances on social media.
Released in October 2021, this song is a ballad that vividly portrays the pain of heartbreak and lingering feelings.
The lyrics, like an inner monologue, confess how the other person’s kindness only ends up causing more pain—listening makes your chest tighten.
You’ll be drawn in by the sound built around the interplay of gentle piano and guitar, Riria’s fragile vocals, and a late key change that unleashes a rush of emotion.
Take a relaxed posture and give it a listen.
Best-before date of lovetuki.
While sensing the end of love, they still can’t let go of their affection for the other person.
This song by tuki.
portrays that contradictory heart with painfully raw realism.
Frustrated by miscommunication over social media, yet feeling happy just to be by their side—the protagonist’s feelings will inevitably tighten the listener’s chest.
Released in September 2024, exactly one year after the striking debut “Bansanka,” this work is an answer song.
With other tracks featured in PlayStation 5 commercials, tuki.’s unique world continues to captivate many.
If you’ve ever experienced the aching loneliness of a relationship slowly cooling, you’ll surely resonate deeply.
On nights when you’re bewildered by love that’s changing, why not quietly align your heart with this song, alone?
One More Time (feat. NØZ)torain
A Gen Z rapper from Hiroshima, Koin—known for the phrase “Obazuri mōshiagemasu”—teams up with R&B singer NØZ on this track, a poignant love song that stands apart from his usual viral-leaning style.
Its straightforward plea—asking a lover on the verge of leaving to stay by their side just once more—hits straight to the heart.
Over a gentle, mid-tempo track, Koin’s melodic rap weaves with NØZ’s soft vocals, resulting in a work that transcends the boundary between hip-hop and J-pop.
Since its 2022 release, it’s been selected for LINE MUSIC’s year-end J-rap playlist and used over 20,000 times on video apps, capturing the hearts of the social media generation.
It’s the song to play when you’re not quite ready to accept the end of a romance.