A collection of romance-themed songs. Let’s listen to some Japanese love songs.

Too late caution＝LOVE

=LOVE (Equal Love) / 3rd Single “Too Late Caution” [MV full]

The title track of =LOVE’s 3rd single, depicting a forbidden romance set at an all-girls school.

Released in May 2018, it reached No.

3 on the Oricon Weekly Singles Chart.

Producer Rino Sashihara penned the lyrics, weaving tense, gripping words to portray a girl’s turmoil as she wavers between society’s “rightness” and an uncontrollable love.

Why not give it a listen when you’re harboring feelings you can’t tell anyone about?

Last Love Lettermoon drop

moon drop [Last Love Letter] Music Video

From an intro that bursts with the sweet tang of youth and sets your heart dancing, this is the quintessential popular number by moon drop.

Many listeners are sure to feel their chests tighten at the lyrics’ worldview, where the frustration of unrequited love and unspoken feelings intersect.

The track is included on their first full-length album, “Kono Tenohira ga Mada Kimi o Oboete Iru,” released in January 2022.

It was also used as a CM song for Honda Cars, broadcast across seven prefectures in the Chubu region, including Aichi and Mie, so plenty of people have likely heard its refreshing melody on TV.

This song sets indecisive feelings toward someone you love and a premonition of love’s end to an easygoing beat.

It’s perfect not only for students swaying with tender crushes, but also for anyone who wants to bask in bittersweet memories from the past.

A lifetime’s worth of love lettersUsotsuki

Usotsuki – A Lifetime’s Worth of Love Letters (MV) @USOTSUKI_DA

Usotsuki, who deliver down-to-earth music as a “royal-road uta-mono band,” included this song as the title track on their mini album “Isshobun no Love Letter,” released in July 2016.

If love has an expiration date, then you can fall in love over and over and tell your feelings each time.

Written with that reversal of perspective, this message of a lifelong vow makes it a perfect song for special moments like proposals and weddings.

The music video features actor Ikkei Watanabe and became a hot topic for its moving, drama-style story.

It’s a warm, heart-stirring love song that reminds you of the happiness of meeting someone special and growing old together.

Just A Lil Bit Feat. Sik-KJP THE WAVY

JP THE WAVY – Just A Lil Bit Feat. Sik-K(Official Music Video)

Released in January 2019, this mellow Japan–Korea collaboration features the popular Korean rapper Sik-K.

It portrays the aching feelings of wavering between lingering attachment to an ex and the reality that there’s no going back, interweaving Japanese and Korean lyrics.

JP THE WAVY’s melodious flow that shifts between singing and rapping intertwines perfectly with Sik-K’s singing-rap, creating a smooth, pleasing groove.

The track was also included on the April 2020 album “LIFE IS WAVY,” and later served as a springboard to their 2023 follow-up collaboration, “I.Y.A feat.

Sik-K.” Recommended for anyone who wants to feel the universality of love that transcends language and borders, and for fans of mellow hip-hop.

Ms. U feat. idom & SALUKvi Baba

Kvi Baba / Ms. U feat. idom & SALU (Music Video)

A love song that portrays the feeling of thinking only of one precious person amid the dense streets of Tokyo.

Featuring singer-songwriter idom and the revered SALU, Kvi Baba released this track in March 2024.

Against a backdrop of urban clamor and crowds of countless people crossing paths, the urgency of keeping one’s gaze fixed on a single person is woven through each of the three artists’ distinctive expressions.

Kvi Baba’s introspective lyrics, idom’s delicate vocals, and SALU’s urbane flow overlap to create a depth unique to this collaboration.

Selected as the ending theme for ABEMA’s news program ABEMA Prime in May 2024, the song has reached a broad audience.

It’s a piece that keeps you company on late-night drives or in quiet moments spent thinking of someone special.

Kinmokusei feat. Mamiko SuzukiTOSHIKI HAYASHI (%C)

Kinmokusei feat. Mamikko Suzuki / TOSHIKI HAYASHI (%C) - Official MV -

TOSHIKI HAYASHI (%C), a Tokyo-based beatmaker.

This track featuring Mamiko Suzuki of chelmico was included on his 2017 album “THREE” and released as a 7-inch analog single in August 2018.

Its mellow groove evokes an autumn dusk, and the flow—shifting smoothly from conversational rap into melody—intertwines exquisitely to gently portray emotions and memories that resurface with the changing seasons.

The sound, blending a lo-fi beat sensibility with city-pop-style harmonies, feels like a snapshot of small urban melancholies.

It’s a calm, warm love song perfect for the season when the fragrant olive blooms and scents the air.

Imdodo

dodo – im

This track became a viral hit thanks to TikTok, surpassing 15 million plays.

Released by dodo in September 2019, it’s a love song that recounts memories of a past relationship in simple, unadorned words.

It portrays the bittersweet feeling of visiting places once shared as a couple, now alone, conjuring the other’s face, and the realization that the destination never mattered—as long as “you” were there—expressed through a mellow track and chill flow.

Its airy sound and romantic lyrics are irresistibly pleasant, and the song’s success prompted dodo to decide to pursue music full-time.

A 7-inch vinyl edition followed in September 2024.

It’s the perfect song for when you want to revisit the sweet-and-sour memories of love.