[Enka First Year] A Collection of Easy-to-Sing Songs by Yoko Nagayama [2026]

Having attended a folk song school and studied the shamisen since childhood, she was preparing to debut as an enka singer after being scouted by an agency, but ultimately made her official debut as an idol due to a change in direction.

Yoko Nagayama has a unique career: after nearly a decade as an idol—during which she produced hit songs—she made a fresh debut as an enka singer at the age of 25.

Her songs are popular choices for karaoke, thanks to her folk-song-honed vocal ability, her versatile style that lets her sing pop songs with ease cultivated during her idol years, and the performance style she established of singing while playing the shamisen as a certified performer of the Tsugaru-jamisen Sawada school.

In this article, we focus specifically on relatively easy-to-sing songs from her enka-singer era.

If you’ve only recently become interested in Nagayama, please take this opportunity to check them out.