[Setsuna-kei] Incredibly tear-jerking! Classic heartbreaking J-pop songs

“Setsuna”-style J-POP.

Those wistful lyrics and melodies really make your chest tighten, don’t they?

Starting with Thelma Aoyama’s “Soba ni Iru ne,” this style was characterized by R&B-like love songs that were especially popular from the late 2000s to the mid-2010s.

If you’re from the “chaku-uta” generation (when people downloaded song snippets as ringtones), this might feel nostalgic.

As social media became widely adopted, the style evolved—lyric videos have become a staple, and it feels like there are now more angles from which people can find relatable points.

Here, I’ll carefully select and introduce some nostalgic hits that were popular back then, as well as modern “setsuna” songs!

There are plenty of tracks that speak the feelings you can’t put into words, songs that stay by your side, and songs you can’t help but get completely absorbed in.

I hope you’ll use this as a list to discover new, heart-piercingly bittersweet masterpieces.