[2026] A summer song that tightens your chest with bittersweet feelings. A classic summer tune that touches the heart.

Midsummer FruitSazan Ōrusutāzu

Midsummer Fruit

This song, sad yet beautiful, conveys lingering feelings for a love that has passed—it’s one of the most popular masterpieces among Southern All Stars’ ballads! I’m sure everyone has heard it at least once.

Keisuke Kuwata’s gentle, slightly husky voice wrapped in the soft soundscape is striking, and you can keenly feel the helpless ache of yearning love through it.

Beyond the lyrically crafted metaphors, be sure to listen closely to Kuwata’s emotionally rich vocal delivery as well!

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Hane Keisuke

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cotton candyback number

back number – Watagashi (full)

Back number, who have released numerous classic ballads, wrote Watagashi with the theme of a summer festival.

It’s a highly dramatic song: the first half captures the fluttering excitement of a man visiting a summer festival with someone he has feelings for, while the second half sings of the frustration of being unable to confess.

Listen while imagining what kind of ending awaits the two of them.

Coupled with the passionate voice of vocalist Iyori Shimizu, it’s truly heart-wrenching.

Another highlight is the abundance of summery words like “fireworks,” which lets you really feel the season.

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yamamoto

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summer stormJenīhai

Jenny High “Summer Storm”

Under the shimmering summer sun, a fleeting, wistful feeling casts a sudden shadow.

Set to a driving, exhilarating sound that seems to capture that very instant, this track is a masterpiece you’ll want to play at summer’s end.

With lyrics and composition by Enon Kawatani, the melody line shines with his unmistakable sensibility, while the lyrics—tinged with a certain melancholy—soak deeply into the listener’s heart.

Ikkyu Nakajima’s voice, combining clarity and strength, delicately renders the hopes and impatience of summer, along with the aching desire to accomplish something.

The song is included on their second full-length album, “Jenny Star,” released in September 2021, which also produced a track selected as the ending theme for a news and information program.

The music video featuring Miku Kanemura of Hinatazaka46 drew attention as well, and, as Kawatani remarked that “the song is completed by the visuals,” it makes the world of the track even more striking.

When you want to feel the sentimental side of summer—the part that isn’t just fun—be sure to give it a listen.

sunflowerAdo

[Ado] Sunflower

Ado, whose powerful singing sparked a social phenomenon, delivers in this work a masterful performance that radiates the warmth of gentle summer sunlight while capturing delicate emotions that tug at the heart.

Wishing to change her inability to be honest, the protagonist takes a step toward the light, guided by the presence of someone precious, like a flower that blooms straight toward the sun—and that image may gently nudge listeners forward as well.

Released in July 2023 and serving as the theme song for the TBS drama “18/40: Dreams and Love If We’re Together,” the track became a hot topic for its creation by Miyuhan (lyrics and composition) and arrangement by 40mP.

It’s a song to listen to on quiet summer nights, or when a fleeting sense of loneliness arises with the passing seasons, and you want to find a small hope for tomorrow.

SunshadeYuka

Yuka – Sunshade (Official Audio)

A quintessential summer song that tightens the chest with aching emotion has been born.

In this track, Yuka’s delicate vocals gently envelop the pain of heartbreak and the anxiety about the future, conveying with heartrending clarity the inability to accept a farewell.

Released in June 2024, the song was also chosen as the theme for the TBS Friday drama “Laughing Matryoshka.” It is a tender, compassionate piece that stands by those carrying the pain of a breakup or anyone who has experienced parting from someone dear.

To my dear youInoue Sonoko

Sonoko Inoue – To My Precious You

It’s a song suffused with Sonoko Inoue’s voice, which awakens that sweet-and-sour feeling that tightens your chest in a fleeting moment on a summer evening.

From everyday fragments like scenes of commuting to school and long late-night phone calls, the track beautifully captures a straightforward yet heartrending first love.

The pure wish to “always be by your side” and the delicate murmur of “I don’t want to lose you” will likely resonate with listeners’ own youthful memories.

Released in July 2015 as the lead track on her major-label debut mini-album “#17,” it reached No.

66 on the Oricon Weekly Chart.

You may have heard it as a Sumitomo Life insurance commercial song.

It’s a gem I’d recommend when you want to sink into a sentimental mood or lean into a pure love song.

Nagisasupittsu

Spitz / Nagisa

A classic song by Spitz, where a fresh brightness and a wistful ache coexist in the melody, and Masamune Kusano’s clear, translucent voice strikes straight to the heart.

This piece doesn’t just capture the shimmer of summer; it deftly depicts nostalgia for days gone by and the delicate emotions that waver between reality and illusion.

Looking at the lyrics, you can sense the protagonist trapped by memories of the past, unable to break free from a sweet mirage behind the beautiful seaside scenes.

Like waves that surge and recede, the feelings drifting between dream and reality are exquisitely expressed.

Released in September 1996 as Spitz’s 17th single, the song peaked at No.

8 on the Oricon charts.

It was also included on their 1997 album Indigo Chiheisen and became familiar to the public as the CM song for Ezaki Glico’s “Pocky Love Story.” Listen to it on a slightly lonely late-summer evening or when you want to be alone with your thoughts, and you’ll be drawn even deeper into its world.

It’s a track I recommend to anyone who wants to savor the beauty of the lyrics and the depth of the melody.