Tear-jerking unrequited love songs that will break your heart: timeless classics about unattainable love

Mikan HeartNEW!C&K

C&K – Mikan Heart

Even if your head knows it’s a hopeless love, your heart can’t let go so easily, right? This song by the male duo C&K is their 10th single, released in October 2013.

Centered on the theme of an incomplete heart, it’s known as a ballad that passionately sings of the frustration of unrequited love.

The music video features Haruma Miura and Naoko Watanabe, and its heartrending story drew a lot of attention.

The song vividly portrays the wavering feelings that soar and sink with every little word or action from the other person, and listening to it makes your chest tighten.

It’s a classic also included on the album “CK AND MORE…,” a gentle companion for anyone carrying the pain of one-sided love.

A Naked HeartNEW!aimyon

Aimyon – Naked Heart [OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO]

This ballad sung by Aimyon expresses the turmoil of love head-on with unadorned words.

The way overflowing feelings for someone you love intersect with the timid desire not to get hurt is exactly what the title “Naked Heart” conveys.

No matter how many times you fail at love, the earnest lyrics that still wish to love someone strike listeners deeply.

Released as a single in June 2020, it drew major attention as the theme song for the TBS drama “My Housekeeper Nagisa-san,” starring Mikako Tabe.

The song is also included on her third album, “Heard There’s Delicious Pasta.” If you listen to it on a night when unrequited love has worn you out, it will gently stay by your side and give you the courage to take a step forward again.

two peopleNEW!aiko

aiko - “Futari” music video

Despite its upbeat, fast-paced pop melody, this aiko classic grips the heart with a piercing, aching sadness.

Released as a single in March 2008, it’s also included on the acclaimed album “Himitsu.” In 2014, it was featured in a commercial for Hoyu’s BeautyLabo Whip Hair Color, leaving a lasting impression on many listeners.

The song portrays the frustration of knowing in your head that you shouldn’t fall in love, while your heart can’t keep up.

The bravado of telling yourself you’re glad you realized it before getting in too deep, and the vivid imagery of the Ferris wheel in the background, are sure to cut to the core of anyone suffering from an unrequited love.

Precisely because of its bright sound, it brings even more tears—making it a track you’ll want to listen to on nights when you’re burdened with feelings you can’t do anything about.

One more time,One more chanceNEW!Yamazaki Masayoshi

Masayoshi Yamazaki – “One more time, One more chance” MUSIC VIDEO [4K Quality]

It’s a gem of a love song overflowing with bittersweet longing, about searching the city for the irreplaceable person you can no longer meet.

It’s one of singer-songwriter Masayoshi Yamazaki’s signature songs, released in January 1997 as his fourth single and a long-running hit.

It became a hit as the theme song for the film The Moon and a Cabbage, in which Yamazaki himself starred, and years later it was also chosen as the theme song for the animated film 5 Centimeters per Second.

The delicate tones of the acoustic guitar and Yamazaki’s emotionally rich vocals quietly sink in.

Even knowing the love won’t come true, you can’t help but hope for a miracle…

This song gently stays close to that wavering heart.

It’s one of those J-pop masterpieces that we want to be passed down forever—something we especially want people bearing the pain of unrequited love to hear.

SparkleIkuta Rira

Rira Ikuta “Sparkle” Official Music Video

Released digitally in January 2022, it was selected as the theme song for ABEMA’s romance reality show “Kyou, Suki ni Narimashita.

Mikan Arc.” For this piece, the melody was crafted first, then carefully layered with the tones of an acoustic guitar to complete the track, and it looks back on an unrequited love.

The protagonist’s feelings—overcoming the pain of a love that never came true and trying to move forward into the future—resonate quietly alongside her clear, transparent vocals.

It’s a song that will stay by your side on a night just after heartbreak, when you wish to face forward once again.

NAOHY

SOLIDEMO / NAO（HY cover）

It’s a ballad that pierces the chest with the pain of unrequited love.

The song is included on HY’s 2006 album “Confidence,” by the Okinawa-born mix-genre band, and tells a story created by vocalist Izumi Nakasone based on a close friend’s real experience.

The piece vividly portrays the inner conflict of a woman who knows the person she likes has feelings for someone else and won’t return her affection, yet she just can’t give up.

The clear, airy vocals riding over the piano melody further highlight the sorrow of a love that won’t reach its destination.

It’s a must-listen for anyone who finds themselves empathizing with the urge to cling on, even as they sense the person they love slowly changing.

The town where you liveShimizu Shota

Shota Shimizu “The Town Where You Live” MV

This is a ballad that paints the feelings of someone who, in unguarded moments, finds themselves searching for traces of a lover who should no longer be there.

It’s a song by singer-songwriter Shota Shimizu, released in October 2010 as his eighth single.

The track is also included on the album COLORS.

You can almost picture the protagonist overlaying the face of the one they can no longer meet onto a lookalike spotted on a station platform or onto familiar cityscapes.

Imagining the city where that person lives and simply wishing to see them—those one-sided feelings are, in a way, the very essence of a lingering “unrequited love” that follows a finished romance.

The melody, like an autumn dusk—lonely yet warm—soaks into the heart.

If there’s someone you can’t forget, listening to this will surely resonate deeply.