Popular Oldies and Classic Songs Ranking: 1970s Japanese Music
We’re excited to present the latest top 100 ranking of nostalgic Japanese pop songs, introduced all at once in order of most views!
We’ve picked out beloved classics that were hits in the 1970s.
Listening again like this, you’ll notice many songs are still enjoying revivals today.
Be sure to check them out.
The playlist is updated every week.
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Popular Oldies and Classic Songs Ranking [1970s Japanese Music Ranking] (71–80)
UFOpinku redii76rank/position
This is a smash hit by Pink Lady, distinguished by its innovative sense of rhythm and catchy melody.
Released as a single in December 1977, it held the No.
1 spot on the Oricon Weekly Singles Chart for 10 consecutive weeks and achieved an astonishing sales total of over 1.95 million copies.
It was also used in a Nissin Foods commercial and covered in the anime Crayon Shin-chan, making it beloved across generations.
Their performances in glittering silver costumes, combined with distinctive choreography, became a social phenomenon mimicked by children and adults alike.
If everyone joins in to sing its well-known phrases, it’s guaranteed to get the crowd fired up in an instant.
Suddenly, SinbadSazan Ōrusutāzu77rank/position
Centered around singer-songwriter Keisuke Kuwata—who has released numerous classic songs as a solo artist—Southern All Stars is a rock band that has long been a top runner in the J-pop scene, and this is their debut single.
Set to a passionate Latin rock groove, the song captivates with lyrics that are sexy yet comical, vividly painting scenes in your mind.
Released as a single in June 1978, it was also featured in a commercial for Asahi Soft Drinks’ Mitsuya Cider.
Despite being their debut, it’s known as one of their signature tracks and is an essential classic in the history of Japanese rock.
The call-and-response in the intro chorus and the refrain is guaranteed to get the crowd going when you try it at karaoke!
At the coffee shopabe shizue78rank/position
Shizue Abe made her debut with a song that left an impression for its beautiful vocals and gave her a pure, delicate image.
Many of her fans were men who seemed to want to support her—perhaps they even felt like they were her boyfriend.
That “everyone’s girlfriend” vibe may have been one of her key appeals.
From the northern innMiyako Harumi79rank/position
Harumi Miyako’s “Kita no Yado Kara” is a smash hit released in 1975.
Composed by Asei Kobayashi with lyrics by Yū Aku, this song is a classic enka masterpiece loved across generations.
The image of knitting a sweater despite having no one to give it to conveys the heroine’s deep lingering attachment and loneliness.
The depiction of being unable to shake off one’s regrets after a breakup, with feelings only growing stronger, is a universal theme that resonates in any era.
It’s a song I’d love for today’s young people to hear as well.
Rainy MidosujiŌyō Fifi80rank/position
A 1971 hit song.
The Ventures have long maintained a distinctive popularity in Japan, and in the 1970s they even produced “Ventures kayō” songs with Japanese lyrics.
That kind of composition, combined with Taiwanese singer Ouyang Fei Fei’s endearingly lisping Japanese, made this track even more captivating.