[Winter Songs] Classic Showa-era masterpieces. Popular songs you’ll want to listen to in winter.

snowneko

Cat Snow

The folk group Neko’s 1972 single “Yuki” is a classic in which the band gives voice to a song written and composed by Takuro Yoshida.

The protagonist’s aching longing for someone far away overlaps with the quietly accumulating snowfall.

The delicate tone of the 12-string guitar, the hi-hat-driven rhythm, and the restrained vocals create a clear, transparent sound that evokes the sophistication of urban folk.

How about listening to it on a winter night when you miss someone you can’t meet, watching the snow dance outside your window? It’s a song that sinks into the heart, keeping you company when you want to linger over past memories in a warm room.

Street Corner of SnowflakesAnri

Anri / Snowflake on the Street Corner

Anri’s 1988 single “Snowflake no Machikado” is a poignant song, filled with the loneliness of remembering a former lover.

It was used as the fourth commercial song for “JT SomeTime LIGHTS.” The first verse depicts the two of them when they were still together, which makes it even more heartbreaking when you consider the heroine’s lingering feelings for her ex in the verses that follow.

The wintry scene of falling snow intensifies the melancholy.

Musically, it’s a mid-tempo disco tune, with a cool, stylish sound featuring a brass section.

expand_lessRaise the rankingexpand_morelower

Hamada Takuya

Report a problem

Winter StationKoyanagi Rumiko

Winter Station - Rumiko Koyanagi

This is Rumiko Koyanagi’s 13th single, released in October 1974.

The lyrics are by Rei Nakanishi, the music by Kunihiko Kase, and the arrangement by Kenichiro Morioka.

Set at a winter station where white morning mist drifts, it portrays a woman’s heart wavering between lingering feelings for a former lover and her own growth.

Aimed at moving beyond her “pure idol” image, the song features rhythmic arrangements and layered vocal techniques.

It reached No.

1 on the Oricon charts and sold 560,000 copies, making it one of Koyanagi’s signature hits.

She also performed it at the 25th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen.

It’s a song I recommend to anyone standing on a winter station platform, looking back on a past romance while trying to face forward.

The snowy way homeWatanabe Minayo

The snowy way home

This was the second single released in October 1986 by Minayo Watanabe, who made her solo debut as a popular member of Onyanko Club.

Written by Yasushi Akimoto and composed by Tsugutoshi Goto, the song topped the Oricon weekly charts and became one of her signature tracks.

It portrays the protagonist walking home at night in the midwinter north wind, collar up on her coat, crying—her sorrow piling up in her heart like falling snow.

At a time when bright idol pop dominated the scene, this work stood out with its melancholic minor-key melody and sentimental lyrics.

Layering the winter landscape over a woman’s feelings as she tries to face forward despite lingering attachment to a lost love, it resonates deeply with listeners.

It’s a perfect song for nights aching with heartbreak or for a quiet evening when snow falls steadily.

EVE to the TERMINALNakamori Akina

Terminal Madeno Eve

One of the tracks included in Akina Nakamori’s four-disc CD box set “AKINA,” which gathers carefully selected songs from a vast catalog.

This song, “TERMINAL made no EVE” (“Eve Until the Terminal”), originally appears on a concept album produced by Shizuka Ijūin, and once you know that, it sounds as if it captures a single scene from a larger story.

The slightly bittersweet lyrics are also noteworthy: “an unstable Christmas that hints at a breakup, yet the woman still can’t quite let go…” When sung by Nakamori, that poignancy is all the more profound.

It may be a Christmas masterpiece that isn’t widely known—at least outside her core fanbase.