A classic song about a forbidden love
Adultery dramas we often see in dramas, movies, and TV talk shows—the love that can never come true.
We’ve gathered songs about these “forbidden loves.” There are many beautifully portrayed dramas that make your heart race, but what if you yourself were to fall into a love that isn’t allowed…? Here, we’ll introduce plenty of songs that capture the bittersweet feelings of such forbidden love.
From songs told from a woman’s perspective to those from a man’s point of view, there are more tracks about forbidden love than you might think.
Perhaps that’s because many people are secretly suffering over a love that shouldn’t be….
Masterpieces about forbidden love (1–10)
balladKetsumeishi
A straightforward love ballad about an unattainable romance.
The small props that color the lyrics—glass, night breeze, lingering afterglow—all evoke an adult kind of love.
Even if it’s forbidden, even if it can never come true, the experience of falling in love remains forever in one’s heart.
With a flowing melody that even hints at the classical, the song’s construction is quintessentially Ketsumeishi.
It’s a track that once again showcases the breadth of their range.
Song for…HY
It’s such a popular song that fans even talk about being either in the “366 Days” camp or the “Song for…” camp.
I imagine the word that follows the ellipsis in “Song for…” is probably “you.” It’s a world brimming with heartbreak, where you’re thinking of someone even though it’s not allowed—and precisely because it’s not allowed, your feelings only grow, looping over and over.
It’s a world that only HY could sing about.
Falling in LoveKobayashi Akiko
Akiko Kobayashi’s classic “Koi ni Ochite -Fall in love-,” passed down as a sorrowful love song, carries a mature image in part because it was used as the theme for the TV drama “Friday Wives.” The song conveys the feelings of a woman who has fallen for a man who is already with someone else.
For a woman secretly tormented by a love that overflows despite an irrepressible loneliness, it might be good to entrust her heart to the song and fully immerse herself in it.
I’ll take it to the grave.NEW!Arukosaito
A heartbreaking rock ballad about the end of a secret love that can’t be told to anyone, and the resolve to bury those memories deep within and keep living.
Vivid, lifelike scenes—evoking the air of everyday life and platforms of Kansai train stations—heighten the reality of an unattainable love and tighten the chest.
This song is a signature work by Arcosite, included on the album “Until It Becomes a Memory,” released in March 2022.
It later resonated widely on social media, becoming a major topic in 2023 as its annual streams surged.
Blending quiet sorrow with the unique intensity of a band, this piece will surely stay close on nights when you struggle with an unrequited relationship and want to weep alone in silence.
Stop this nightJUJU
Is it acceptable to decide to break up because staying together after you’ve fallen out of love would only be unfair to the other person? Opinions are divided on this.
The woman in these lyrics wishes to stay together even so.
It’s as if the title “Kono Yoru wo Tomete yo” (Stop This Night) already sets listeners’ hearts racing from the outset.
It’s a heartfelt love ballad from JUJU!
That’s not fair.NEW!Ochiai Wataru
Even knowing it won’t be reciprocated, you’re drawn to those gentle hands and that soft voice, unable to walk away…
This song vividly portrays the emotional turmoil of being trapped in such an ambiguous relationship.
Sung by Wataru Ochiai, a singer-songwriter from Osaka, it’s a track overflowing with heartache.
Released in May 2021, it’s known as one of his signature works, alongside albums like “Nonfiction,” where he has expressed a down-to-earth view of love.
The weakness and jealousy of clinging to someone even while realizing you’re being treated as a convenient option come through raw and real over an acoustic sound.
A ballad for anyone who can’t break free from a painful, forbidden love they want to end but can’t.
Can’t Stop Fallin’ in Loveglobe
A forbidden love you can’t tell anyone about.
Even though you know you should stop, you can’t—it’s like a bottomless swamp, isn’t it? Here’s the perfect song for those who’ve sunk deep into it.
It’s “Can’t Stop Fallin’ in Love” by globe, one of the iconic groups from the Komuro Family that colored Japan’s ’90s.
The song portrays how a warped happiness that once belonged to two people eventually becomes something borne alone, leaving you tormented by emotions with nowhere to go.
I like indigo.NEW!indigo la End
This song portrays the frustration of being stuck in an ambiguous relationship, unable to get closer or farther apart.
The nocturnal atmosphere that seems to conjure vivid scenes—crafted by Enon Kawatani—and the supple band ensemble beautifully color the aching feelings of love.
Released digitally in advance in May 2016 and included the following month as the opening track of indigo la End’s album “Aiiro Music,” it expresses not a dramatic confession or ending, but those inexplicable emotions that linger right beside everyday life.
It may resonate with those harboring a secret love they can’t tell anyone about, or those troubled by an unattainable romance.
lingering scentNEW!indoor cats.
Though the romance should be over, even when I swear to forget, the memories left behind keep holding me back.
This song captures the aching feeling of a presence that should be gone and the heart-clenching emotions that linger in the room like a scent.
indoor cats., a band rooted in R&B, weave a jazzy sound centered on piano and organ that quietly seeps into unresolved memories and the aftertaste of a forbidden love.
The track appears on their first album, “Hodokenai Blue,” released in March 2024.
It’s sure to gently accompany those who are struggling with a love they just can’t cut off, and those who, late at night, hold feelings they can’t tell anyone.
A Kiss of Affected SplendorNEW!shallm
A song you’ll want to listen to on nights when you’re tormented by relationships that can’t be smoothed over with pretty words and emotions you can’t show anyone.
Set to a thrilling arrangement that fuses jazz and rock, it portrays the true feelings behind superficial words and the aching emotions you long to say but can’t.
This track was released in July 2025 by shallm, who had put out the album “charme” in October 2024.
It was written as the opening theme for the Thursday drama “Love Prohibited.” Give it a listen when you’re lost in the fate of an unattainable love and wishing someone would quietly stay by your side.