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A Foolproof Guide to Finding Japanese Song Lyrics (Plus:

Discovering Your Genre)
Hey, music lovers.
Yeah, could you take off the headphones for a second?
Just a second.
Cool. So what were you listening to just now?
Metallica? Rage Against the Machine? Imagine Dragons? Taylor Swift?
Doesnt matter.
Heres where we combine your love of music with your love of Japanese.
In case you were unaware of the epicness of learning Japanese through music, take a look at that first. And it is epic.

Why Learn Japanese Through Song Lyrics?

If you find youre not entirely into kyary pamyu pamyus personal asylum, then delving into the diverse world of
Japanese music is going to give you greater insight into different facets of Japanese language, culture and (perhaps
most fun) counterculture.
Youll get listening and reading comprehension practice at the same time not a bad two-for-one deal. Once youre
comfortable enough with some favorite tunes, you can practice your linguistic memory by recalling lyrics without
music tot follow. You could go the traditional karaoke practice route and sing along with the music to improve your
pronunciation, fluency and spoken vocabulary. You could even write down lyrics from memory or while youre actively
listening, better ingraining them in your brain! Theres tons of ways to strengthen your various Japanese skills through
songs and song lyrics.
Not to mention, a lot of songs contain the same similes and metaphors, so youll get used to the ones that crop up a
lot. This repetition is bound to an understanding of Japanese sentence structure .
So, cmon. Theres loads of great reasons I could give you. Just admit that now its definitely time to try learning
Japanese through lyrics.
But how to find them? Youre not satisfied with reading romaji and you dont want to frequent the fan-girl/fan-boy
haunts.
You need to think outside the box.
You need to be a net ninja.

A Foolproof Guide to Finding Japanese Song Lyrics (plus: Discovering your Genre)
1. Anime/Drama Theme Songs
This is, hands down, a literal gold mine for finding Japanese song lyrics. Not only do anime and dramas often feature

whatever musician was popular at the time of their release, but they also tend to be dutifully recorded, translated and
played along with the shows ever-colorful opening sequence all thanks to those wonderful independent
translators. Thank you kind gods and goddesses! In these youll have the written Japanese, the pronunciation from
the music and the English translation in case your Japanese-English dictionary is on the fritz. Best part: if you like
what youre hearing, you can pick up the artists name and find all kinds of beautiful new Japanese music to bask in!

2. YouTube Karaoke
This is an insanely entertaining way to get those Japanese lyrics down, though it does take a little bit of net-ninjaing. If
you look up Japanese songs karaoke on YouTube, chances are good that youre in for a pretty narrow array of
songs. Beyond that, youll be lucky if you even find a vague reference to some Japanese person who sang it, if their
name is listed at all.
What you really want to try is finding an artist youre interested in (whos also likely to be in karaoke booths) and
switching your keyboard to hiragana. Once youre ready to type, enter in the artists name, the specific song and the
word ( karaoke) after it. Voila! Youve finally cracked the code to the secret garden of Japanese
karaoke songs! The only downsides are (1) youll have to have a pretty solid handle of hiragana and katakana
(though a lot of the song titles are in English anyway) and (2) the tinny elevator music renditions of your
favorite songs might make you cringe just a little bitbut hopefully they wont destroy your faith in music.

3. Fan Blogs
When in doubt, look to the fans. Not just the ones who hang around conventions in Pikachu costumes but the
invested, hardcore, Japanese music enthusiasts who have lovingly transcribed and translated all the lyrics to their
favorite musicians songs. This is also a good way to start recognizing the genres that those previously unheard-of
band names fall into. A great start to finding your personal favorites! Speaking of which, heres a few of the best
websites to check out:
AnimeLyrics.com
While not really a blog, this is one of the best, most user-friendly websites
to find popular j-pop/j-rock artists often featured in anime. But dont let the
name fool you. This site also boasts a number of artists unrelated to
anime, with songs complete with lyrics in English, romaji and often kanji.
The often open-faced display style (with romaji in the left column and
English translation in the right) makes it a breeze to compare the
Japanese sentence structure with the English. Make sure youve got a
translation app handy!
Entry No.1
If youre into indie, folk and experimental music, this calm, pensive site
created by a high school Creative Writing teacher catalogs a number of
Japanese song lyrics, poems and manga. All of its translated into English
with the original kanji displayed. Its especially great if youre practicing
your kanji, but you might want to keep your translation app ready to go.
J-Sounders

This one highlights more of the popular mainstream artists youre likely to
see on the Top 100 of Japan type of lists. Although all (or most) of the
lyrics are written in romaji, its a great way to learn some new vocabulary
or to keep noticing recurring words among songs.
VOICE
This is a very comprehensive site, with lyrics mostly in the pop and rock
category. Whats really interesting about this blog is that the lyrics are
categorized both by artist and by anime, so if youre looking for who did
the opening theme for ( Durarara!!), look no further! Also, very helpful for those looking to study
kanji, the lyrics are shown in English, romaji and kanji! This bloggers got
this Japanese music thing down pat.
These are some of the more user-friendly sites which have a
considerable amount of study material, but there are many more to be
found (or started!).

4. Japanese Song Lyrics Sites (in / Japanese!)

Im sure youve got your go-to lyrics sites that you frequent whenever you hear a great song with unclear lyrics,
however, they might not be the best source when youre trying to find your lyrics in Japanese. So how do you find
decent, mostly accurate Japanese lyrics? Ill answer my question with another question, if I may: where do Japanese
people find them? Why, Japanese lyrics sites of course! Ready to put your Japanese reading skills to the test? Here
are a couple of popular sites:
(utamap)
This site has every search option known to man! Weve got artist name, song name, search by phrase, search by
category (sports, movies, anime, TV shows), popularity ranking, everything. Good place to start: click on the orange
( lyrics search) button, and click the pink characters that say (
todays popular lyrics ranking). What youll find is a virtual smorgasbord of
Japanese song lyrics with the most hits of that day. Dig in!
Uta-Net
This site is arguable the best. If utamap doesnt have it, Uta-Net does. Expect to find the more alternative bands lyrics
here, including a ranking search by genre and even by karaoke ranking! So if you want to see what people are belting
out in the karaoke booths right about now, this is the place to find out!

5. FluentU Music Videos

FluentU takes real-world videos like music videos, movie trailers, news, and inspiring talks and turns them into
Japanese learning experiences. On FluentU, youll find a growing selection of Japanese music videos subtitled in
kanji, furigana and English. You can stop the video at any time by rolling over it with your mouse. This will immediately
display the translation for the Japanese words that youre seeing and hearing, along with useful example sentences.
The coolest part? FluentUs learn mode takes music videos and turns them into Japanese learning lessons. Your
questions will come from music videos themselves, and theyll be personalized based on your history on FluentU.
Theres no better way to learn than through real-world context.

6. Be Wary of Major Pitfalls

Inaccurate Lyrics
We know that none of us is perfect. Occasionally youre going to come across some lyrics that arent exactly right. If
you cant find a Japanese word in the dictionary, chances are it hasnt been transcribed properly. That, or the
conjugated verb form is difficult to find. Armed with a good Japanese translator app, the song in question all queued
up, the websites above and a discerning mind, the inaccurate lyrics will actually prove to be a great learning
opportunity!
Nonsensical Lyrics
While a lot of songs are going to be great sources of new vocab, there are quite a few Japanese bands who tend to
favor nonsense. They may just use sounds that are fun to sing and that go with the beat, but these arent going to
come in too handy when asking for directions on the streets of Yokohama. A few examples include certain songs by
the likes of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Polysics and Maximum the Hormone. While all belong to very different genres, the
majority of the lyrics of these songs consist of made-up words. That said, theyre a BLAST to listen to or sing to!
The Alluring Romaji
While its so deliciously easy to rely on the romaji on a lot of these lyrics sites, for the sake of your well-rounded
Japanese study its highly recommended that you try to delve into the original kanji when reading lyrics. Youll get a
better idea of how to read those frequently used words! When searching for lyrics in kanji, youll want to try the
Japanese lyrics sites listed above.

Discovering your Genre: Learn with What You Like!

Think of this less of a comprehensive list and more of a taster of each genre. Also, as a disclaimer, the artists listed
may fall into more than one category. Artists were also chosen based on the availability of the lyrics on the site above.
However, use this opportunity to expand your Japanese musical repertoire! Have fun!

1. Pop
(Kyary pamyu
pamyu): the queen of bizarre music videos, and
where most westerners get the idea that Japan is
insane, she churns out incredibly catchy, mostlynonsensical bubble-gum smash hits which seem
to please everyone. Shes out there, but seems
to know what her audience wants!
( - Yui): think of Yui as the Avril Lavigne
that never sold out. Her pop/rock sound and her
ballads are tied together with her very likable
voice.
( - Jin Akanishi): heres a
very pretty member of the boy band KAT-TUN
gone solo. Hes got a pop/R&B sound that seems
to be popular for the moment.

2. Punk

I might get shot by punk diehards for this, but I

chose based on the availability of the Japanese
lyrics. A lot of great underground punk bands are,
by nature, harder to track down.
( - The Blue
Hearts): you may have seen these guys on
another one of our posts, but theyre an extremely
popular punk-ish band, famous for the song
( Linda Linda). You
can find their lyrics easily on rankings lists.
( - The Stalin):
these guys are pretty hardcore, lots of punk grit in
there to keep you occupied and they have lyrics
available on Uta-Net.
( - The Star Club): this band is a very well-known punk rock group from the late
70s-80s. Fun, dirty and a whole lotta punk.
( - Shonen Knife): often referred to as Japans female answer to the Ramones, these
girls from Osaka are a super-fun pop punk, alternative band that you might find youve already fallen in love with.

3. Jazz
A note on the jazz: as a lot of jazz doesnt have
a lot of vocals in it, these were chosen for their
jazz-ish qualities.
(
- Pizzicato Five): quite popular in the 90s, if you
want to groove out, these guys have got your fix.
( - Tokyo
Incidents): the immensely talented Sheena
Ringos voice is just so cool. Complex musical
composition, jazzy drumming and a touch of indie
makes them a joy to listen to.
( - Nujabes): what the
late, great Nujabes (or Seba Jun) produced were more R&B beats, but fit the jazzy bill just fine for our purposes. The
sound is pensive, chill and ridiculously beautiful, and you might notice that MINMI wholl be mentioned below is doing
the vocals for this one!

4. Indie

 (
- Sakanaction): a five-piece indie/altrock/electronic mishmash of interesting sounds.
( - The
Pillows): nostalgic, pleasant and wonderful, The
Pillows have your perfect grooves for relaxation
time.
(
- Asian Kung-Fu
Generation): now, these guys are a lot of fun.
Smooth and hard vocals, pleasing composition.
At times they can even seem Weezer-ish. Lyrics
are great!

5. Rock/Metal
( - Guitar Wolf):
loud, distorted, shout-y goodness. Theyll have
you shouting along and theyre still active!
(
- Sex Machineguns): good-olfashioned moshing music. The vocals have got a
hair metal feel at times, and the drum changes
cant be beat.
(
- Maximum the Hormone): whats there to say
about ? This kickass group with a
female drummer can span
pop/metal/alternative/rock/rap-metal in a single song. Overwhelming and high-energy, theyll get you riled up, no
question.

6. Alternative

 ( Yura Yura
Teikoku): quirky, punchy, psychedelic-like rock.
The guy has no eyebrows and a cool, relaxed
sort of voice.
( - Polysics): know
that song Rock Lobster by the B52s? Add
synth/pop/rock insanity to that and you have the
colossal energy and hyperactivity of Polysics.
And theyre oh so weird.
(
- Radwimps): narrowly missed being called pop
despite their massive following of teenaged girls,
these fellows have catchy tunes, surprisingly
deep and plentiful lyrics and a little bit of an indie
feel to them. Dare yourself to try and sing
(oshakashama) in Japanese. So FAST.

7. Reggae (-ish)
( - Minmi): described by Wikipedia
as a Japanese hip-hop, soca and reggae
musician shes got a kind of upbeat, dance-able
rhythm in some songs, and an awesome hip-hop
rap vibe going on in others. She also collaborated
with Nujabes in the song above!
(
- Ryo the Skywalker): a big
reggae name in Osaka, from Osaka. Hes got
a decidedly raspy, gravelly voice and a fun-loving
feel.
( - Papa B): feel-good
jams from the 90s, throw on Papa B on a sunny
afternoon.

8. Folk/Enka

 ( - Shugo
Tokumaru): a thoughtful artist who falls more
into indie folk, with a dreamy, playful, music boxlike quality to his music. Try to guess how many
instruments he plays!
( - Kaori Mizumori):
a famous Enka performer with a lovely, classic
voice. Her songs have a nostalgic, old Japan
feel.
( - Hiroshi Itsuki):
when you mention Enka, its hard to find
someone in Japan who wont chime in with this
famous singers name. Incredibly prolific and
wildly popular, his pleasant, velvety voice will
catch your fancy.

9. Electronic
( - Capsule): in a word? A
blast. Her whimsical voice and the the synth
pop/electronica will leave you feeling dance-y.
( - Perfume): this
electro/pop girl trio feels like being trapped inside
a laser show. In a good way.
(
- 80Kids): unfortunately no (or sparse) lyrics, but
will bring to mind Daft Punk in a truly, truly great
way. Inclusion was necessary.

10. Hip-Hop/R&B
( - ZEEBRA): raspy-cool sound
with a whole lot of Japanese lyrics to explore.
( - Rhymester): good
stuff from a 90s group of MCs, with full
sentences for studying cool words like (
aesthetics).
( - Rip Slyme):
well-known and perfect for those who like
themselves a little Jurassic 5. Or Beastie Boys.
Thats all.
Now put those headphones back on and run
amok!
1:36

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