Best Japanese Karaoke Songs: Sing Like a Local

If you’ve ever stepped inside a Japanese karaoke box — those glorious little private rooms where time dissolves and inhibitions vanish — you already know that the song selection makes or breaks the night. I’ve been DJing for over 20 years, and few experiences have humbled and thrilled me quite like my first karaoke session in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district, surrounded by locals who treated every song like a performance.

Quick Comparison Table

This list covers what I genuinely consider the 7 best Japanese karaoke songs — expanded to 10 because narrowing it further felt like musical cruelty. These are the tracks that get rooms erupting, microphones clutched like sacred objects, and grown adults weeping into their tambourines at 2 AM.

I’ve DJed events from Osaka to Berlin where Japanese pop has crossed every language barrier imaginable. What strikes me every time is how emotionally direct these songs are — stripped of irony, full of longing, perfectly constructed for the human voice to wrap itself around. Karaoke in Japan isn’t just entertainment; it’s almost a spiritual practice.

Whether you’re a first-timer walking into a karaoke box or a seasoned veteran building a setlist, these songs represent the absolute cream of the crop. I’ve ordered them from most globally recognisable down to the tracks beloved by those who’ve gone a little deeper into the rabbit hole — all of them guaranteed to land.

Table of Contents

1. Lemon — Kenshi Yonezu

2. A Cruel Angel’s Thesis — Yoko Takahashi

3. Pretender — Official HIGE DANdism

4. Ue o Muite Arukō — Kyu Sakamoto

5. Hikaru Nara — Goose house

6. Yoru ni Kakeru — YOASOBI

7. First Love — Utada Hikaru

8. One Last Kiss — Utada Hikaru

9. Inferno — Mrs. GREEN APPLE

10. Gurenge — LiSA

List Of Japanese Karaoke Songs

1. Lemon — Kenshi Yonezu

🎯 Why this made the list: The undisputed king of modern Japanese karaoke, this song hits every emotional frequency a great ballad needs and then some.

📅 2018 · 🎵 J-pop ballad · ▶️ 700M+ views · 🎧 600M+ streams

Lemon was released in March 2018 as the theme song for the Japanese TV drama Unnatural, a crime thriller that captured the nation’s imagination. Written and performed by Kenshi Yonezu, it became one of the best-selling digital singles in Japanese music history almost instantly. The song deals with grief and the bittersweet nature of loss — themes that resonated deeply across every age group in Japan.

Musically, Lemon is a masterclass in emotional restraint and release. The verses are hushed and intimate, built on sparse piano and Yonezu’s delicate falsetto, before the chorus opens up into something genuinely overwhelming. There’s a subtle bitterness woven into the melody — like the fruit itself — that makes it linger long after the final note fades. It doesn’t overstay its welcome; every second earns its place.

I remember spinning at a J-pop themed night in London and dropping an instrumental version of this between sets, just to see what would happen. Three people started singing along from memory — in Japanese — despite being British. That moment told me everything I needed to know about the universal pull of this track. As a DJ, when a song reaches across language and culture like that, you mark it as something special.

Lemon spent an extraordinary 11 weeks at number one on Japan’s Billboard Hot 100 and became the best-selling digital single of the year for multiple consecutive years. It swept the Japan Record Award and earned Yonezu several prestigious industry honours. In the karaoke world specifically, it has consistently ranked as the number one most-sung song on platforms like JOYSOUND for years running — a record that speaks for itself.

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2. A Cruel Angel’s Thesis — Yoko Takahashi

🎯 Why this made the list: Few opening themes in anime history carry this much raw karaoke power — it’s practically a religious experience in every karaoke box from Sapporo to Fukuoka.

📅 1995 · 🎵 J-pop anime theme · ▶️ 150M+ views · 🎧 120M+ streams

Zankoku na Tenshi no These [A Cruel Angel’s Thesis] was composed by Hidetoshi Sato with lyrics by Neko Oikawa and performed by singer Yoko Takahashi as the opening theme for Neon Genesis Evangelion. Released in 1995, the song immediately became inseparable from one of the most culturally significant anime series ever produced. Its opening synth riff is among the most recognisable sounds in Japanese pop culture — the moment those first bars hit, every person in the room knows exactly what they’re about to sing.

The track is brilliantly constructed for maximum vocal satisfaction. It sits in a singable range for most voices, the chorus climbs with satisfying drama, and there are enough sustained notes to let singers really lean into their performance. Takahashi’s original delivery balances brightness with a kind of fierce optimism that feels genuinely uplifting. The production, while very much of its era, has aged into something that almost feels nostalgic in the best possible way.

I’ve played this at anime-themed club nights and watched the dance floor transform into a choir. It doesn’t matter if people haven’t watched a single episode of Evangelion — the song’s energy is contagious at a cellular level. As someone who grew up watching the series on import tapes with dodgy subtitles, hearing this belted out by a room full of people at midnight never gets old for me. It’s one of those tracks that makes you genuinely love your job.

The song has charted and re-charted in Japan multiple times, receiving new life with every Evangelion theatrical release. The Rebuild of Evangelion film series brought it to entirely new generations, and its streaming numbers have grown steadily into the 21st century. It consistently ranks in the top five on karaoke popularity charts across major Japanese platforms, beloved by grandparents and teenagers alike — which is genuinely rare and remarkable.

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3. Pretender — Official HIGE DANdism

🎯 Why this made the list: This song is what happens when a perfectly-crafted pop song meets a vocalist who sounds like he’s genuinely living the heartbreak — karaoke gold of the highest order.

📅 2019 · 🎵 J-pop rock · ▶️ 400M+ views · 🎧 350M+ streams

Pretender was released in May 2019 as part of Official HIGE DANdism’s major label debut album Traveler, and it detonated across Japan’s music scene like a well-placed bomb. The song served as the theme for the Fuji TV drama Majime ni Fumajime no Hanashi, but it rapidly outgrew that context to become one of the defining pop songs of the late 2010s in Japan. Singer Fujihara Satoshi’s remarkable vocal range gives the song a dramatic arc that rewards anyone brave enough to attempt it at karaoke.

Musically, Pretender is sophisticated without being inaccessible — it blends jazz-influenced chord changes with propulsive pop-rock production and a chorus that keeps climbing when you expect it to plateau. The key modulations throughout the song mean it’s technically challenging, which is exactly why karaoke singers love testing themselves against it. It’s the kind of song that sounds beautiful when sung well and still sounds heartfelt when the high notes don’t quite land.

The first time I heard this track was on a flight to Tokyo, and I immediately opened my laptop to find out who made it. That reaction — the compulsive need to identify a song mid-listening — is a reliable signal that something genuinely special is happening. I’ve since used Pretender in J-pop DJ sets as a “reaching moment” — the song you drop when the energy needs to peak emotionally rather than physically.

Pretender dominated Japan’s streaming charts throughout 2019, earning a Diamond certification and breaking multiple download records. It received the Grand Prix at the Japan Record Award in 2019 — one of the most prestigious honours in Japanese music. On karaoke ranking platforms, it remains in the permanent top-ten rotation and is considered a benchmark for contemporary J-pop karaoke difficulty, sung by those who want to prove they can actually sing.

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4. Ue o Muite Arukō — Kyu Sakamoto

🎯 Why this made the list: The only Japanese song to ever top the American Billboard Hot 100, this is living history with a melody that refuses to let you sit still.

📅 1961 · 🎵 Classic J-pop · ▶️ 50M+ views · 🎧 40M+ streams

Ue o Muite Arukō [I Look Up As I Walk] was recorded by Kyu Sakamoto in 1961, written by Hachidai Nakamura and lyricist Rokusuke Ei. In the West it became known as Sukiyaki — a name given to it by British record label Pye Records simply because they needed something Japanese-sounding that Western audiences could remember. The song tells the story of walking with chin raised to stop tears from falling — a sentiment of quiet, dignified sadness that somehow translates perfectly across every culture.

The melody is deceptively simple and built for singing. Its gentle, lilting quality means it sits comfortably in most vocal ranges, and the Japanese lyrics have a rhythmic flow that feels natural even to non-native speakers once you’ve heard the song a few times. There’s a tenderness in the arrangement — the brushed drums, the light horns, the restrained strings — that gives singers room to breathe and emote without fighting the backing track.

For me, this song represents karaoke’s deepest truth: that great music doesn’t need spectacle to move people. I’ve been in karaoke rooms where the youngest person present had never heard this before their first visit, and watched them fall completely silent when someone older sang it — really sang it — with all the weight it deserves. That kind of cross-generational impact is something I’ve chased in my DJ sets for two decades, and this song achieves it effortlessly.

In 1963, Sukiyaki reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States — making it the only Japanese-language song in history to achieve that feat. It has since been covered hundreds of times by artists worldwide, including versions by Taste of Honey and 4PM. In Japan, it remains a karaoke institution — sung at family gatherings, corporate parties, and late-night sessions by those who want a moment of genuine, uncomplicated emotion.

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5. Hikaru Nara — Goose house

🎯 Why this made the list: The opening theme for Your Lie in April that turned an entire generation of anime fans into people who genuinely feel things — impossible not to sing along.

📅 2014 · 🎵 Acoustic J-pop · ▶️ 200M+ views · 🎧 130M+ streams

Hikaru Nara [Shining] was performed by Goose house as the opening theme for the acclaimed anime series Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso (Your Lie in April), which aired from October 2014. Goose house was a collaborative music group that originated from YouTube, which meant the song carried a certain warmth and accessibility from the very beginning — this was music made by real people for real people, and it shows in every note. The anime itself, centring on a piano prodigy reconnecting with music through grief, gave the song an emotional backdrop that amplifies its impact enormously.

The song is a burst of joyful energy — which is somewhat at odds with the devastating emotional territory of the anime it soundtracks, and that contrast is part of its genius. Bright acoustic guitars, layered harmonies, and a chorus that practically lifts you off the ground make it an absolute joy to perform. The call-and-response structure between male and female vocalists means it works beautifully as a duet, which is karaoke currency of the highest denomination.

I discovered this track through a friend who was deep into anime, and I’ll be honest — I wasn’t expecting it to hit me the way it did. There’s something about the arrangement that just radiates warmth, like sunlight through a window on a cold day. I’ve since played the instrumental in DJ warmup sets when I want to shift the room’s emotional temperature without announcing it too loudly. It works every single time.

While Hikaru Nara didn’t chart conventionally in Japan through traditional radio routes, its streaming numbers have grown consistently year over year as Your Lie in April continues to reach new audiences globally. On karaoke machines, it’s a perennial favourite — particularly among the 15-to-25 age group — and its YouTube performance video, which shows the group singing together in a relaxed, joyful setting, has accumulated hundreds of millions of views worldwide. It’s proof that organic, community-driven music can outlast virtually any manufactured pop moment.

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6. Yoru ni Kakeru — YOASOBI

🎯 Why this made the list: Born on the internet, built for the moment, and vocally demanding in the best possible way — this is the 2020s version of what Japanese karaoke should feel like.

📅 2019 · 🎵 Electronic J-pop · ▶️ 500M+ views · 🎧 500M+ streams

Yoru ni Kakeru [Crossing into the Night] was released in October 2019 as the debut single from YOASOBI, a duo consisting of producer Ayase and vocalist ikura (Lilas Ikuta). The song was based on a short novel published on the Monogatary.com platform, adapting its themes of love and a pact between two souls into a breathtaking piece of pop music. It was originally released exclusively on streaming platforms, bypassing traditional media entirely — and went viral anyway, proving definitively that the gatekeepers of the music industry were no longer the only path to relevance.

The song’s defining musical feature is its extraordinary tempo and ikura’s rapid-fire vocal delivery, which sits somewhere between conversational urgency and emotional desperation. The production layers electronic beats with melodic piano motifs in a way that feels urgent and intimate simultaneously. At karaoke, it’s considered a genuine challenge — the speed of the verses catches people off guard, and nailing the pitch shifts in the chorus requires real vocal control. But that difficulty is precisely the point; conquering a hard song at karaoke is one of life’s great small victories.

I’ve watched this song become a litmus test in karaoke rooms. The people who know it really know it — they’ve practised, they’ve obsessed over it, and when they perform it, there’s a focus in their eyes that I recognise from watching great DJs read a room. This track demands presence. It’s one of the songs that made me fall back in love with J-pop as a genre, because it proved the music was evolving in genuinely exciting directions rather than resting on its legacy.

Yoru ni Kakeru became one of the most-streamed Japanese songs on Spotify globally, accumulating over 500 million streams internationally and spending extended periods on charts in South Korea, Taiwan, and Southeast Asian markets. It was a pivotal moment in J-pop’s growing global footprint, demonstrating that Japanese music could find massive international audiences through streaming without requiring Western market entry strategies. On karaoke charts in Japan, it remains in constant rotation and has introduced younger audiences to the karaoke box culture in large numbers.

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7. First Love — Utada Hikaru

🎯 Why this made the list: The song that defined a generation’s understanding of love songs in Japan — timeless, devastating, and built for a microphone in a dimly lit room.

📅 1999 · 🎵 J-R&B ballad · ▶️ 180M+ views · 🎧 250M+ streams

First Love was released in March 1999 as the lead single from Utada Hikaru’s groundbreaking album of the same name, which went on to become the best-selling album in Japanese music history. At the time, Hikaru was only 16 years old, yet the emotional depth she brought to this song of lost love felt far beyond her years. The album First Love sold over 7.6 million copies in Japan alone — a number that remains staggering to contemplate even decades later.

The song’s production is rooted in R&B, featuring lush string arrangements, a gentle rhythm section, and Hikaru’s extraordinary voice doing most of the heavy lifting. The melody is built around a series of ascending phrases that mirror the emotional escalation of remembering a lost relationship — simple, direct, and utterly effective. It’s the kind of ballad where the spaces between the notes matter as much as the notes themselves, giving singers room to inhabit the emotion rather than simply reproduce the melody.

When I’m in a karaoke room and someone cues this up, I always put down whatever I’m drinking. There’s a respect that comes over the room — even people who don’t know the song somehow sense that something significant is happening. I’ve heard this performed in four different countries now, always in Japanese, always by someone who clearly learned it because it meant something deep to them. That’s the sign of a truly great song: it makes people do the work.

First Love received renewed global attention in 2022 when it appeared prominently in the Netflix drama First Love, which was inspired by both this song and Hikaru’s wider catalogue. The series became one of Netflix’s most-watched Japanese productions internationally, introducing an entirely new generation to Utada Hikaru’s music. On Spotify, streams of First Love spiked dramatically following the series’ release, and it re-entered karaoke charts with enormous force — proving that great music doesn’t age, it just waits for the right moment.

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8. One Last Kiss — Utada Hikaru

🎯 Why this made the list: Dark, cinematic, and hauntingly beautiful — this Evangelion swan song proves Utada Hikaru can still define a moment 20 years into her career.

📅 2021 · 🎵 Synth-pop ballad · ▶️ 120M+ views · 🎧 200M+ streams

One Last Kiss was released in January 2021 as the theme song for Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, the final film in the Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy. The song arrived after years of anticipation from fans who had waited over a decade for the franchise’s conclusion, and it carried the full weight of that expectation with quiet confidence. Utada Hikaru, who had previously contributed Beautiful World and Fly Me to the Moon arrangements to the Evangelion universe, delivered what many consider her finest adult work with this track.

Musically, One Last Kiss is sophisticated in a way that rewards close listening. The production, handled partly by Hikaru herself, layers synth textures with orchestral elements, creating something that sounds simultaneously intimate and cinematic. The lyrics carry a sense of loving farewell — appropriate for a film concluding a 25-year story — and Hikaru’s vocal delivery is restrained in a way that makes the emotional peaks hit harder by contrast. In karaoke settings, the song rewards singers who understand dynamics and can resist the temptation to oversing.

I came to this song the same way millions of others did — sitting in the dark watching the final Evangelion film with that particular feeling of something ending that you’ve loved for a long time. When the credits rolled with this playing, I stayed in my seat until the screen went blank. As a DJ, I think about emotional peaks constantly, and few song placements in cinema or music have hit me quite the way this one did. It’s the kind of song you earn by going through something.

The song debuted at number one on Japan’s Billboard Hot 100 and performed strongly across Asian streaming markets. It won Best J-Pop Song at several industry awards and became Utada Hikaru’s biggest international streaming success, crossing 200 million Spotify streams — remarkable for a track tied to a Japanese theatrical release. In karaoke contexts, it attracts the same reverent silence as First Love, sung by people who want to mark an ending or a beginning with something that genuinely matters.

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9. Inferno — Mrs. GREEN APPLE

🎯 Why this made the list: Explosive energy, a vocal workout disguised as a rock anthem, and the Fire Force anime connection that made it a global earworm — this one turns every karaoke room into a concert.

📅 2019 · 🎵 J-rock anime · ▶️ 100M+ views · 🎧 90M+ streams

Inferno was released in July 2019 as the opening theme for the anime series Enen no Shouboutai (Fire Force), adapted from Atsushi Ohkubo’s manga series. Mrs. GREEN APPLE, led by vocalist and primary songwriter Motoki Ohashi, had already established themselves as one of Japan’s most exciting rock bands before this release, but Inferno represented a significant step into the international spotlight. The song’s sheer velocity and Ohashi’s theatrical vocal performance made it an immediate fan favourite.

The track opens with a declaration of intent — crashing guitars and a pounding rhythm that doesn’t let up — before Ohashi’s voice enters with a melodic confidence that transforms pure energy into something emotionally resonant. There are passages of relative calm that make the explosive choruses hit even harder, and the bridge contains a key change that, when sung well at karaoke, genuinely sounds like a superhero transformation. The production balances raw rock energy with pop accessibility, which is exactly the combination that makes a song explode in karaoke rooms.

I find this song fascinating from a DJ perspective because it solves a problem I’m always trying to address: how do you maintain energy while also giving people something to feel rather than just move to? Inferno does both simultaneously. I’ve used it in anime event sets and watched people who didn’t know the song get immediately swept up in its momentum — that’s the mark of a track that operates on pure instinct rather than acquired taste.

While Inferno didn’t dominate mainstream Japanese pop charts in the way that some ballads did, it performed exceptionally well in the anime music ecosystem and became a gateway track for international listeners discovering Japanese rock through streaming platforms. Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s streaming numbers outside Japan grew substantially following the song’s release, and its karaoke popularity has been sustained by the continued global reach of Fire Force on streaming services. It’s a staple of any karaoke session that wants to maintain high physical energy alongside emotional engagement.

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10. Gurenge — LiSA

🎯 Why this made the list: The Demon Slayer opening that became a global phenomenon — when this comes on in a karaoke room, every single person knows what to do.

📅 2019 · 🎵 J-rock anthem · ▶️ 550M+ views · 🎧 400M+ streams

Gurenge [Red Lotus] was released in July 2019 as the opening theme for Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba), the anime adaptation that became one of the highest-grossing media franchises in Japanese history. LiSA — real name Eri Oikawa — had been a respected figure in anime music circles for years, but Gurenge transformed her into a genuine mainstream superstar almost overnight. When the anime became a worldwide phenomenon, the song travelled with it.

LiSA’s vocal style is intensely physical — she sings from somewhere deep and powerful, and Gurenge showcases the full range and force of her voice. The song builds from a relatively controlled verse into a chorus that is genuinely thrilling, featuring soaring high notes and a rhythmic aggression that demands physical commitment from anyone attempting it at karaoke. The guitar work crackles with energy throughout, and the production has a clarity that means every vocal nuance — good or bad — is fully audible. At karaoke, that’s both the challenge and the thrill.

The first time I saw someone perform this at karaoke in Japan, the person held the microphone like they were about to go to war. They weren’t wrong. Gurenge requires you to commit completely — there’s no half-singing this track. As someone who appreciates performers who give everything in the moment, watching someone throw themselves fully into this song at two in the morning is one of the purest forms of musical joy I’ve encountered in my career. It’s not about perfection; it’s about that total surrender to the song.

Gurenge made history when LiSA became the first solo female artist to perform at Japan’s national Kōhaku Uta Gassen New Year’s broadcast with an anime song in the main category — a cultural milestone of enormous significance. The song reached the top of Japan’s Billboard Hot 100 and accumulated over 400 million streams on Spotify — extraordinary numbers for a Japanese-language track. In karaoke, it has become the de facto closing anthem for anime-themed sessions, the song everyone agrees to end on because nothing that comes after can possibly match it.

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Fun Facts: Japanese Karaoke Songs

Lemon — Kenshi Yonezu

Karaoke royalty: Lemon has topped JOYSOUND’s annual karaoke ranking multiple years in a row, a feat unmatched in the platform’s modern history.

A Cruel Angel’s Thesis — Yoko Takahashi

Generational reach: The song has charted on Japanese karaoke popularity lists across five separate decades, from the 1990s through to the 2020s.

Pretender — Official HIGE DANdism

Technical marvel: Vocalist Fujihara Satoshi’s vocal range spans over three octaves, and Pretender is specifically designed to showcase the outer limits of that range throughout the song.

Ue o Muite Arukō — Kyu Sakamoto

Billboard barrier breaker: As Sukiyaki, this remains the only Japanese-language song to ever reach number one on the American Billboard Hot 100, a record that has stood since 1963.

Hikaru Nara — Goose house

YouTube origins: Goose house began as a YouTube channel, and Hikaru Nara‘s placement in Your Lie in April brought their organic, bedroom-music aesthetic to a global audience of millions.

Yoru ni Kakeru — YOASOBI

Literary roots: Every YOASOBI song is based on a specific work of fiction submitted to their literary platform, making Yoru ni Kakeru one of the rare pop hits directly adapted from a short story.

First Love — Utada Hikaru

Record breaker: The album First Love sold 7.6 million copies in Japan, making it the best-selling album in Japanese music history — a record it still holds.

One Last Kiss — Utada Hikaru

Quarter-century bookend: Utada Hikaru contributed music to the Evangelion franchise across 25 years, from the original 1997 series remixes to this 2021 finale — a uniquely sustained artistic relationship.

Inferno — Mrs. GREEN APPLE

Speed demons: The verse sections of Inferno rank among the fastest lyrical passages in mainstream anime music, requiring singers to articulate syllables at a rate that challenges even native Japanese speakers.

Gurenge — LiSA

Historic broadcast: LiSA’s Kōhaku Uta Gassen performance of Gurenge in 2020 was watched by millions and represented the first time an anime song had been featured as a primary category entry by a solo female artist.

These songs represent the absolute heart of what makes Japanese karaoke culture so extraordinary. Whether you’re a first-timer clutching the songbook or a seasoned regular who knows exactly which button skips the spoken intro, I hope this list gives you something to work with and something to aspire to. From one music obsessive to another — get in that booth, pick up that mic, and give it everything you’ve got.

— TBone

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the most popular Japanese karaoke song of all time?

In the modern era, Lemon by Kenshi Yonezu is widely regarded as the most popular Japanese karaoke song, having topped JOYSOUND and DAM karaoke rankings for multiple consecutive years. Historically, A Cruel Angel’s Thesis from Neon Genesis Evangelion holds an extraordinary record for sustained popularity across multiple decades. Both songs represent the dual soul of Japanese karaoke — the emotionally devastating new ballad and the classic anthem everyone knows.

What makes a great Japanese karaoke song?

The best Japanese karaoke songs tend to share a few key qualities: a singable melody that rewards emotional commitment, a chorus that climbs in a satisfying way, and lyrics that touch on universal themes like love, loss, and longing. Technical difficulty matters too — songs like Pretender and Yoru ni Kakeru are popular partly because nailing them feels like a genuine achievement. The production should also support the singer rather than overwhelm them, giving the human voice space to breathe and be heard.

Where can I listen to Japanese karaoke music?

Spotify has excellent J-pop and anime song playlists that cover most of the songs on this list, and it’s where I’d start for casual listening and learning lyrics. YouTube is indispensable for watching live performances and music videos — many of the original music videos have accumulated hundreds of millions of views on official channels. For actual karaoke practice, apps like Smule and Karafun carry Japanese song libraries, while visiting a Japanese karaoke chain like Karaoke-kan, Big Echo, or Joysound offers the full authentic experience.

Who are the most famous Japanese karaoke artists?

Utada Hikaru, Kenshi Yonezu, and LiSA represent three generations of Japanese pop music that have all made enormous impacts on karaoke culture. Older generations would add Kyu Sakamoto, Seiko Matsuda, and B’z to that list without hesitation. In the anime music world specifically, artists like Yoko Takahashi, Aimer, and YOASOBI have built devoted global followings whose love for the music often expresses itself most fully in karaoke rooms.

Is Japanese karaoke music popular outside Japan?

Absolutely — and this is something I’ve watched grow dramatically over the past decade through my work as a DJ. The global spread of anime through streaming platforms like Netflix and Crunchyroll has introduced Japanese music to audiences who might never have encountered it otherwise, and those fans often end up at karaoke boxes in their home countries seeking out the songs they know and love. Cities like London, New York, Sydney, and Seoul all have thriving Japanese karaoke scenes, and tracks like Gurenge and Yoru ni Kakeru are sung with as much passion in Manchester as they are in Osaka.