Ask John: Why Do Japanese Songs include English Lyrics?

Question:
Why is it so common to find English lyrics randomly placed in Japanese anime themes? Instead of speaking just Japanese songs seem to always add some English, which most Japanese people don’t understand. Some examples include the Project Arms opening theme, “Free Bird.” “Fly! You can be free bird! You can be free bird, hayaku…” Or Bakuretsu (Sorcerer) Hunters, “Shy na Venus, surrender subete…” Is this some kind of trend?

Answer:
There explanation for the commonality of English in Japanese language, and especially in Japanese pop music is contained in a vast number of different concepts, but most easily summarized in the nature of Japanese pop culture and social organization. While it may be true that the average Japanese native may have a very tenuous grasp on English, spoken English is not entirely foreign in Japan. Many Japanese primary schools include English as a standard course, along with math and history. Of course, English in Japanese schools focuses on reading comprehension more so than speaking, and it’s to be expected that the average Japanese person will forget 99% of the English learned through attrition once out of school. But the point is that English is not a totally unheard of language in Japan.

Part of the reason for the inclusion of English in school curriculums lies in the desire and need to communicate with Western businesses, but some of this attraction may also lie in the Japanese fascination with Western, and particularly American, pop culture. In effect, Japanese society has a natural attraction to being “cultural,” and enlightened and intelligent. (Keep in mind that statistically Japan has a higher literacy rate than America does; statistically Japanese are more intelligent than Americans). The inclusion of English language in Japanese pop songs provides a trendy hint of multi-culturalism, and the suggestion of “American rock & roll.” Furthermore, as any anime karaoke fan can tell you, English language in Japanese music adds a catchy “hook” to songs because of its different sound.

And English isn’t quite as foreign to Japanese pop music as some people may guess. Artists and groups including X-Japan, Maaya Sakamoto, BOA (Beat of the Angel), and Hikaru Utada have performed J-pop (as in popular Japanese music) songs entirely in English, and Hikaru Utada, in fact, is famous for being fluent and proficient in both spoken Japanese and English. Japanese language is actually full of English words, adopted from Western influence, like “concert,” “personal computer,” “telephone,” “hamburger,” “shoot,” “love,” “game,” and numerous other English words that seem so common that they’re often overlooked. The inclusion of English words in Japanese language may seem odd to native English speakers because English language does not typically “adopt” foreign language terms, but we must remember not to try to analyze Japanese language by the same rules that govern English language. In this respect, the inclusion of English in Japanese pop music, which is itself an adoption of the Western music created by the Beatles, Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley, is simply a natural extension of Japanese language itself.