Which songs do you think...
 

which japanese songs do you think are HUGELY famous in Japan?
songs that you could stop 30 people walking down the street and they'd all know it.
it can be any genre; j-rock, j-pop, j-hip-hop, enka, jazz, etc. from any decade. (nothing too ancient though! at least in this century and the last one. xDD)

also, don't just name a song cause you really like it.
if you have knowldge on Japanese pop-culture i'd really like your input!

Interesting thing, really

Well, most japanese people I've met have at least listened to:
Ayumi Hamasaki - Boys & Girls
Mr. Children - Tomorrow Never Knows
Namie Amuro - CAN YOU CELEBRATE?
Southern All Stars - Namida no Kiss
Utada Hikaru - Automatic
and the multiple-artist-colaboration Dango 3 Kyodai

Utada Hikaru - First Love
Perfume - Polyrhythm
Ayumi Hamasaki - Dearest
Koda Kumi - Butterfly
ayaka - I believe
BoA - Winter Love
BoA - Meri Kuri
BoA - VALENTI
Utada Hikaru - Hikari
Ayumi Hamasaki - evolution
Utada Hikaru - Automatic
Utada Hikaru - Can You Keep A Secret
Namie Amuro - Baby Don't Cry
Namie Amuro - Can you celebrate?
Angela Aki - Tegami (Haikei Jūgo no Kimi e)
Ayumi Hamasaki - JEWEL
Utada Hikaru -Traveling
Utada Hikaru - Final Distance
Utada Hikaru - Wait and See
Utada Hikaru - Passion
Pefume - Love The World
Kimura Kaela - Butterfly
Ayumi Hamasaki - M
Koda Kumi - Moon Crying
Utada Hikaru - Beautiful World
Aoyama Thelma - Soba ni Iru ne

I highlighted only the ones I think are most famous....in my opinion

thanks Ayumi27 and DEEP RIVER, i haven't heard a few of the songs you've listed.

i mostly wanna know cause I wanna broaden my listening choices and gain more knowledge of Japanese pop-culture.

anyone who knows any 80s songs? or enka?
i'm really intrested! xD

can only think of these:

globe - DEPARTURES (1996)
Namie Amuro - CAN YOU CELEBRATE? (1997)
Dreams Come True - Love Love Love (1995)
SMAP - sekai ni hitotsu dake no hana (2003)

Well, I'm not that into enka, but about 80's music I guess some of the most popular acts back then were Southern All Stars, Haruomi Hosono, Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi, Yumi Matsutoya, etc.

"Rubi no yubiwa" by Akira Terao was the bigger-selling single of the decade... And Seiko Matsuda was huge as well.

thanks aloopy! i'm loving that DREAMS COME TRUE song. xD

@Ayumi27: thanks, i'm gonna start searching right away!

I would say:

CAN YOU CELEBRATE? - Namie Amuro
First Love - Hikaru Utada
Flavor of Life - Hikaru Utada
Boys & Girls - Ayumi Hamasaki
SEASONS - Ayumi Hamasaki
Gekkou - Chihiro Onitsuka
Kawa no Nagare no You ni - Hibari Misora
Koko de Kiss Shite - Ringo Shiina
Soba ni Iru ne - Thelma Aoyama

I think you guys got all the songs by the main J-Pop girls.. Except, everybody probably knows Namie Amuros Body Feels EXIT, along with Hikki's Can You Keep A Secret? (I don't think anybody said that one..) Kumi's TAKE BACK is probably one everybody knows, since it's the debut, and Butterfly is at least very well-known, since that was her breakthrough. ..Oh, and did anybody mention any Mika Nakashima? Yuki no Hana is probably her overall biggest. And MISIA's Everything is definitely known by a lot of people, because it's always in those 'top love songs' lists, along with Hikki's First Love and such. Oh! And Ringo Shiina's first song, Koko de KISS Shite is pretty big (just saw Zyo already said that though :X), along with her Ringo no Uta... Did anybody mention any of Ai Otsuka? Her first album was huge, and she had a few really big hits afterwards, too. Considering the chart length, every person in Japanese has HAD to of heard Sakuranbo at least once. XD ayaka's hits are probably starting to become known all around, too, like I believe.
Tryin' to think of some rock bands, hah... Of course, a few B'z songs (like PIERROT - which would also be very well known by Aya Kamiki's version :P). Hm.... L'arc~en~Ciel's READY STEADY GO is their biggest, of course. So I'm sure at least a lot of people have heard that one.
OH! hide!! How could I forget him??? PINK SPIDER. Everybody's heard that. Probably a few other of his songs, too, like LEMONed I Scream or Beauty & Stupid. And while we're on that note, X JAPAN's Tears, Silent Jealousy and Kurenai are all huge.
And everybody~ should know I LOVE YOU, originally by Yutaka Ozaki. :yes Why, even Hitomi Shimatani's brand new album contained yet another cover of it (which is a very good cover, by the way :D).


There's tons more, of course..... This question is kinda un-answerable when you think about it, hah. Because we're all picking people's biggest hits, but you know there's at least a few weirdos who have never heard these. XD And then on the other hand, big hits, but ones that aren't staples or anything, are also very possibly known by everybody. Like Ayu's HEAVEN. It's pretty recent and after her peak ended and everything, but it's still really known. Same with, say, Yuki Koyanagi's Anata no KISS wo Kazoemashou. She's not extremely known, and I can't even remember the last time she released, but that was huge when it came out. So a lot of people probably know that one...
So yeah. It's all kind of opinion, in the end. XP

the only song i can come up with is Ai Otsuka's Sakuranbo XD that song was HUUUUUGEE

and i also think kumi's butterfly was a big hit as well :yes

Finally someone mentioned this song XDDDD It's a huge karaoke favorite it seems, so I'm sure everyone knows this.

^@_____@ First Love was first on my list. If someone asked me what Japanese music sounds like that's the song I would show them.

I'm going to be weird and add these too:

Momen no Handkerchief - Hiromi Ohta
Ii Hi Tabidachi, Nishi e - Momoe Yamaguchi
Amagigoe - Sayuri Ishikawa (performs it all the time on Kouhaku)
Nada Sou Sou - Rimi Natsukawa (Ryoko Nakamori originally sang this but it was made famous by Rimi Natsukawa and has been covered COUNTLESS times)
Shima Uta - THE BOOM
jupiter - Ayaka Hirahara
Sotsugyou Shashin - Yumi Matsutoya (Under her birth name Yumi Arai)
Ai Uta - GReeeeN
Kiseki - GReeeeN

^ That's not being too weird, hah.
I actually really agree with Ii Hi Tabidachi and Sotsugyou Shashin. Both are very famous, and both have had covers. Only, maybe, younger kids wouldn't know them.
Nada Sou Sou has been covered a lot, too.
And Jupiter... It isn't huge like some of these, but it's definitely Hirahara's biggest song.

Yeah, I think I were to remove any it would be Jupiter, but I think that it's big for her...I mean she's still milking from its success in a way. :\

^ Yeah, wasn't her best named after it? XP

But, one song I forgot........
KUMI'S YOU!! D: you has to be her overall biggest song. Definitely a huge hit, her first number one, the mark of a new era... Totally huge for Kuu, and in music in general.

"Ren'ai Revolution 21" - Morning Musume.
"LOVE Machine" - Morning Musume.
"CAN YOU CELEBRATE?" - Namie Amuro
"Meri Kuri" - BoA
"M" - Ayumi Hamasaki
"Boys & Girls" - Ayumi Hamasaki
"Voyage" - Ayumi Hamasaki
"Automatic" - Utada Hikaru
"First Love" - Utada Hikaru
"Nada Sōsō" - Rimi Natsukawa
"Love, Day After Tomorrow" - Mai Kuraki
"Stay by my side" - Mai Kuraki
"Secret of my heart" - Mai Kuraki
"Everything" - MISIA
"ENDLESS STORY" - Yuna Ito
&
Every single Arashi song.

LOL i honestly doubt every single song would be known! :laugh (although i wouldn't be surprised) but realistically, i think Love so sweet, One Love, and WISH would be best known because of hana yori dango. and i think kitto daijoubu would be widely known, too.

OH I never noticed. Sorry about that haha.

agree with this 2.
add one more :FIRST LOVE-UTADA HIKARU