ATSUKO NINA

Singer Atsuko Nina debuted in 1979. Her soft melodies and voice, like sunlight filtering through, instantly transport listeners to a summer seaside. Starting with “Invited to Summer” released under the name Eri Hayakawa and the album CITY, she relaunched as Atsuko Nina in 1983. She debuted with the acclaimed album ‘PLAY ROOM ～戯れ’. Her music, continuing through ‘LOCO ISLAND’, resonated with overseas surf-rock musicians while cementing summer memories into sound.

She began learning piano in the lower grades of elementary school, her first encounter with music. The door to singing opened during her high school club activities. She recounts being invited by a friend to casually observe the folk song club, which led directly to her joining. “I intended to just tag along, but before I knew it, the atmosphere felt like I had to join. At first, I sang folk songs while accompanying myself on guitar.”

Words by Makoto Matsuoka

By Atsuko’s second year of high school, she formed a rock band with members from other schools. During cultural festival season, they even snuck into other schools to borrow uniforms for their live performances. That now-fondly-remembered anecdote vividly conveys the raw passion of those days, when her heart was completely captured by music.

Looking back on that time, she says, “It was truly a wonderful period. What I'll never forget is the live performance at our school's sports festival after-party. The entire student body, people I'd never even spoken to, suddenly got really into it. In that moment, I felt the power of music very strongly.”

Even after advancing to junior college, Atsuko never strayed from music. She joined the light music club at another university and performed in a fusion band: a genre often considered a derivative of jazz. That experience would later profoundly influence the album she would produce, ‘PLAY ROOM～戯れ’.

Released in 1983, ‘PLAY ROOM～戯れ’ is now a sought-after album among connoisseurs, its value steadily rising. Composed entirely of Western music covers, it spans bossa nova classics like “One Note Samba” and “The Girl from Ipanema,” American popular songs such as “Mr. Bojangles,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” to Latin numbers like “Quizás, Quizás, Quizás” and “Bésame Mucho.” She reimagined them with a sophisticated sound rooted in jazz fusion, singing them with Japanese lyrics — an extremely challenging endeavour at the time.

Atsuko herself remarked, “Singing jazz and bossa nova felt like a very familiar form of expression for me.” The idea of performing jazz standards and bossa nova in Japanese originated from a proposal by her director at the time. Yet the reason it never sounded unnatural was likely because her innate musical vocabulary and sense of rhythm, cultivated intuitively since her student days, already inherently contained that expressive capacity.

In 1983, she underwent a name change. Behind it lay a reality far from smooth. “At the time, there was a conflict between my agency and the record company over the direction of my music... As a result, I had to leave the agency and change my name. Without an agency, I couldn't properly pursue my activities and spent my days in a state of frustration,” she recalls of that period.

The breakthrough that shattered that stagnation came the following year with the release of ‘LOCO ISLAND’. Its resort-inspired sound and expansive worldview marked a shift towards a style closer to what is now called city pop. This album significantly refreshed her image. Regarding this work, her first overseas recording, she says, “Recording in Hawaii, surrounded by the members of Kalapana and Henry Kapono, I was able to create in a truly relaxed state.”

Changing record labels and being able to share her favourite music with her staff also played a big role. “I think it's an album that became closer to my ‘true self’. I was very happy that so many people listened to it,” she said. The soundscape of ‘LOCO ISLAND’, light as sea breeze yet with a solid core, was the inevitable result of environmental change and the liberation of her spirit.

Now, Atsuko’s lyrics and titles often feature motifs evoking summer and the sea. “I'm truly grateful to be called the ‘princess of resort pop,’” she smiles. “I often receive comments saying that my music revives summer memories for listeners.” Even on a winter train, music instantly leaps across seasons. “Music transports you to summer and the seaside. I think that power is truly amazing,” she says.

She explains that when writing lyrics, she doesn't consciously aim to portray a specific female image. “I believe the image of a woman is something that reflects within the heart of each listener.” It's perhaps this very space for interpretation that allows her music to resonate across eras and generations.

Atsuko speaks with genuine feeling about the recent resurgence of city pop. During an 11-day tour across four Chinese cities from late July to early August 2025, every venue was packed with young fans in their 20s and 30s. “I was truly surprised by how many people brought analogue records to the signing sessions,” she recalls.

The sight of generations separated by an age gap akin to parent and child, all passionate about the same music. Faced with this reality, she expresses repeated gratitude. “To be able to meet everyone I wanted to meet, transcending eras, words, and borders. To enjoy music together. There's nothing more joyful than this.”

Released on December 24, 2025, ‘LIGHT MELLOW DELUXE Atsuko Nina’ is her current favourite project. This work features selections and supervision by music writer Toshikazu Kanazawa, who introduced Japanese and international music under the ‘Light Mellow’ category — emphasising keywords like ‘refinement’ and ‘urban sophistication’ — long before City Pop became a globally recognised genre.

For the live show centred around this album, she deliberately omitted cover songs she usually performed to get the crowd hyped, instead incorporating tracks she hadn't sung in a long time into the setlist. “Personally, it was a slightly adventurous song selection, but the result was a very cohesive, great live show. Being able to deliver a good, authentic live performance using only my own songs gave me tremendous confidence,” she said.

Atsuko never forgets her respect for the colleagues who have collaborated with her on music production. “The bassist Kō Shimizu, the two members of Flurry Pad, Daisuke Maeda, Hideyuki Shimizu... I have nothing but respect for each and every one of them as people, for their sincere attitude towards music and their warm personalities.”

This precious music was woven together with so many people. As long as each song continues to overlap with someone's summer memories, Atsuko Nina's songs will continue to resonate quietly, yet undeniably.

This interview appears in The MUSIC Issue 16, available here.

Images courtesy of Victor Entertainment Inc.