10-Year Anniversary of Her Major Debut! A Special Musical Interview With Japanese Artist NakamuraEmi

Anime Corner brings you an interview with a special artist at a special milestone: A sitdown with NakamuraEmi, days after the 10th anniversary of her major debut on January 20! I’ve had the honor of following her for a few years. Her sound, sometimes delicate, sometimes raw, often acoustic, slipping between rap and song, always takes advantage of an array of sounds and cadences that transform your surroundings into the world she sees. Enka, kayokyoku, J-pop, jazz, funk, hip-hop: There’s a real depth to her music to explore through this interview, and I’ve dotted some of her songs throughout.

What does the world look like from her eyes? In this interview, where the person and the music blend together. I hope you’ll be able to pull out a bit of both.

Anime Corner: Thank you for your time.
First of all, congratulations on the 10th anniversary of your major debut! How did you celebrate / how are you celebrating?

NakamuraEmi: Thank you as well — I’m very happy to be interviewed and appreciate the opportunity.
On January 20, the day of my 10th anniversary, my longtime producer, manager, PA, and art director — the people who have supported me throughout the years — threw a party for me.
We also streamed live from the bar I usually go to, so I could celebrate together with my fans. It was a truly happy day.

Q: What pushed me to finally request an interview was listening to “Ame no you ni naiteyare.”
It’s a song that, even if it’s the first time listening to it, you immediately know how to hum, dance, and nod along to it, and I think that’s a mainstay in your music. Is there a general process to building out your music?

NakamuraEmi: It’s a song I often perform live, so I’m really glad to hear that.
When it comes to my songwriting process, lyrics are what I value most. I always jot down words that resonate with me, and when I start writing a song, I choose words from my notes that connect with what I want to express.
Then I loop three or four chords I like and search for the melody and lyrics.
When I work with my producer and guitarist Hiroshi Kawamura, sometimes we start by creating the music first.

Q: Would you describe yourself as someone who loves to dance?

NakamuraEmi: Yes, I do. I even took dance lessons for a short time.

Q: How did your childhood influence your musicality, and what would you describe as the major turning points in your sound?

NakamuraEmi: I didn’t actively make music as a child, but my father was a band vocalist, so I often watched him play guitar and sing at home. My mother was a kindergarten teacher and played the piano, and my younger brother is also a musician, so music was always around me.

My parents often sang enka and kayokyoku, and I think that influence can be heard in my melodic lines.
Later on, seeing live performances of reggae, jazz, and hip-hop became a major turning point for my music. Those genres taught me what “freedom” in music could be.

—Writer’s Note: NakamuraEmi mentions her roots in enka and kayokyoku in her song “Umeda no Yoru” below:

Q: There’s an intimate quality to your music: there’s the acoustic guitar and various percussive sounds, like guitar taps, drums, clapping, and clicking, as well as vocals, all at different intensities and distances from the ear, which evoke a “community” vibe. It’s like listening to a live performance. How has “community” factored into your music, whether it’s because you were part of a musical one, or your love of live performances, etc.?

NakamuraEmi: In my twenties, when I performed solo with just a guitar, I practiced what I had decided beforehand and played it exactly that way on stage.

But one day, I saw a reggae live performance for the first time at a small local curry shop. The weather that day, the audience, even the sound of someone dropping a spoon — everything became part of the lyrics and the music. It was a one-of-a-kind live experience that could only exist in that moment, and that sense of atmosphere changed me.

Now, when I make recordings, I try to capture the temperature and the scent of the moment I’m in.
I want my songs to feel like someone you can talk to, so hearing that this came across really moved me.

NakamuraEmi – “I”:

Q: What are some songs of yours you would recommend people to connect with specific emotions or messages, even if they don’t understand the lyrics?

NakamuraEmi: I would recommend the song “Nage Kiss.”
During the pandemic, when the world came to a halt, I immediately started performing through radio and livestreams. I wrote this song with the wish that one day, people all over the world would be able to take off their masks and blow kisses again.
The song includes unusual sounds that evoke the presence of a “virus,” and toward the end it becomes very passionate, as if that strong wish is being delivered to God.
I also really love the music video.

Q: How has your personal development led to changes in your music since your major debut?

NakamuraEmi: Because I had always made music alongside work, relationships, and daily life, I used to think that “making music as a full-time job” wasn’t something I could do.
However, with the support of great people, I entered the music industry and was able to keep making songs with the same mindset I had before my debut.
That said, I released an album every year, and after a few years, I felt like I had already given everything I had.
Then COVID led me to collaborate with many musicians and continue creating new kinds of live performances, which gave me more time to face myself — and that connected directly to my songwriting.
I truly feel that staying flexible and meeting people opens up new possibilities for my music.

Q: You recently said that you weren’t able to pose for pictures when you debuted; has your growth there affected your music? [laugh]

NakamuraEmi: I still can’t do it very well [laughs].
But by working with professionals in artwork, photography, lighting, and video, I learned that a single song can shine in many different ways.
Being able to see my songs and performances from different perspectives has expanded my world, both in songwriting and in live performances.

Q: Your expression of what it means to be a woman and what it means to be a woman in Japan is something that, even if you don’t understand Japanese, the intensity and sincerity of your message through the NIPPONNO ONNAWO UTAU series’ vocals, rapping, and song production came across clearly.
Do you feel like reality has gotten closer to your ideal change in society since you debuted 10 years ago with this? How does the similarity/difference between reality and ideal make you feel?

NakamuraEmi: When I was in junior high school, I was moody and selfish, and I ended up being disliked by all the girls in my class. After that continued for a while, I finally realized how unpleasant my own behavior had been, and I started trying to adapt myself to others.

After that, I spent a lot of time in female-dominated environments — on a girls’ volleyball team, at a women’s junior college, and working as a kindergarten teacher. When I started making music and interacting more with men, I became aware that I had what I would call a “female way of thinking.”
There was a version of me that had become strongly shaped by the typically Japanese tendency to “adjust” or “fit in,” and at the same time, another part of me that wanted to work with a more assertive, traditionally “male” mindset. I sometimes wished I had been born in another country — or not as a woman — and I turned those struggles and hopes into songs as a way to encourage myself.

At the same time, I think the fact that I can even reflect on things like this is, in itself, a privilege. If war were happening in Japan, there would be no room for such thoughts. I hope we can move toward a world where children everywhere are able to worry about and think deeply about themselves. And I believe an important first step is for us adults to be “cool” and “interesting” role models for the children around us.

Q: Your first album departure from the NIPPONNO ONNAWO UTAU series was Momi.
What was the journey and decisions that went into creating Momi’s songs, deciding on what tracks would be used, the track order, etc.?

NakamuraEmi: When the world stopped during COVID, my producer Hiroshi Kawamura and I often talked about how, in a sense, legends and newcomers were all standing at the same starting line.

That’s what led us to challenge ourselves with Momi. I changed things I had never changed before — the album title, the recording team, the band members — and focused on new sessions with new people. The songs themselves were very real reflections of the pandemic era.

Sonically, while my previous albums emphasized sweaty, earthy, live sounds, that didn’t match the sterile days of COVID, so I challenged myself with programmed sounds as well.

I also collaborated with overseas musicians for the first time, including trumpeter Dominick Farinacci, and mastering engineers John Davis (Metropolis Mastering) and Mandy Parnell (Black Saloon Studios).

It’s an album full of challenges that would never have been born without COVID.

Q: Your latest album, KICKS, began with the groovy mix of rapping and singing that fans know and love. It marked your first album in almost three years, which was a relatively longer gap between your albums. The album again drew on various genres, including funk, hip-hop, and jazz, and notably featured more guest artists than previously.
What transpired during that album gap that influenced your decisions on the album?

NakamuraEmi: After releasing Momi, we overcame many things together — livestream shows with no audience, tours where masks were mandatory and cheering wasn’t allowed, the growth of social media, and performing live with different band members each time.

Through all of that, my trust and shared language with Hiroshi Kawamura deepened, and a major change between Momi and KICKS was that we started creating songs together from the songwriting stage.
I was also invited to perform with artists from many different genres, and even when the genres were different, I found that what we felt in our hearts was the same. They gave me new sonic sensations.

Ten years ago, I stubbornly believed I should collaborate only after establishing my own “core,” but now I feel that if you meet an amazing musician, you should work together while you can. KICKS became an album about taking a new step forward.

Q: Your 10th anniversary concert is next week, which sees you sharing the stage with UVERworld.
How did your relationship develop with the group, and what was the context for you both coming together for this milestone concert?

NakamuraEmi: It all started when UVERworld’s vocalist TAKUYA∞ came to see my live performance.
As I prepare for the next ten years, I felt that performing live with truly strong artists would give me the most strength.
UVERworld, who feel like champions as they celebrate their 25th anniversary, agreeing to perform with me carries a lot of meaning. By standing on the same stage, I want to clearly understand what’s different — and grow tougher and more flexible over the next decade.

Q: What should fans expect as part of this anniversary concert experience?

NakamuraEmi: The concert is titled after the judo move “Seoi-nage. (背負い投げ)”
It’s like UVERworld as a king lion versus NakamuraEmi as an ant.
Will NakamuraEmi throw UVERworld with a shoulder throw, or be thrown the whole time?
I hope people enjoy this completely different genre pairing that’s only possible in a joint live show.

—Writer’s note: I absolutely love this.

Q: Many overseas fans know UVERworld for their unique sound, as well as their anime songs.
You previously did theme songs for Warau Salesman NEW, Megalobox, and Radiant.
We cover a lot of anime and manga here [laughs], so I have to ask if you have any favorite titles, what you’re enjoying recently, and whether a return to performing an anime song is on the cards?

NakamuraEmi: I do read manga. I like works often categorized as shojo manga, such as Ryo Ikuemi’s Rose Rosy Roseful Bud, which depicts the life of a manga artist in her 40s, and Makihirochi’s Sketchy, about a woman who starts skateboarding.
But Dragon Ball is my bible.
Anime allowed me to connect with people overseas, and I hope to continue creating music for anime in the future.

Q: Released on January 20, “UBU” marks your first song of 2026 and the first of your 11th year.
What do you hope fans take with them from this song?

NakamuraEmi: Looking back on my 44 years of life, I realize that I was hurt by words, came to dislike words, but in the end, I was also saved by someone’s words.
Today, we’re flooded with words through social media every day. Even when a small feeling like “this is nice” or “I want to try this” is born, it’s hard to preserve its purity amid constant mixed opinions.
That’s why this song is about cherishing the feelings that come from your own heart and cells — the feelings of “I like this” and “I want to try” — and continuing to give birth to new versions of yourself.

Q: With it being 10 years since your major debut, what do you hope the next 10 years look like?

NakamuraEmi: I believe the best way to deliver music is through live performances.
Being able to perform live with a healthy voice and body, absorbing new things daily while keeping your mind healthy — these may seem ordinary for a musician, but continuing them for another ten years feels almost miraculous to me, especially as I’ve experienced the loss of people close to me.
So for now, I want to keep stacking days where I can say, “I did my best today — it was a good day.”
And if, ten years from now at my 20th anniversary, you interview me again, I’d be so happy I’d want to give you a hug. I hope we’re both healthy then. Thank you for such a heartfelt interview.

Thank you to NakamuraEmi for her heartfelt answers and acceptance of this interview at such short notice. This interview was a challenge to myself, not quite to stand on the same stage as the people I respect, but at least not to run from them. I would love to do this again in 10 years. I would also like to thank NakamuraEmi’s management, Office Augusta, and express my gratitude to the team at Nippon Colombia (again) for the great translation and coordination of this interview.

I knew that I wanted to end this with a song, but it’s so hard to choose one. I’ll stick with “Sukeboman” as planned, but I’ll also add “Chiku-“, one of my most listened-to NakamuraEmi songs. I could’ve easily put “Nage Kiss,” “Kakattekoiyo,” “YAMABIKO,” or “I,” but if you can, please try them all.

NakamuraEmi – “Chiku-“: