Climate Change in Japanese Music

Tomoki Maruyama

Sensoji, Tokyo

There are neither glacier nor desert in Tokyo.The climate changes, however, are staidly affecting people’s lives.

Picture of cherry blossoms

The cherry blossoms, that is the most popular flower in Japan, bloom earlier than before, due to global warming and the climate change.

People have been loving cherry blossoms for over 500years. Its beautifulness have been song, glorified, and praised.

The CHANGE is that cherry blossoms as a flowers of entrance ceremony to as that of graduating ceremony.

NoteIn Japan, graduation ceremonies are usually taken place on March 20th; entrance ceremonies are generally held on April 1st.

Notes“I will be a student” means “I will be a pupil”. ”Bye, my friends” means they will graduate from their school and part from each other.

“Cherry blossoms come out and I will be a student”(from a Japanese fairy tale, about 30 years ago)

“Bye, my friends, meet here again. On the road the petals of cherry blossoms float gently from above” (from a Japanese pop-music, today)

Climate Changes in Lyrics

It is said that spring have been moved forward by about 2weeks.

Japanese culture is certainly affected by climate changes.