Every generation has its theme song.
I was contemplating this quaint truism when trying to pinpoint a tune that would neatly sum up the mores of the men and women who grew to adulthood in Japan between 1960 and 1985, the era of rapid and spectacular economic expansion.
Was it 1961's jolly "Sukiyaki Song," with its uplifting lyric, "Let's walk with our eyes to the sky?" Or, conversely, could it be the sorrowful lament of Hibari Misora's 1966 hit, "Kanashii Sake" ("Sad Sake"): "Drinking all alone in a bar / I can taste the tears of parting?"