Can Kiyoshi Hikawa save enka?
Enka -- usually, but imperfectly, translated as "Japanese ballads" -- has fallen to an all-time low in terms of popularity, accounting for less than 10 percent of music sales in Japan.
One of the problems with enka is its hopelessly square image. Each week, music trade paper Oricon has several ads for the latest enka releases, and they feature either stuffy-looking, kimono-clad obasan or geezers with bad suits and punch perms who look like rejects from a Tora-san movie.