Considering he's been out of work for over seven months, you'd expect Yusuke Ozaki's harmonica playing to hit a melancholic note.

Yet, Ozaki prefers a more upbeat, jazzy style. "I want to play a more cheerful kind of music," the 24-year-old said after entertaining a handful of passersby in a Tokyo park. "These days, we all need something to cheer us up, right?"

Indeed, while a suitable anthem for today's Japan might be an extended version of B.B. King's "Recession Blues," the harmonica is striking a more cheerful note for the nation's equally sluggish musical instrument industry.

According to industry officials, demand for harmonicas has escalated in recent months, with imports of the instrument reaching record highs in 1999.

Tokyo Customs officials said imports of harmonicas nationwide increased 21.9 percent over 1998 figures to a record 800,000 units. The value of those imports also hit a record 310 million yen, representing a nearly 30 percent increase over fiscal 1998.

An official of musical instrument retailer Mitaka Gakki, located in western Tokyo, said the popular bands Yuzu and 19 have provided significant impetus to the recent surge. The harmonica features prominently in their laid-back, street musician style, he said.

Particularly popular among the dozens of different harmonicas on the market is the earthy sounding blues harmonica, which is also favored by the two bands.

"Our stocks (of the blues harmonica) have been selling out very quickly," the official said. "These bands have had a huge influence, and as long as they're around, I think the trend will continue."

The most popular models on the market sell at about 1,000 yen for Chinese-made harmonicas -- which accounted for over half of the imports in 1999 -- and around 3,000 yen for "10-hole" varieties, such as German maker Matth. Hohner AG's popular Blues Harp.

According to Tokyo Customs officials, imports of German-made harmonicas increased a staggering 111 percent in 1999 over the previous year.

Nobuaki Owazaki, an official of Hohner's Japan agent, Moridaira Musical Instruments K.K., said a major reason for the surge was the escalating number of folk guitar-strumming street musicians in Japan.

"It's not the purist harmonica players (at the root of the boom) but street musicians. The harmonica is a perfect complement to the folk guitar," Owazaki said.

While acknowledging that sales have shown an upward trend in recent months, Yoshio Okamoto, manager of a specialist harmonica store in Kanagawa Prefecture, said a more conspicuous trend is the growing number of young people signing up for harmonica classes at his school.

"Until recently, older people made up the core of harmonica students," Okamoto said. "Now the number of young people playing has grown -- no doubt influenced by the likes of Yuzu and 19."

Madoka Fujita of Yamaha Music Tokyo Co.'s Shibuya branch also reported a similar increase in demand by young people for lessons at its school.

Until last summer, Yamaha's music school held just one biweekly class for the harmonica, Fujita said. "Then we gradually found ourselves with a fast-growing waiting list. Eventually we had to put a stop on applications."

The school has subsequently added an additional three classes to its schedule, with yet another due to start in May, he added.

Another rising trend is the number of women taking up the instrument. Fujita said that of the 40-odd students attending Yamaha's blues harp classes, almost half are women.

Masae Yasuma, a 26-year-old office worker in Kanagawa who recently started taking lessons, said she had been attracted by the instrument's affordable price and portability.

"I've been wanting to take up a musical instrument for a while," she said. "But there are few instruments that are affordable, unlike the blues harmonica, which is also convenient because you can take it wherever you go."

Okamoto believes this attitude is representative of young Japanese people's way of thinking -- not wanting to get caught up in something less mobile and thus more restricting, such as the piano.

"I'd like to think that this is not a mere boom . . . but more a reflection of the lifestyles of young Japanese," he said. "On a day off, put your harmonica in your pocket, and meet with friends to play together -- that kind of thing."

Meanwhile, Yasuharu Mano, chairman of the All Japan Harmonica Federation, is not impressed with the rising popularity being associated with "here one day, gone the next" bands.

"It's helpful if they bring a lasting, new image to the harmonica," Mano said. "But this is just a case of, if a musical celebrity uses a trumpet, trumpets will sell. As soon as their popularity dies out, so will sales."