Christian Japanese/French music?

[Cianter]

Ok, so first of all, I want to know if this is weird. I enjoy listening to, and learning songs in different languages, well, mainly Japanese, and recently French. So, weird, yes? But hey, I'm kind of a weird girl:P So, I was wondering if ya'll knew of any good Japanese, French Christian music? I am pretty much willing to try anything, so you can pick whatever songs, just so long as they are Christian. Well, if there is one you just love and it's not Christian, just so long as it's not like vulgar or sexual or anything like that:) So yea, that's it:D

[armeck]

I don't blelieve there is much Christian music in Japanese

[Crossfire]

That is correct. I went to a couple churches while I was in Japan, and all of them sang hymns. So, unless you like listening to that stuff you're out of luck on that front.

[Cianter]

Well, like, Lena Park, who is a Christian, sings Inori You Raise Me Up, which is an American Christian song. It is the opening song of Romeo x Juliet, and she sings it in both Japanese and English, so are there any Japanese dubbed English songs maybe? And like I said, if you know of any good secular music...you know:)

[FllMtl Novelist]

Yeah, the closest thing I can think of is Krystal Meyers, an American Christian artist I've heard has done fairly well in Japan--but I'm pretty sure her songs are all English. Maybe you could see if she's done any Japanese versions of her songs?

If you just want clean foreign stuff to translate, I know I (and probably a bunch of other people) can think of anime songs with clean lyrics.


I'm afraid I don't know anything about French music, though.

[Kaori]

Despite Japan's very small Christian population, there are some Japanese Christian artists out there. Also, there are praise songs in Japanese, not just hymns--both of the churches I've regularly attended while living in Japan sing praise songs rather than hymns. However, they are almost always just Western praise songs translated into Japanese, not songs originally written in Japanese.

This website lists a few Japanese Christian artists; so does this one, and Morishige Noboru (mentioned in passing by the latter) is a Christian artist who played at my school's chapel once.

This articlegives a very lengthy overview of the entire history of French CCM. There are tons of names of artists and bands in it, but you'll have to read through the article for them.

As far as clean non-Christian stuff goes, if you like musicals, you could try listening to some in French (I like the French soundtrack to Les Miserables; it's not really Christian, but it's very Christian-friendly). You can also probably find some reasonably clean pop songs by artists like Celine Dion (who sings in French sometimes) or San.Drine. I'm not too familiar with French music, though, so I can't help much with that.

Over the many years that I've listened to J-pop and anime music, I've found most of it to be extremely inoffensive. For example, in the lyrics of my favorite J-pop artist, Sakamoto Maaya, I haven't found anything worse than the word "koibito" ("lover"). If you want to check a specific song to find out if its content is okay, you can look up its lyrics on the Anime Lyrics website, which has an extensive database of anime songs, J-pop, and so on, with English translations.

Oh, and although I don't think this is what you were asking for, French is popular enough in Japan that every now and then you can find Japanese music sung in French, like "Hymne à l'amour" as sung by Utada Hikaru and the two French songs in the Wolf's Rain soundtracks, "Flying to You" and "Valse de la Lune." They're definitely not Christian, though.

[Atria35]

Well, like, Lena Park, who is a Christian, sings Inori You Raise Me Up, which is an American Christian song. It is the opening song of Romeo x Juliet, and she sings it in both Japanese and English, so are there any Japanese dubbed English songs maybe? And like I said, if you know of any good secular music...you know:)

I'd like to point out that, while the music is that of a Christian song in English, because lyrics do not translate directly from one language to another the lyrics to that song aren't Christian in the Japanese version - they rewrote it so it was simply a love song.

Anycase, Nobuaki Irie and Afterglow are two Christian Japanese bands. Kokia is also a fantastic Japanese singer who's also Christian.

[Cianter]

Yes, I know they translated it differently, but it is still a good song which could still be looked at in a Christian light:) And thank you so much For the info guys, I will definitely look into all these recommendations:D

[AnimeGirl]

Kokia is also a fantastic Japanese singer who's also Christian.

Oh wow, I never knew that before! Kokia is one of my favorites <333

[Tigerchu]

This is my specialty:) Lol.

Bilingual songs:

Japanese/English:Many Japanese songs

Inoue Joe "Closer", Gackt "Vanilla", One Piece opening "We Are" and "Bon Voyage"

French/English: Because (Connecte-toi), Elle me dit by Mika (recent hit), On and on (se donne) by Agnes

Just plain French: un monde sans danger Code Lyoko opening

I think there was a Jap/Fr/English one out there by a Japanese singer, but I forgot the title

The song "Barbie Girl" comes in a few languages, I think. If you check out Disney, they're good at dubbing and making it actually sound like it's the character. I heard that they did an especially good job with "The Lion King".
How do I have this list? Grew up traveling and this is what I've collected and liked.
If you're into CDs, try buying "NRG" top 20 CDs, which come out every year. NRG is a hit music radio station in France. Try looking up "French radio" or "Japanese radio" on google.
http://tunein.com/search/?query=Big+B Here's a good web site for that. Japanese music.
If you're interested in other foreign songs: Same Old Brand New You by British boyband A1 is currently my favorite song. Actually, the Orange FuZzZ remix, but whatever.

The singer Nek can do Spanish, Italian, and English. It's very popular overseas to do bilingual songs and they're everywhere.
Technically Gangnam style is Korean and English.
Korean/English: Beast, U-kiss, 2ne1, Super Junior personal favorites: Shock, Binguel, Binguel; and Sorry Sorry Sorry. Also Lies, Dirty Cash
Eye of the Tiger is redone by Amel Bent, a French singer, for the French animated movie "Asterix et Obelix et les Viking".

Amine does Arabic, French, English.

There are so many more out there.

[impact777]

What about Daisuke Yokoyama and Kat McDowell? They are both really good Christian Japanese singers.

[Cianter]

Thanks Tigerchu and impact777! I'll definitely have to look into those! And sorry I didn't respond till now, haven't been on in a while, heh.

[Raleford]

Also, I've been listening to Night de Light ナイトdeライト They have a youtube channel, too, "nightdelight7".