"Fu-ji-tsu" (stylized in all caps) is a song recorded by Japanese singer

Shizuka Kudo , known by her maiden name , is a Japanese singer, actress and former idol, born in Hamura, Tokyo, Japan. She was a member of Onyanko Club between May 1986 and September 1987 and went on to have a successful solo career with 11 number-one hits. ...

for her eponymous second studio album, '' Shizuka''. It was released on June 1, 1988 through

Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese mass media publishing company founded on October 1, 1966. The company publishes mainly physical home media on compact discs, including music, films and TV shows and video games. It is affiliate ...

as the album's leading single. The song was written by

Miyuki Nakajima (born February 23, 1952, Sapporo, Hokkaidō, Japan) is a Japanese singer-songwriter and radio personality. She has released 43 studio albums, 46 singles, 6 live albums and multiple compilations as of January 2020. Her sales have been estimated ...

and composed and produced by

Tsugutoshi Gotō is a Japanese songwriter, bassist and music producer. Gotō broke into the Japanese music industry playing bass on tour for artists like Sadistic Mika Band, Bread & Butter and Shiro Kishibe. He went on to write and produce songs for other artist ...

. This collaboration with a respected singer-songwriter like Nakajima, as well as Kudo's overall shift in image, were seen as a catalyst for the end of the 1980s

idol Idol or Idols may refer to: Religion and philosophy * Cult image, a neutral term for a man-made object that is worshipped or venerated for the deity, spirit or demon that it embodies or represents * Murti, a point of focus for devotion or medit ...

phenomenon, with Kudo's career path being regarded as the blueprint for the successful transition from idol to artist.

Background

When Kudo's solo debut was in the works, she was asked by then-Pony Canyon music executive Yūzō Watanabe to choose which singer-songwriter, out of Yumi Matsutōya,

Mariya Takeuchi is a Japanese singer and songwriter. Regarded as an influential figure in the city pop genre, she is one of the best-selling music artists in Japan, having sold over 16 million records, and has received several accolades. Her husband is Tatsu ...

and Miyuki Nakajima, she preferred. Kudo chose Nakajima, whom she was a big fan of. This story, which had been floated around at the time as a sort of

urban legend An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...

of the music industry, actually took place and shortly thereafter Nakajima was writing songs for Kudo. "Fu-ji-tsu" marks the first collaboration between Nakajima and Tsugutoshi Gotō, who are often cited as the "golden duo" behind many of Kudo's hit singles.

Composition

The song was written by Miyuki Nakajima and Tsugutoshi Gotō. It starts with an intro in

B major B major (or the key of B) is a major scale based on B. The pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A are all part of the B major scale. Its key signature has five sharps. Its relative minor is G-sharp minor, its parallel minor is B minor, and its ...

, followed by verses in

D major D major (or the key of D) is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature has two sharps. Its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor. The D major scale is: : Ch ...

and choruses in

E minor E minor is a minor scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has one sharp. Its relative major is G major and its parallel major is E major. The E natural minor scale is: : Changes needed ...

, and ends with a coda in

G major G major (or the key of G) is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has one sharp. Its relative minor is E minor and its parallel minor is G minor. The G major scale is: Notable compositi ...

. The tempo is 136

beats per minute Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery ( ...

. Kudo's vocals span from A₃ to B₄. The title of the song, which loosely translates to "Untruth", was written in

roman letters The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greece, Greek city of Cumae, in southe ...

because Nakajima felt that the

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

for "fujitsu" (不実) was too heavy for the then-18-year-old Kudo to be singing about. Hyphens were added to the title in order for the song not be confused with the IT company

Fujitsu is a Japanese multinational information and communications technology equipment and services corporation, established in 1935 and headquartered in Tokyo. Fujitsu is the world's sixth-largest IT services provider by annual revenue, and the la ...

. Lyrically, the song describes the feelings of two former lovers who pretend not to know each other, or tell "untruths", in the presence of their new respective significant others.

Critical reception

Kudo received acclaim for her vocal performance. Her voice was cited as "well-matched" to the melancholy melody of the song. "Fu-ji-tsu" is considered by critics to be the song that established Kudo as

Akina Nakamori is a Japanese Singing, singer and Actor, actress. She is one of the most popular and best-selling artists in Japan. Akina achieved national recognition after winning the 1981 season of the talent show ''Star Tanjō!''. Her debut single "Slow M ...

's successor to the pop crown. Upon hearing Kudo perform her lyrics on the television show ''Uta no Top Ten'' for the first time, Nakajima phoned in during the show as special guest and described Kudo's delivery of her lyrics as "giving it a greater than life image unlike what I had initially imagined." She added that, for that reason, she was glad to have offered the song to Kudo instead of keeping it for herself.

Chart performance

"Fu-ji-tsu" debuted at number-one on the

Oricon Singles Chart The Oricon Singles Chart is the Japanese music industry-standard singles popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly and yearly by Oricon. Chart rankings are based on physical singles' sales. Until 2017, Oricon did not track download sales. In J ...

, with 60,000 copies sold, becoming Kudo's first number-one debut since "

Kindan no Telepathy is a song recorded by Japanese singer Shizuka Kudo, from her debut solo studio album '' Mysterious''. It was released through Canyon Records as the lead single from ''Mysterious'' on August 31, 1987. Background "Kindan no Telepathy" was written ...

". The song was recognized by Oricon as the second best-selling single of June 1988, edged out from the top spot only by

's "Tattoo". The single charted for a total of twenty weeks. It became the first of eight consecutive number-one songs on the Oricon Singles Chart for Kudo.

Track listing

Charts

References

{{authority control 1988 songs 1988 singles Songs written by Miyuki Nakajima Oricon Weekly number-one singles Shizuka Kudo songs Pony Canyon singles Songs written by Tsugutoshi Gotō