is a

popular Popularity or social status is the quality of being well liked, admired or well known to a particular group. Popular may also refer to: In sociology * Popular culture * Popular fiction * Popular music * Popular science * Populace, the total ...

song composed by

Ryōichi Hattori was a Japanese pop and jazz composer. Katsuhisa Hattori is his son. He had a great influence on Japanese pop and was awarded the People's Honor Award. Japanese jazz was downtrodden during World War II World War II or the Second Wo ...

, with lyrics by Takao Saeki. It was recorded by

Hideko Takamine was a Japanese actress who began as a child actress and maintained her fame in a career that spanned 50 years. She is particularly known for her collaborations with directors Mikio Naruse and Keisuke Kinoshita, with ''Twenty-Four Eyes'' (1954) ...

and released in April 1949.

Background

"Ginza Kankan Musume" is the theme song of the film of the same name, released in August 1949 and starring Hideko Takamine. The song's B-side, "Waga Yume, Waga Uta", is sung by

Katsuhiko Haida Katsuhiko Haida was a Japanese film The has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world; as of 2021, it was the fourth largest by number of feature films produced. In 2011 J ...

, who also starred in the film. The phrase kankan musume is a play on words coined by

Kajirō Yamamoto was a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and actor who was known for his war films and comedies and as the mentor of Akira Kurosawa. The combined list of his efforts as a director for documentaries, silent, and sound films includes over 90 fi ...

that combines can-can with pan pan musume. According to Victor Records, the song had sold 420,000 copies by 1952.

References

Japanese songs 1949 songs {{1940s-song-stub