is a

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western music ...

song by Japanese singer/songwriter

Chisato Moritaka (born 11 April 1969) is a Japanese pop singer who also is notable as a songwriter. She is affiliated with Up-Front Create, a subsidiary of the Up-Front Group.

, from her 1992 studio album '' Pepperland''. Written by Moritaka, the song was released as the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

of her 1993 single " Watashi no Natsu".

Background

The song's lyrics consist of Japan's

prefectures A prefecture (from the Latin ''Praefectura'') is an administrative jurisdiction traditionally governed by an appointed prefect. This can be a regional or local government subdivision in various countries, or a subdivision in certain international ...

and their

capitals Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

, as well as their respective dishes. It popularized the dishes

shimotsukare {{unreferenced, date=June 2015 Shimotsukare (しもつかれ) is a local Japanese dish served in the Northern Kantō region of Japan, primarily in Tochigi Prefecture but also in Gunma Prefecture and Ibaraki Prefecture. The dish is generally served ...

and shiroshita karei, which were not well-known nationwide prior to the release of the song. At the time of the song's recording, Urawa was the capital of

Saitama Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Saitama Prefecture has a population of 7,338,536 (1 January 2020) and has a geographic area of 3,797 km2 (1,466 sq mi). Saitama Prefecture borders Tochigi Prefecture ...

; in 2001, Urawa,

Ōmiya Ōmiya 大宮 is a Japanese word originally used for the imperial palace or shrines, now a common name, and may refer to: People *Ōmiya (surname), a Japanese surname *Ōmiya, or is a female character in ''The Tale of Genji'', an 11th-century nove ...

, and

Yono YONO (You Only Need One) is an integrated digital banking platform offered by State Bank of India (SBI) to enable users to access a variety of financial and other services such as flight, train, bus and taxi bookings, online shopping, or medical ...

merged into the new capital of

Saitama City is the capital and the most populous city of Saitama Prefecture, Japan. Its area incorporates the former cities of Urawa, Ōmiya, Yono and Iwatsuki. It is a city designated by government ordinance. Being in the Greater Tokyo Area and lyin ...

. Moritaka's live performances and cover versions of the song have since corrected the line from "Urawa" to "Saitama" to reflect the capital change. The song has been used by some junior high schools to educate students on their Japanese geography. On live shows, Moritaka occasionally performs the song on guitar or drums.

Other versions

A remix of the song, titled "Rock 'n' Roll Kenchōshozaichi '95", is included in Moritaka's 1995

greatest hits album A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be crea ...

'' Do the Best''. Moritaka re-recorded the song on vocals and drums and uploaded the video on her

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel on December 28, 2012. This version is also included in Moritaka's 2013 self-covers DVD album ''Love Vol. 3''. She recorded a second self-cover of the song and uploaded it on July 18, 2015. The 2015 version is also included in Moritaka's self-covers DVD album ''Love Vol. 9''.

Mini-Moni version

is a cover version by the

Morning Musume , formerly simply and colloquially referred to as , are a Japanese girl group, holding the second highest overall single sales (of a female group) on the Oricon charts as of February 2012, with the Oricon record of most top ten singles with an ...

subgroup

Mini-Moni was a sub-unit of the Japanese idol girl groups Morning Musume and Coconuts Musume. It was formed by Up-Front Promotion in 2000 and associated with Hello! Project. The group was founded by Morning Musume members Mari Yaguchi, Nozomi Tsuji, and ...

as their eighth single and their first single with

Ai Takahashi (born September 14, 1986) is a Japanese singer and actress formerly associated with the Hello! Project and is best known as the leader of Morning Musume and Hello! Project until 2011. She is also a former member of its popular subgroup Mini Moni ...

as a member of the group. It was released on April 9, 2003 by

zetima is a Japanese holding company for various entertainment companies. Its subsidiaries include the talent agency Up-Front Promotion and Up-Front Works, a music production and sales company that manages such record labels as Zetima, Piccolo Town, ...

. This was the first version of the song to reflect the change of Saitama Prefecture's capital from Urawa to Saitama. The music video features the quartet locked in a classroom when they are told by the school principal via intercom that they must recite all of Japan's prefectures and capitals before going home. After performing the song, they are congratulated by the principal, who attempts to give them another task before they sneak out of the classroom. A second music video, known as the "Lesson Video", features the quartet teaching Japan's prefectures with an animated map. A third video, known as the "Character Version", features the quartet as 3D animated characters with a map of Japan and its prefectures in the background. The single peaked at No. 7 on

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

's singles chart, selling 58,084 copies.

Track listing

Chart positions

Other cover versions

* A cover of the song, along with a karaoke version, was included in Osamu Nishimoto's 2008 picture book . * Mariko Takase covered the song in the 2011 children's CD/DVD . *

Dream5 Dream5 was a Japanese co-ed group that was active from 2009 to 2016. Summary In March 2009, over 1,500 singers auditioned on the Japanese TV show " Tensai-TVkun-MAX(NHK)" to become members of a new pop band. 13 members reached the final auditio ...

covered the song as the B-side of their 2012 single .

References

External links

;Mini-Moni * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rock 'n' Roll Kenchoshozaichi 1992 songs 2003 singles Songs in Japanese Chisato Moritaka songs Minimoni songs Zetima Records singles Songs about Japan Songs with lyrics by Chisato Moritaka Song recordings produced by Tsunku ja:ロックンロール県庁所在地