is the fourth single 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.

. Released by

Warner Pioneer Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and t ...

on April 25, 1988. The lyrics were written by

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.

, the music was composed and arranged by Hideo Saitō. The single was Moritaka's first foray in songwriting in her career. The song was used in a series of

Pioneer Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land. In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and dev ...

answering machine telephone commercials featuring Moritaka.

Background

"Mi-ha" is a slang term for a person obsessed with following vulgar fads and trends and is not well-educated. It usually refers to specific young women, but can also be applied to men. The term was believed to have been originated from actor

Chōjirō Hayashi was a Japanese film and stage actor. He appeared in over 300 films between 1927 and 1963. Career Born to a sake brewing family in Kyoto, he first appeared on stage at age five in a theater run by his family as a side business. In 1918, he beca ...

in his 1927 film ''Chigo no Kenpō''. Mi-ha is written in either

katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...

as "ミーハー" or in

hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' literally means "flowing" or "simple" kana ("simple" originally as contrast ...

as "みいはあ". Moritaka wrote "The Mi-ha" after being asked by her management to come up with some material. She commented that the cover photo is among her favorites.

Chart performance

"The Mi-ha" peaked at No. 29 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 and sold 29,000 copies.

Other versions

Different remixes of "Mi-ha" were released in the 1989 greatest hits album ''

Moritaka Land is a remix album by Japanese singer/songwriter Chisato Moritaka, released on December 10, 1989. The album includes two new tracks: "Uwasa" and " Michi", plus songs re-recorded by Moritaka and remixed by Hideo Saitō. A limited edition release inc ...

'' and the 1991 remix album ''

The Moritaka ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

''. Moritaka re-recorded the song 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 January 25, 2014. This version is also included in Moritaka's 2014 self-covers DVD album ''Love Vol. 6''. In addition, she recorded a newer version titled "Mi-ha (2015 Ver.)", which was uploaded on YouTube on June 12, 2015 and included in ''Love Vol. 9''.

Track listing

All lyrics are written by

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.

; all music is composed and arranged by Hideo Saitō.

Personnel

* Chisato Moritaka – vocals,

timbales Timbales () or pailas are shallow single-headed drums with metal casing. They are shallower than single-headed tom-toms and usually tuned much higher, especially for their size.Orovio, Helio 1981. ''Diccionario de la música cubana: biográfico ...

* Hideo Saitō – guitar, backing vocals, drum and synthesizer programming * Nobita Tsukada – keyboards, synthesizer programming * Misa Nakayama – backing vocals

Chart positions

Cover versions

* Taiwanese singer An Ke Li covered the song in

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of ...

as "Dāi Dāi de Nǚhái" (呆呆的女孩; lit. "Dumb Girl") in her 1989 debut album ''Niánqīng Dàodǐ'' (年輕到底; ''Young to the End'').

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mi-ha 1988 singles 1988 songs Japanese-language songs Chisato Moritaka songs Songs with lyrics by Chisato Moritaka Songs with music by Hideo Saitō (musician, born 1958) Warner Music Japan singles