Bicultural teens appeal to Japan's pop culture

By Eric Talmadge
Associated Press

WILLIAMS: Rising star in Japanese pop music

But Crystal, born and raised in Japan by her American serviceman father and South Korea-born mother, is anything but average.

As Crystal Kay, she is an up-and-coming star in Japanese pop music. And she embodies something fundamental in the psyche of fans in this country: They love the exotic, especially if it's familiar.

"I look American, but I'm singing in Japanese," the 15-year-old explains. "They like that."

Japan's fascination with things American is nothing new. Young people have been snapping up the latest in American music for decades.

But imported music has one major drawback — since it's not in Japanese, it's hard to sing along to. Domestically produced pop music closely follows trends in America, but there has long been something of an authenticity gap.

The answer — bicultural kids.

The market for aspiring singers like Crystal got a huge boost after now 19-year-old Hikaru Utada emerged from the campus of Tokyo's American School in Japan three years ago to become one of the biggest hits this country's music world has ever seen.

Utada's music is strictly American pop, but her lyrics are an eclectic mix of English and Japanese. That isn't new in Japanese pop music, either. But Utada clearly had a good grasp of both worlds — and fans couldn't get enough.

"First Love," Utada's debut CD in 1999, sold more than 9.5 million copies, making it the best-selling album in Japan ever. Though both of Utada's parents are Japanese — her mother also was a popular singer — she was born in New York and now attends Columbia University.

Before long, Japanese producers were scouring other international schools for similar talent. Such schools are often where embassy employees, foreign corporate executives or Japanese who have lived long stretches abroad send their children.

Two of the more prominent groups found were M-Flo, a trio who went to an international school together, and the four-boy band Rize, whose lead singer is also an American School graduate.

Neither has come close to matching Utada, but they are working their way up the pop charts and have solid followings.

Crystal is something of a flip side to the story. Instead of being essentially a Japanese kid raised among Americans, she is basically an American kid raised in Japan. Crystal has never lived in the United States.

Her entry into the business was aided by her mother, also a singer, who had connections in the entertainment industry.

Just four months after Utada's debut album was released, Crystal, then 12, was out with her own debut single. Her eighth and latest single, "think of u," was released last month by Sony Music's Epic Records.

She has released two albums so far. The latest, "Always and Forever — 637," was released in August and has sold about 100,000 copies.