Mariya Takeuchi

Takeuchi's yearbook photo, 1973

Takeuchi was born in Taisha city in the Hikawa district of Shimane Prefecture. She grew up in the family ryokan business by the name of Takenoya, that her great-great-grandfather Shigezo Takeuchi founded in 1877.[2] Her family always played records from all over the world. She had already learned to play piano and guitar by third grade, but the Beatles left an impression that inspired her to travel.[2]

In 1972, for her third year of high school, she studied in Rock Falls, Illinois, United States, as an international exchange student through the AFS Intercultural Programs. Her nickname was Mako, as one of the AFS yearbooks has a caption that reads Mariya "Mako" Takeuchi.[1][2][3] She entered the Keio University in 1974 majoring in English literature and even won a nationwide English recitation contest by The Japan Times in the spring of that year.[2] She married fellow musician Tatsuro Yamashita in April 1982.[1] They have one daughter.[4]

Takeuchi joined the music club of the university and there she was invited to participate in Masamichi Sugi's recordings and in March 1978 so-called "Loft Sessions" recordings.[1] In August that year she signed up with the RCA recording label, and in November her debut single "Modotte-Oide, Watashi no Jikan" (Please come back, my time) and the album Beginning were released.[1][5] She won the 1979 Japan Record Awards, Tokyo Music Festival, Japan Music Awards, Shinjuku Music Festival and Ginza Music Festival best new artist awards.[1][5] The 1979 single "September" and the 1980 single "Fushigi na Piichi Pai" (Mysterious Peach Pie) were both hits.[6][7][5] Takeuchi has had at least one song appear on the NHK program Minna no Uta.

From the late 1970s to the early 1980s, she recorded five albums and several singles. Those recordings featured dozens of prominent Japanese and North American songwriters, instrumentalists and producers, including David Foster, Jim Keltner, Jay Graydon, Steve Lukather, Jeff Porcaro, David Hungate, Kazuhiko Katō, Kunihiko Kase, Shigeru Suzuki, Takashi Matsumoto and a fellow RCA artist and her future partner and husband, Tatsuro Yamashita.[8] One of her songs from the 1980 album Miss M, "Heart to Heart" (co-written by Roger Nichols), was given English lyrics and a new title, "Now." It was recorded by the Carpenters, released in 1983, and was the last recording by the late Karen Carpenter. At the end of 1981 after the release of her fifth album Portrait she announced she was going to take a break for a while, and paused doing concerts and releases.[1] While taking a break she continued composing for numerous different artists such as Seiko Matsuda and Akina Nakamori among many others.[1]

Upon returning to the Japanese music industry in 1984, she continued achieving huge commercial success. Since her return, she has recorded seven successful studio albums that mainly consist of her self-written songs, and all of them have reached No. 1 on the Japanese Oricon chart.[9] As a singer-songwriter, she has produced eight top-ten hit singles on the Oricon chart, including "Single Again", "Kokuhaku", "Junai Rhapsody", "Konya wa Hearty Party" and her only No. 1 hit "Camouflage".[10] In addition to her work as a performer, she has also written songs and lyrics for other singers, including Yukiko Okada, Hiroko Yakushimaru, Hiromi Iwasaki, Masahiko Kondo, Masayuki Suzuki and Tackey & Tsubasa.[11] Several of these songs scored top-ten on the Oricon, such as "Kenka wo Yamete" and "Invitation" performed by Naoko Kawai, "Iro (White Blend)" performed by Miho Nakayama and "Maji de Koi Suru 5 Byoumae" by Ryōko Hirosue. Takeuchi has often re-recorded those songs for her own album. "Eki", a song originally written for the album by Akina Nakamori, became known by the composer's recorded version. "Genki o Dashite", a song first recorded by Hiroko Yakushimaru, is recognized as one of Takeuchi's notable compositions, despite not being released as a single. The song was later covered by Hitomi Shimatani in 2003, and became a moderate hit.

Up to September 2014, Takeuchi had released 12 studio albums, 42 singles, several compilations and a live album which was recorded in 2000. Her total sales have been estimated at more than 16 million units by 2009. Her 1994 compilation, Impressions, sold more than 3 million copies in Japan alone, and became her best-selling album.[9] In addition to her musical career, she has also managed her family's ryokan Takenoya since May 2018 "until the next generation can take over".[2]

Outside of Japan, she is best known for the city pop song "Plastic Love" from her number-one album Variety (1984). At the time of the song's release, Takeuchi had not considered attempting to release her music in the West, stating in a 2018 interview, "Considering that [the song] was mostly performed in Japanese, we figured it would be impossible to go abroad."[2] The song went viral after it was uploaded to YouTube during the mid-late 2010s.[12][13] Popularized overseas via the vaporwave and future funk scenes, the song has received more than 35 million views on YouTube as of July 2020.[2] It has received critical acclaim, with Noisey calling it "the best pop song in the world"[14] and Gorillaz calling it "a wonder woman slab of Japanese funk".[15] K-pop singer Yubin's "City Love" is based on the song.[16] The Blessed Madonna closed a Resident Advisor November 2017 mix with a rendition of the song. "Plastic Love" has also inspired numerous fan art and videos.[2] On May 17, 2019, Warner Music Japan released on YouTube a short music video for the song, 35 years after its initial release.[17]

• Official website (in Japanese)
• Mariya Takeuchi discography at Discogs
• Warner Music Japan | Mariya Takeuchi (Japanese)
• History of Takeuchi family on the Takenoya roykan site