What Happened to Takako Mamiya? [Mystery Solved]

[UPDATE] Please scroll to the bottom for news on the subject [UPDATE]

What Happened to Takako Mamiya?

Takako Mamiya has captured millions of listeners’ hearts with her iconic City Pop album; Love Trip. Everyone who knows City Pop knows of this record. It’s an illustrious example of Japanese Jazz Pop Fusion that has a very late night vibe to it, and Takako’s voice adds a very husky, sultry creme on top of it that would make anyone swoon. Love Trip, the record, has been repressed several times now since her popularity caught on, and the album almost always sells out. Few other represses of City Pop albums ever find as much hype and fanfare as Love Trip, so why then is there little known about the singer and her whereabouts? Through some sleuthing we’ve discovered that she started with a label called East World, where she possibly sang classic rock and folk, but no records of this exist anywhere. She is also believed to have had a brief stint in a trio called PAO, but everything else regarding Takako is shrouded in mystery. This is one of biggest unsolved riddles in the City Pop community.

In this day and age, we know just about everything that happens to celebrities, and almost down to the minute we know where they are and what they are up to. We have very detailed records of where our celebrities end up in life, be it the grave or washed up somewhere—The internet will know what happened without a doubt. The problem in this situation is that in 1982, when Takako Mamiya released Love Trip, there was no internet. Nothing available to trace her back to unless it was documented somewhere, or spoken by someone who knew her. Few singers have such a profoundly enigmatic haze surrounding them as Takako. For being such a quality singer, and leaving behind just a single record, she has really captivated audiences with her music and personage, but the question lingers even still—What happened to her?

While listening to Love Trip, you’ll discover that it is a melancholy tour through various midnight emotions and romantic moods that weigh on heartbreak, loneliness, and saying goodbye. Its themes are unanimously shades of subtle grief throughout its entirety. Packed with jazzy chords, soft synths, and beautiful progressions all while her voice hovers over the mix like a solemn butterfly that knows its time on Earth will be over too soon. There is a sad element to the entire listening experience considering she only left us this one album. If it weren’t such a powerful collection of songs then it certainly would not have gotten as many represses as it has in recent years. Owning Love Trip is a City Pop collector’s rite of passage that comes with a certain sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, that’s if you can manage to get your hands on one. Having accrued a sizable fan base, many renditions of the few pictures we have of her are remade by artists worldwide, who dream of her visage in their art styles.

Artwork Credit: Dennis Pulido via Deviantart

Strangely, the Oricon, which is like the Japanese billboard rating system for music releases, has no record of the album at all back then, which could mean that the album did poorly. Considering the Japanese public could have been seen Love Trip as too ‘western’ or tailored for overseas audiences, it could very well be that it wasn’t well received by critics at the time. If that were the case, maybe that was the factor that motivated Takako to dissapear from Japan’s music scene altogether. Many people on social media have claimed she didn’t vanish completely, and instead remained behind the scenes working on commercial projects, but few instances remarked by fans are credible or carrying anything to solidify the theory. Released on the now cult record label Kitty Records, and backed by an impressive collection of collaborators, it’s rumored that even with all this going for it that a lack of funding could be the blame for the album’s poor reception.

The disappointing fact of the matter is that she really did disappear, and left us with heavy hearts as we contemplate where she could be now, and if she’s even alive to see her name and music being celebrated by millions of fans who miss her, even though they never truly got to know her. In the end, the disappearance of Takako Mamiya might never be solved until we can truly pin down the facts of what happened through first hand accounts, or testimony from friends or family. The sad part is we don’t even know if Takako Mamiya is her real name, with accounts varying as to the validity of it being a stage name. Atleast we have Love Trip to remember her by, and hope that one day she might re-appear so that City Pop fans and lovers of classic Japanese music can have some closure finally.

Takako-san, if you’re out there, thank you for your music, and please come home,

Van

Mystery Solved

The mystery of what happened to Mamiya Takako seems to have been solved. According to Korean YouTuber, Minken, the singer is alive and well, confirmed by former Kitty Records director Shiina Kazuo. She married after the release of Love Trip, and due to poor sales she retired immediately. I recall not seeing the record ranked on the Oricon for the year it was released, 1982. Funny that 40 years later it is considered iconic and a must have album for lovers of the genre.

AUTHOR

Van Paugam is an Internationally-Acclaimed DJ and leading figure specializing in 70s and 80s Japanese Music, dubbed City Pop. He has organized and hosted over 100 events dedicated to the style, and actively promotes Japanese culture while on the board of the Japanese Arts Foundation of Chicago. He has been featured on CNN, NHK, and many other publications for his dedication to City Pop. Van is credited with being the first person to begin popularizing City Pop online through his mixes on YouTube in 2016, and subsequently through live events. Learn More…