Haruomi Hosono turns 79 this year and is about to release his 23rd solo album.
Yours Sincerely, arriving on 11 September 2026, is his first collection of new music in more than seven years. One of its advance tracks, “Sincerely,” reworks the 1950s doo-wop song by The Moonglows with new Japanese lyrics written by Hosono. The album title itself grows from the idea of omoiyari, a Japanese concept connected with compassion and sharing another person’s feelings.
What interests me is the direction of the exchange.
Hosono spent much of his career absorbing and transforming Western musical forms, from American roots music to electronic pop. Later, Yellow Magic Orchestra and his solo work became major reference points for younger Western musicians.
Now he returns to a 1950s American song and writes himself back into it.
Influence is often drawn as a straight arrow.
One artist affects another.
One country exports a style somewhere else.
Hosono’s career looks more like circulation. Music leaves one culture, changes elsewhere, returns, and finds that neither side is quite where it started.
At 79, that exchange is still moving.
https://www.sonymusic.co.jp/artist/HaruomiHosono/info/585890
