Seven cities, nine tour dates, 13 years in the making.
Japanese rock band Ryokuoushoku Shakai, also known as Ryokushaka, recently wrapped up their Asia tour – their first since their debut in 2012 – including one show at The Theatre at Mediacorp on Nov 9.
AsiaOne met up with members Haruko Nagaya, Issei Kobayashi, Peppe and Shingo Anami after their performance and asked if they felt they had taken too long to do so.
“Honestly it feels just right. Perhaps it was possible to do an Asia tour earlier but I don’t think it would have been one that we would be satisfied with,” said 30-year-old Haruko, the lead vocalist.
“It was something to do at this juncture, at this stage in our career.”
Guitarist Issei, 29, agreed: “You can tell from our name alone, we’re very much a Japanese band, aimed at a Japanese audience. Japan was where we wanted to make our mark when we formed, so the fact that we’ve now become a band that can tour Asia is actually beyond our imagination.
“It’s touching that we have all these fans from different countries, who found us somehow and listened to our music, and have been waiting for us to perform.”
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When asked about the fears they had and goals they wanted to achieve with this tour, bassist Shingo humbly remarked: “I think the fact that we managed to finish the tour without any cancellations - that was our most fundamental goal.”
The 27-year-old said he felt “relieved” now that their main goal has been achieved.
Haruko, who usually helms the talk segments during their concerts, was concerned about speaking in different languages, and admitted it was taxing to learn them all before the tour.
“But when I really worked hard and tried to do it – while I can’t say if it was entirely understandable to everyone – I saw how happy the audience was when I spoke their local language, so I’m glad that I did it,” she added.
Sightseeing and trying local cuisine
Known for viral hits like Mela! (2020), Be a Flower (2023) – the theme song for the popular anime The Apothecary Diaries – and more recently Tsuzuku (2025), Ryokushaka was initially formed by Haruko, Issei and Peppe, who were high school classmates.
Shingo, Issei’s childhood friend, later joined the band.
Besides Singapore and several Japanese cities, their tour also consisted of stops in Jakarta, Hong Kong, Taipei, Seoul, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
We asked if they had the chance to sightsee and try local cuisine.
“Honestly, not really. It’s not just Singapore, but on the entire Asia tour, our schedule is really tight a lot of the time. We’ll land, we’ll perform and then we’ll do media interviews,” Haruko shared.
“We do walk around the cities in the pockets of time we get, but we didn’t get to venture far out. But having been to all these different places, I think our wishlist of things we want to do or things we want to eat has only gotten longer. So it’s kind of like, ‘Well, next time, we’ll do this.'”
They did, however, manage to try bak kut teh here.
Haruko elaborated: “I actually came across bah kut teh in Japan. There’s a place in Japan that we all went to together and it’s a memory for all of us. We knew it was a Singapore dish, we thought that it would be nice to try it in Singapore for once and we finally did it on this visit.”
Shingo on the other hand loved the dark soy sauce that comes with chicken rice so much that he bought a bottle to bring home.
“I’m going to use it and try to make ramen when I’m back in Japan,” he said.
Peppe hoped to visit the Singapore Botanic Gardens, a Unesco World Heritage Site.
“I’m a big fan of world heritage sites so I must go. I definitely should go,” said the 29-year-old keyboardist.
While it may seem like it’s their first time on our sunny island, Haruko shared that all the members have visited Singapore in the past.
Shingo visited at 10 years old, while the rest came here for a language exchange programme in high school.
Peppe has visited twice since then, as she has a host family here.
Looking at their Instagram account, it seems like everyone but Issei managed to stop by the Merlion and Gardens by the Bay.
‘Messiness is necessary’
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The band recently released their new single My Answer, the theme song for season five of the Japanese drama Emergency Interrogation Room.
The lyrics, written by Haruko, talks about the heart-tugging dilemma of fate. We asked which lyric each member related to most.
“Perhaps ‘relate’ is not the right word for this, but there’s a line at the end that goes, ‘Kimi wa honto ni yokatta no kai? (Are you really good with this?)’ There’s a shift from ‘I’ to ‘you’ and it’s suddenly about the feelings of the other person. That one moment really stuns me and it’s so impactful,” said Issei.
Shingo chose the line, “Let’s see it through together, as we navigate these endless questions as our messy selves.”
“The older you get, the more you are constrained by rules and norms. And when you’re trying to do something you really want to do, there’s always going to be messiness. In fact, messiness is necessary – that’s something I’ve realised once more,” he said.
Peppe relates to “If this future splits apart, I too will cease to exist”.
“During high school, all of us from different places came together and formed this band. That felt like fate, because if I had chosen to go to another high school or decided not to join this band, then I wouldn’t be here on this Asia tour. Every choice has led up to this point, so I really love that line,” she said.
The song is also her current favourite to perform live.
“My Answer is the best ever. I really feel the groove with the members and it feels so good to play it,” she added.
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Haruko’s is the ballad, Because We Are Alive.
Ballads are harder to pick from as they don’t want to bore the audience or make the concert’s atmosphere feel heavy, but Because We Are Alive is different.
“Even though it’s a slow-tempo song, it’s hopeful and even people who don’t know the song look very lively and attentive when they’re listening to it, so it feels really good to sing it live,” said Haruko.
Regarding the most memorable song they’ve recorded together, Shingo named Channel Me, a song from their album Channel U which was released in February this year.
“Issei and I made this song together. In one song, we mashed up about five or six different music genres, so the recording felt really exciting, chaotic and stimulating,” he shared.
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Issei however brought up the first song they ever recorded, Milestone No Tane (Seed of Milestone).
“We recorded it using the money we pooled together. It wasn’t even recorded in a proper recording studio. It was a rehearsal studio that could also be used for recording,” he recalled.
“It was a song we made through discussions with one another and the recording engineer.”
Shingo chimed in: “We were like, ‘It costs this much to record a song?'”
‘We want to keep the band going for a long time’
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From forming the band in their teens till now, has the group’s dynamic changed over the years?
Haruko doesn’t think so: “Even now when we’re backstage, we’re always joking around and talking. That’s something that’s unique to us and something I hope we maintain.”
We saw an instance of how comfortable they are with each other when we asked the band what’s something personal, and not a necessity, that they have to bring with them when they travel.
Shingo said his pyjamas and Haruko shot back matter-of-factly: “That’s such a no-brainer.”
As for whether they have big dreams they still want to achieve together, she said they’ve fulfilled many of them already.
“Even the really crazy, ambitious ones, we’ve achieved most of them at this point. There are things that I feel perhaps we shouldn’t put into words yet, because it’s going to get more difficult to achieve your goals at a higher and higher level,” she added.
Shingo simply wants to keep the band going for as long as possible.
“The maturity you get from doing something for a long time and what that then fosters is quite significant, so if we can do this for as long as we can, I’ll be really happy,” he said.
Adding onto his point, Peppe remarked: “Going on this Asia tour, I saw how many fans have been waiting for us to perform for them and simply put, I felt like we definitely have to keep doing this. That was something I knew but realised again while on this tour.”
Issei wants to keep making music for the youth. “Obviously, we want to keep the band going for a long time, and while I do feel that our music is being listened to by people across all age groups, something that has never changed for us is making music for children and for young people. That’s something I want us to keep doing.”
Concert a mix of fierce rock and upbeat pop
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AsiaOne also attended the quartet’s energetic two-hour set on Nov 9, where they delighted fans with songs like Character, Hazukashiika Seishunwa, My Answer, Shout Baby and Player 1.
With a myriad of brilliant strobe lights that matched each song’s vibe, Ryokushaka’s setlist made for an enticing mix of fierce rock and upbeat pop that had fans off their seats and on their feet.
The evidence of their decade-long friendship shone through their liveliness, with cheerful and easygoing adlib interactions together on stage.
Haruko’s strong stage presence got the crowd roaring, as she got the crowd to clap along and sing their hearts out.
No member’s talent went unappreciated, with poignant moments of the spotlight given for audiences to appreciate Peppe’s clean and deft keyboard skills, groove to Shingo’s bass beats and headbang to Issei’s crisp guitar notes.
Additional reporting by Kristy Chua
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syarifahsn@asiaone.com
kristy.chua@asiaone.com
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