Tokyo Opener ‘Sukiyaki’ Director Zeze Takahisa on the Protest Roots of a Global Japanese Pop Hit: ‘The Culture Used to Be Wide Open – Now It’s Become Narrower’

Oct 27, 2026 6:06pm PT Tokyo Opener ‘Sukiyaki’ Director Zeze Takahisa on the Protest Roots of a Global Japanese Pop Hit: ‘The Culture Used to Be Wide Open – Now It’s Become Narrower’

By Mark Schilling

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Mark Schilling

Japan Correspondent

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The opening film of the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival, Zeze Takahisa’s “Sukiyaki” tells the story of how the title tune became a worldwide hit in 1963 as well as a beloved standard that has been recorded in foreign-language versions that have also topped charts.

The film goes beyond the song itself to delve into the lives and careers of its makers: lyricist Ei Roksuke (Matsuzaka Tori), composer Nakamura Hachidai (Okada Junichi), and singer Sakamoto Kyu (Nakano Taiga). They became known in Japan as the “689 trio” with the unusual moniker coming from the “number” characters in their names: Hachi (8), Roku (6) and Kyu (9). But as the film shows in scene after highly charged dramatic scene, their professional and personal relationships were not always harmonious.

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