This post-war Japanese sound, primarily sung by ladies in their 50s and 60s, is adapting to seek a younger audience. My besotted daughter is first in line

Since her father is a longtime music journalist and her mother is a musician, it was inevitable that my 10-year-old daughter would fall in love with music. But I never imagined that the music she would fall in love with would be enka.

Enka is often considered “traditional” Japanese music – its early roots are in the 19th century and most enka singers dress in traditional kimonos. But modern enka was actually born in the postwar period of the late 1940s as Japan was learning about western music from the settling US troops. This so-called “traditional” Japanese genre is heavily influenced by jazz and the blues, country, and even rock, with intricate guitar lines fused with the stringed instruments shamisen and koto.