In August of 2013, popular idol group AKB48 released their 32nd single, “Koi Suru Fortune Cookie” (恋するフォーチュンクッキー, Koisuru Fōchunkukkī; “The Fall-in-Love Fortune Cookie”), or better known as Fortune Cookie in Love (I don’t think I’ve ever heard it called “The Fall-in-Love Fortune Cookie”). Over the next few years and into the next decade, it would become one of their more popular songs, even being remixed into some of the jingles for the Tokyo Metro. The music video would soon be released, a gargantuan performance involving thousands of extras and taking place in front of Hakata Station. The joyous, upbeat aspect of Koi Suru Fortune Cookie attracted the eyes of millions and gradually became one of their best-known songs alongside Heavy Rotation. You’ve probably heard it somewhere if you’re a weeaboo.
I’ve heard it hundreds of times!
One of the quirks of Koi Suru Fortune Cookie is the opener. They had a black DJ introduce them (who the heck was this guy??), which was not uncommon for many pop songs at the time. However, the lyrics have always stuck with me.
The guy goes:
おい日本のみんな、聞こえてるか？
What’s up Japan? Can you hear me?
最近日本は元気無いって？
Is life gettin’ you down?
カネがない、仕事がキビシイ、
No money, no job,
イマイチなニュースばっかりだもんな！
Too much bad news?
でもクヨクヨしててもしょうがないだろ？
Well, there’s no reason to be down.
いまは立ち上がって踊るのさ！
It’s time to get up!
AKB48から、オマエのテンションアガりまくる、最高にホットな新曲だ！
We have a hot new song from AKB48 to make you feel good!
「恋するフォーチュンクッキー」！！！
“Koisuru Fortune Cookie.”
踊れ、ニッポンよ
So dance, Japan!
踊り狂っちまえよ！
Crazy!
To a native English speaker, it sounds like stage banter. The gentleman is asking how you’re doing! Are you feeling down? Does your life suck? Well, AKB48 is going to cheer you up! Let’s get ready for AKB48! It’s just another introduction meant to hype you up, to set the stage for a cool performance. And that’s what I always assumed they were talking about, but I recently took it upon myself to go through the JP subs, which read a bit differently. I’m not sure if the translation was first written in JP or EN, but the JP subs are more directed.
Instead of addressing you, the audience, they address you, a citizen of Japan. Or more specifically, the people of Japan. The second line isn’t asking you as a viewer how down you are, but is more specifically asking about the national spirit of Japan itself. The rest of the introduction becomes a plea to the people and nation, with the context being societal problems of no money, no jobs, and terrible news, and how AKB is here to save the day.
While the EN listener thinks it’s a general “how’s it going, audience?” the JP reader gets a different picture; the scene is bleak, the nation is in stagnation, but here we are. The music video itself, with its thousands of people in the streets of Hakata, further exposes this concept; the people of Japan are dancing as the fortune cookie of love is going to change the national outlook.
And I don’t think this is a coincidence. What sounds like a catchy pop song to Westerners is a call to changing the fortune of the country.
To understand the background, we have to start in the ’70s and ’80s. A brief history lesson:
In 1985, the Plaza Accord was signed, which intentionally devalued the dollar and led to rapid yen appreciation. The Bank of Japan implemented monetary easing, leading to cheap credit. Over the next few years, speculation was rampant, and land and home values soared. The stock market could only go up! The national sentiment was great! It led to a culmination in ‘89, where the Nikkei peaked at an all-time high… for the next 35 years. Over the next year, the BoJ would drastically increase interest rates, tanking the Nikkei to about half of its value. The optimism of the bubble economy ground to a halt. Banks failed, hiring stopped, and the economy slowed down. The first lost decade (it was really only half a decade, kind of) kicked Japan in the balls. Worse yet, in ‘95, the national sentiment became grimmer after an earthquake and the Tokyo Sarin Gas Attack. The Nikkei would not return to its 1989 level until 2024.
However, in ‘96, temporary relief seemed to appear on the horizon. Due to banks stabilizing and increased exports, a brief moment of optimism shone through the economic downturn. Then, 1997? Thailand happened, and the Asian Financial Crisis, exacerbated by IMF shenanigans. Contagion quickly hit all the Asian economies, and Japan was not spared. A part two of the lost decade had hit the nation. Banks started to fail, the government basically bailed them out, and in ‘99, the BoJ basically gave up and basically made money free to borrow.
The ’90s were not a great time. One of my other theories for why there was so much grimdark post-apocalypse slop anime produced during this time was the post-bubble economy and the negative vision of the future.
In the ’00s, hope was rising. The economy started growing again, albeit slowly. Demand for Japanese machinery and electronics gave hope to the market. Sony and other Japanese tech giants seemed like they were doing well. And then, wham, ‘08 happened.
There’s a lot of politicking going around at this point, but GDP was in the dumps. It was so over. But in December 2012, a man named Shinzo Abe got elected.
Abe had a new vision: Abenomics. It consisted of three parts: aggressive monetary policy (really, easing), flexible fiscal policy (spend money on bridges to nowhere), and structural reform (putting women and old people to work). And somehow, it kind of worked in the end. However, Abenomics emphasized one pivotal point: Japan would not only have to revamp its economics, but also have to reimagine the optimism that would allow it to achieve its economic goals. It wasn’t enough to just set policy; Abenomics had to set expectations.
The people would have to believe in and look toward a better future. If people believed that the future would be better, they would manifest it. It’s Japan’s self-fulfilling prophecy, a national version of Keynesian expectations. More specifically, the cycle went like this: higher expectations for the economy -> more spending -> more growth -> higher expectations for the economy -> … It wasn’t enough that the economy should change, but rather that the behaviors of individuals in the nation should change.
The music video presents the AKBs in front of a giant parade, dancing in front of Hakata Station with thousands of onlookers. They’re not on some grand stage; they’re alongside ordinary people. The smiles are contagious. The music video pans to footage of regular people. Schoolchildren, office workers, families, commuters, tourists, police officers, companies, and government agencies all start to smile and dance. The message is to smile and join them! TV crews are in the background, everyone jiving and smiling, broadcasting the message throughout the nation.
“To capture good luck, put a smile on your face.”
“Make the fortune of tomorrow better than today.”
Following 30 years of continuously being kicked down by foreign currency manipulation, contagion, natural disasters, and economic depressions, Japan finally had a chance to reinvent itself. Koi Suru Fortune Cookie asked the audience to “break the shell” for something even “God wouldn’t know!” and for us not to take it negatively. It’s practically a song of national revitalization, spurring the listeners to do what? Generate economic value by smiling more.
Abenomics:
Optimism -> Spending -> Investment -> Growth -> More optimism
Koi Suru Fortune Cookie:
Smile -> Capture good luck -> Others join in -> Tomorrow becomes better -> More smiles
I have listened to this song hundreds of times without realizing what it was really about. It’s not just a love song! It’s more than a graduation song! It’s something greater - a call to a better vision of the future by the citizens of the nation. I think that’s partially why it’s so popular: it’s a song that manages to capture the sentiments and zeitgeist of the era. It’s no wonder this became one of their best-known songs! It spurred a huge trend and became a nationwide dance phenomenon for a reason. Smile, for things will get better! Understanding the song from that perspective makes me appreciate it just a bit more.