Softer than a whistle, stickier than gum, Hachikō sidles in with a grin and a question.
Where are we going, and who’s coming with? By the time the hook circles back, you start hearing something tender behind the bounce, a small vow smuggled into a summer loop.
Fujii Kaze rolled this one out on 13 June 2025 as the lead single from his third album Prema, pairing the drop with a surreal video and a burst of street-level showmanship.
In Bangkok, a surprise mini-set near Siam BTS pulled a crowd big enough to make local headlines, a reminder that his reach is continental now, not just domestic.
He did not pluck the title out of thin air. Hachikō, the dog, is shorthand in Japan for faithfulness, and Kaze leaned into that symbolism while keeping the mood light.
He put it plainly: “It all started with a bit of playfulness,” recalling how Tobias Jesso Jr asked, “What was the name of that dog in Shibuya?” before “Sir Nolan made the beat on the spot.”
Those crumbs tell you everything about the record’s DNA, an LA session turned bilingual pop postcard.
The writing and production are a triangle. Kaze and Tobias Jesso Jr share the songwriting, Sir Nolan and 250 handle production, with mastering by Randy Merrill, mixing by Masahito Komori, and bass from Koby Shy.
It’s a clean, contemporary build that still leaves space for Kaze’s phrasing to do the heavy lifting.
On first pass, the lyric sheet keeps its promises small and human. He asks, “Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?” and then seals it with “This time I’ll never let you go,” a pledge that scans as romantic and devotional at once.
Little lines keep blooming in the margins: “Be kind and open-hearted,” “Feel the breeze,” “We don’t need to rush, take it slow.” These fragments are almost haiku in how they nudge your mood more than your mind.
Hachikō” climbed to No. 9 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 for the week of 25 June, vaulting from No. 29 as radio and streaming spiked.
In Tokyo, it debuted at No. 1 on J-WAVE’s TOKIO HOT 100, a useful read on urban airplay and listener appetite.
The video sharpens the melody’s smile. Directed by MESS, it stages a two-Kaze daydream and leans into choreography as a kind of kindness ritual.
Kaze telegraphed the intent himself, captioning a clip with “Let’s dance thru the chaos,” and that phrase lands like a production note: keep it buoyant, keep it moving, let the camera treat warmth as motion.
Not every corner of the fandom fell head over heels on day one, and that friction is worth logging.
On Reddit, some early threads called the sound “safe” or “mall-friendly,” and a few missed the idiosyncratic turns that made his Japanese-language singles cult favourites.
Others warmed to it after a few spins, noting the “strange vibe” and the ease of his English vocal.
When the conversation zoomed out, you could see a tidy split: one camp wanted rougher edges, the other enjoyed the blur of sunlight and promise.
Hachikō is deliberately simple. The hook repeats like a gentle tide.
The harmony never reaches for fireworks. A few listeners will want more risk, or at least a weirder middle eight.
That quibble has a point, but it also feels like it’s grading a smile on calculus.
The premise is mild loyalty set to motion, and the choice to keep it uncluttered lets a line like “You’ve been patiently waiting for me” carry more charge than it should.
We recently covered his follow-up single Love Like This, a European romance with an 80s pulse, and together the two songs sketch where Prema wants to live: outward-facing, lightly cinematic, fond of big, open vowels and open-air hooks.
If Hachikō traded some eccentricity for breadth, it did so with intent. (Read our piece on Love Like This here.)
The song’s little pleasures stack up. The four-note “One, 2, 3, go” count-off that teases the chorus.
The pre-chorus lift that feels like shoulders loosening. The way the outro breathes, then exits before the sweetness curdles.
When Kaze slips in “Just be kind and open-hearted,” you can hear the preacher’s son peeking through the pop veneer.
There is also the meta-story that Kaze himself told. He watched the Hachikō film years after that LA session and finished the lyric quickly, treating loyalty less as tragedy and more as joy.
If you watch the video with that in mind, the dog becomes an emblem for patience, and patience becomes a groove.
Pop needs its sweet songs, the ones that look you in the eye and make a promise small enough to keep.
If anything, Hachikō tests how far that kind of promise can travel in English without losing local soul.
When the bridge fades and he repeats “take it slow,” you can almost see Shibuya’s bronze dog blink back to life and start walking.
With Kaze reaching for new listeners across Asia, Europe and the US, patience proves to be the loudest sound in the room.
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Full Hachikō Lyrics from Fujii Kaze
Intro
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?)
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?)
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?)
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?)
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?)
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?)
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?)
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?)
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?) Doko ni
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?) Doko ni
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?) Doko ni
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?)
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?)One, 2, 3, go
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?)One, 2, 3, go
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?)One, 2, 3, go
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?)One, 2, 3, go
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?) Uh, uh-uh, uh, go
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?) Uh, uh-uh, uh, go
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?) Uh, uh-uh, uh, go
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?) Go, go, go
Verse 1
Take you anywhere, I’m ready
Give you anything, I’m carefree
Seems like I’m the only thing that you need
It’s easy, not so hard to make you happy (Hey, hey, hey)
Refrain
While everybody’s screamin’, shoutin’
We’re so chill out here, just vibin’
Tryin’ to spread this peacefulness with y’all, mm
Our holiday’s just getting started
Just be kind and open hearted
Feel the breeze and let God bless us all, hey
Pre-Chorus
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?)
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?)
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?)
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?)
Chorus
You’ve been patiently waiting for mе, me
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō? Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?)
You’ve been patiently waiting for mе, me
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō? Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?)
Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?
This time I’ll never let you go
Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?
This time I’ll never let you go
You’ve been patiently waiting for me
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō? Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?)
Interlude
Aah, mm
Verse 2
Went through everything to reach ya (Reach ya)
(Yeah)
There’s so many ways to please ya (Please ya)
(Yeah)
You can pick whatever you’d like to do
Anything that satisfies your soul, hey (Hey, hey, hey, hey)
Refrain
While everybody’s screamin’, shoutin’
We’re so chill out here, just vibin’
Tryin’ to spread this peacefulness with y’all (With y’all mm)
Our holiday’s just getting started
Just be kind and open hearted
Feel the breeze and let God bless us all, hey
Pre-Chorus
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?) Doko ni, hey
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?) Doko ni, hey
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?) Doko ni, hey
Doko ni ikō Hachikō (Hey)
Chorus
You’ve been patiently waiting for me, me
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō? Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?) Okay
You’ve been patiently waiting for me, me (Go, go, go, go, go)
(Doko ni ikō, Hachikō? Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?)
Doko ni ikō, Hachikō? (Go)
This time I’ll never let you go (Go)
Doko ni ikō, Hachikō? (Go)
This time I’ll never let you go (Go)
You’ve been patiently waiting for me
Bridge
(We’ll be singing like this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this)
Oh-oh, oh-oh
(We’ll be singing like this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this)
Oh-oh, oh-oh
(We’ll be singing like this)
Outro
Doko ni ikō, Hachikō?
This time I’ll never let you go (Ooh)
We don’t need to rush, take it slow
This time, I’ll never let you go
Doko ni ikō, Hachikō? (Ooh)
This time I’ll never let you go
We don’t need to rush, take it slow
This time, I’ll never let you go (Woo, ooh)
