Osaka Tengoku

There is a song in Japan called “Osakana-Tengoku” (おさかな天国).  “Sakana” means fish, and “tengoku” means heaven/paradise.  So, Fish-Heaven.  Predictably, it’s a song about fish. Here it is on Youtube.


“Fish fish fish
If you eat fish
Your mind, mind, mind
You’ll be smart!
Fish fish fish
If you eat fish
Your body, body, body
You’ll be healthy!
Now, let’s all eat fish!
The fish are waiting for us!”

Everything that isn’t the chorus is just fish puns. 

Osakana-Tengoku is was originally created in 1991.  It was commissioned by the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations' Seafood Center to increase fish consumption among kids.  They distributed cassette tapes to stores and supermarkets across Japan as a marketing campaign and it quickly became a staple, even achieving success as a single in the box office.

Cute, right? Maybe. Maybe not.

For one, it's common for this song to have it’s own dedicated boombox in the fish section.  That might not be so bad on its own, but there's often an additional boombox playing announcements for sales next to it. Then, in the not-so-distant background, another boombox playing another section's song on repeat. Then, a motion-sensor speaker that shouts sales at you as you pass by. Then, some MIDI version of a popular J-pop anime opening playing the normal loudspeakers. In total, that's easily 5 audio tracks playing in conflict with each other. There may be more.


Use of this song isn't limited to supermarkets.

If you visit Japan for any length of time, even if you do not go to the fish section of a market, I guarantee you will hear this song. It has become a cultural staple and I doubt there are any Japanese people who don't know it. I regularly hear this song played in department stores, convenience stores, book stores, pretty much anywhere.  There are seemingly no exceptions. 



At some point in making the playlist for this store, they stopped and said, “We need to include Sakana Tengoku.” And then they did it.

I won’t go so far as to call this song a plague, but...

Desperate for answers, my search takes me to the Japanese Youtube comments section. I find only variants of “lol anyone else watching this in 2019??”

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