''East Asia'' is the 20th studio album recorded by Japanese singer-songwriter

Miyuki Nakajima (born February 23, 1952, Sapporo, Hokkaidō, Japan) is a Japanese singer-songwriter and radio personality. She has released 44 studio albums, 48 Single (music), singles, 6 live albums and multiple compilations as of January 2020. Her sales have ...

, released in October 1992. The album features "Shallow Sleep (Asai Nemuri)", a hit single released in July 1992. Nakajima wrote the song as a theme for ''Shin'ai Naru Mono e'', a

television drama In film and television show, television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or docudrama, semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humour, humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional te ...

that she made guest appearance on as a doctor. ''Shin'ai Naru Mono e's ''theme song'' ''peaked at No. 2 on the Japan's

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that ...

chart in the summer of 1992, and thus became her first single. This song has sold more than a million copies. Prior to the release of the album ''Shin'ai Naru Mono e'', the songs "Two Boats" and "Haginohara" were already performed on ''Yakai'', which are experimental theaters Nakajima has performed annually since 1989. "Thread (Ito)" is a love song Nakajima dedicated to Zenji Nakayama, a later leader of

Tenrikyo is a Japanese new religion which is neither strictly monotheistic nor pantheistic, originating from the teachings of a 19th-century woman named Nakayama Miki, known to her followers as "Oyasama". Followers of Tenrikyo believe that God of Orig ...

who got married at that time. In 1998, it was featured on the

''Seija no Koushin'' and was also released as a

double A-Side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of vinyl records and cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a single usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or ...

single with "Another Name for Life". This song has become well known through a cover version recorded by the Bank Band, a project which

Kazutoshi Sakurai is a Japanese musician. He composes and writes almost all of the songs for his band Mr. Children, in addition to writing lyrics and singing for his solo project group Bank Band. In 2006, Sakurai ranked No. 8 in HMV's "Top 30 Best Japanese Singe ...

and Takeshi Kobayashi launched for a charity. Their interpretation, featuring Sakurai's vocals, was included on their 2004 ''Soushi Souai'' album. In December 1992, ''East Asia'' won the 34th

Japan Record Awards is a major music awards show, held annually in Japan that recognizes outstanding achievements in the Japan Composer's Association. Established in 1959, the Japan Record Awards are one of the oldest and most prestigious music awards in the countr ...

for 10 Excellent Albums, which is a prize that honors ten exceptional studio albums.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Miyuki Nakajima, arranged by Ichizo Seo (except "East Asia" co-arranged by David Campbell) #"East Asia" – 6:48 #"" – 4:39 #"" – 5:21 #"" – 6:35 #"" – 6:49 #"" – 4:49 #"" – 4:39 #"" – 8:12 #"" – 5:07

Personnel

*Miyuki Nakajima – lead and backing vocals *Hideo Yamaki – drums *Eiji Shimamura – drums *Jun Aoyama – drums programming *Kenji Takamizu – electric bass *Yasuo Tomikura – electric bass *Chiharu Mikuzuki – electric bass *Tsuyoshi Kon – electric guitar, pedal steel guitar *Takayuki Hijikata – electric guitar *Shigeru Suzuki – electric guitar *Chuei Yoshikawa – acoustic guitar *Elton Nagata – acoustic piano, keyboards *Yasuharu Nakanishi – acoustic piano, keyboards *Nobuo Kurata – acoustic piano, keyboards, synth bass *Nobu Saito – percussion *Toshihiko Furumura – alto sax *Joe's Group – strings *Neko Saito Group – strings *Syd Page Group – strings *Keishi Urata – computer programming *Nobuhiko Nakayama – computer programming *Tatsuhiko Mori – computer programming *Ichizo Seo – computer programming, backing vocals *Yuiko Tsubokura – backing vocals, featuring vocals on "Two Boats" *Kazuyo Sugimoto – backing vocals, featuring vocals on "Two Boats" *Keiko Wada – backing vocals *Yoko Yamauchi – backing vocals *Raven Kane – backing vocals *Julia Waters – backing vocals *Maxine Waters – backing vocals *Akiya – backing vocals

Production

*Recording engineer: Tad Goto *Additional engineers: Takanobu Ichikawa, Ray Blair *Assiatant engineers: Yutaka Uematsu, Yoshiyuki Yokoyama, Hajime Nagai, Masataka Itoh, Takamasa Kido, Naomi Matsuo, Nobuhiko Nakayama, Tomotaka Takehara, Masashi Kudo, Shouji Sekine, Kenji Nakamura, Jim Gillens *Mixing engineers: Tad Goto, Joe Chiccarelli *Assistants for the mixing engineer: Tomotaka Takehara, Jamie Seyberth *Music coordinators: Koji Kimura, Fumio Miyata, Tomoko Takaya, Ruriko Duer *Art direction and photographer: Jin Tamura *Cover designer: Hirofumi Arai *Illustrator: Shigeko Kashima *Hair and make-up: Noriko Izumisawa *Artist management: Kouji Suzuki *Assistant: Maki Nishida *Management desk: Atsuko Hayashi *General management: Takahiro Uno *Promoter: Tadayoshi Okamoto, Shoko Aoki. Narihiko Yoshida *Artists and repertoire: Yuzo Watanabe, Koichi Suzuki *Assistant for the record producer: Tsuyoshi Ito *Promoter for the recording artist: Yoshio Kan *Dad: Genichi Kawakami Mastering at Future Disc Systems in Los Angeles, by Tom Baker

Track listing

Personnel

Production

Chart positions

Album

Singles

Awards

Release history

References