So why does a Japanese game have songs with entirely English lyrics?

[Outpost Omega 5]

This is something that has been bugging me for a while. The song "Rivers in the Desert" is entirely in English. Persona 5/R is originally a Japanese game. We are playing the English translated version. I doubt they went out of their way to make entirely new songs for the English version, or went to the trouble of modifying lyrics to fit an existing music score and then re-recording.

So why does a Japanese game have an English song? Or DID they redo the soundtrack?

[C:\User\Steve>_]

No, they did not remake OST to english release (I have original japanese release CDs). Of all 110 songs in OST, there is 11 songs with singing, only of one those is in japanese (Hoshi To Bokura To) and one has singing but no actual lyrics, every thing else is either in english. But all are sang by japanese singer. And rest are plain instrumentals.

And why? Because english language is cool & exotic to japanese people, at least that's one explanation I have heard.

[Exarch_Alpha]

Attack on Titan has german lyrics here and there too.

Variety is the spice of life.

[Habi]

'Meguro: Apologies to the Western gamers, but to Japanese gamers, because many Japanese don't speak the language and they don't understand the lyrics, the English lyrics blend in as background music. The lyrics are not distracting to the gamer, so it's convenient to use as background music. If the lyrics were Japanese, the players would probably find the music too distracting from the game. Also, [some things] just sound cooler in English.'

https://web.archive.org/web/20170707024530/http://www.glixel.com/interviews/persona-5-creators-talk-legacy-character-design-and-j-pop-w480818

[weester9]

japanese people think english is cool. i wish i were kidding, but that is actually the reason why.

[Nibbie]

What they said. Even songs that are mostly Japanese often have English phrases here and there. For example, even the one Japanese song in Persona 5 mentioned above has "It’s in my heart" and "I will follow my heart" randomly in English.

[Arifufu]

it's common for me, at least some songs which i heard from some anime i already watched, like having Germany + English + Japanese Lyrics in a single Japanese Song. They don't redo the lyrics, it's the actual lyrics and i love them so much

[Artanisax]

For me it's common for a fashion-leading game like Persona 5 to use English as lyrics, and in real world (as Persona 5 reflects), many Japanese Jazz/Blues bands sing in English a lot. So just enjoy it!!! (BTW we Chinese have got used to play Japanese games with Chinese translation while UIs and vocals remain Japanese or English, so as the motto above mentioned above: Variety Is The Spice Of Life!)

[Dagný]

For the same reason you decided to make this thread in English and why I decided to post in English and not Icelandic.

[MasterDrake]

Originally posted by Habi:

'Meguro: Apologies to the Western gamers, but to Japanese gamers, because many Japanese don't speak the language and they don't understand the lyrics, the English lyrics blend in as background music. The lyrics are not distracting to the gamer, so it's convenient to use as background music. If the lyrics were Japanese, the players would probably find the music too distracting from the game. Also, [some things] just sound cooler in English.'

https://web.archive.org/web/20170707024530/http://www.glixel.com/interviews/persona-5-creators-talk-legacy-character-design-and-j-pop-w480818

So it's the same when it comes to Ado's song
I understand ♥♥♥♥ but it's cool and she's amazing :D

[Outpost Omega 5]

Originally posted by Nibbie:

What they said. Even songs that are mostly Japanese often have English phrases here and there. For example, even the one Japanese song in Persona 5 mentioned above has "It’s in my heart" and "I will follow my heart" randomly in English.

This is not a song that is mostly in the language of the intended audience with only a small portion in a different language for aesthetic reasons. I under stand the concept of doing something for aesthetic reasons even if I look at the end result and don't see anything aesthetic about it. THIS is a song that is ENTIRELY in a language that doesn't match the language of the intended audience.

(FYI, just in case you have relaxed the settings on the swear filters on your account and aren't aware of this, your screen name is not passing muster. On my computer screen, your name is getting filtered out as profanity.)

Originally posted by Dahlia Hawthorne:

For the same reason you decided to make this thread in English and why I decided to post in English and not Icelandic.

I wrote this thread in English because English is my native language and, being monolingual, the only language I know. I am assuming you responded in English because it's the language I asked the question in and so you figured it's a language I would understand your response in.

I do not see why either of those reasons would account for the original pre-translation design of the game, intended for an audience of native Japanese speakers, would create a song ENTIRELY in a language that is not Japanese.

If they wrote the song entirely in Icelandic, I would still be asking the same question, except, not speaking Icelandic myself, I probably wouldn't realize the song wasn't in Japanese in the first place in order to raise the question as it would all sound Greek to me.

[Dagný]

Originally posted by Outpost Omega 5:

I wrote this thread in English because English is my native language and, being monolingual, the only language I know.

That explains a lot. You probably don't know that a lot of people in a lot of different countries, including Japan, learn English as a compulsory second language because English is now a global language.

Something in English will reach more people, it's not rocket science

[Jin Kyoichiro]

English is pretty common in Japan. Many songs, new and old, have English lyrics and titles. Same goes for books, magazines, advertisements, etc.