Noriyuki Makihara’s “Mou Koi Nante Shinai”: How a 1992 Japanese Love Song Found a New Audience in Indonesia

Why Is This Song Being Talked About?

A Japanese breakup song released in 1992 has found an unexpected new audience in Indonesia in 2026.

Noriyuki Makihara’s “Mou Koi Nante Shinai” (“I Won’t Fall in Love Again”) was originally released more than 30 years ago. But its recent attention in Indonesia did not begin simply because a new generation suddenly discovered the song.

It began with a joke.

Makihara became the subject of an Indonesian meme because some people noticed a resemblance between him and former Indonesian president Joko Widodo, commonly known as Jokowi. The joke became an unexpected entry point to the song.

The result was striking. “Mou Koi Nante Shinai” reached No. 1 on Billboard JAPAN’s Japan Songs (Indonesia) chart for the week of December 19–25, 2025. It remained high on the chart and was also No. 1 on the 2026 first-half Indonesia chart.

By June 2026, the official music video had also added Indonesian subtitles.

So what happens when people discover a Japanese love song not because they were looking for the music, but because of a meme about the singer? We looked at 500 comments on Warner Music Japan’s official YouTube music video, collected in newest-first order on September 2, 2026, to find out.

The Context You Need to Know

“Mou Koi Nante Shinai” is a song by Japanese singer-songwriter Noriyuki Makihara. It was released in 1992.

For Japanese listeners, the song is familiar as a breakup song with a particularly memorable final line. But the recent Indonesian interest created a completely different context around it.

The connection began with jokes comparing Makihara to Joko Widodo, Indonesia’s former president. One recurring phrase in the comments is “pria Solo,” roughly referring to “the man from Solo.” It became part of the joke surrounding the renewed attention. One comment simply says:

“pria solo itu lagi”
— “That Solo man again.”

Another comment gives an especially clear picture of the pathway:

“Datang karena Jokowi, bertahan karena Noriyuki”
— “Came because of Jokowi, stayed because of Noriyuki.”

There were also comments reacting to the Indonesian subtitles, including:

“ihh bagus banget, aku suka”
— “It’s so good, I like it.”

At the same time, a Japanese listener expressed surprise at opening the comments and finding so many foreign-language posts. And one Japanese comment offered a very different kind of reaction: the listener said that as a child, they tended to focus on the memorable chorus, but hearing the song again as an adult made its sadness much more apparent.

What 500 YouTube Comments Reveal

We analyzed 500 top-level comments on Warner Music Japan’s official music video, collected on September 2, 2026. The comments were classified by theme. Because the classification was based on keyword matching, the figures should be understood as approximate indicators rather than a statistically representative survey of all listeners.

The largest identifiable theme was not the song itself. It was the Jokowi-related joke.

Only a small number of comments directly discussed the lyrics or melody in Japanese. But among those comments, one listener described hearing the song differently after growing older, discovering a sadness that had not been as obvious during childhood.

The numbers therefore reveal two very different ways of encountering the same song. Some people arrived because of the joke. Others were listening to the song as a song.

Artist’s Intent vs. Listener’s Interpretation

This is where the story becomes particularly interesting.

The current Indonesian context is far removed from the circumstances in which the song was written.

Makihara later explained the songwriting process behind “Mou Koi Nante Shinai.” According to his retrospective account, the song originally ended with the idea of simply “not falling in love again.” His producer, Kenji Kizaki, told him that if the song ended there, “there would be no hope.”

Makihara subsequently added the final line that leaves room for hope, and he later described this experience as influencing a personal songwriting rule: to leave some form of hope at the end of a song.

That makes the song’s emotional structure more complicated than its title might suggest. The title sounds definitive: “I won’t fall in love again.” But the song ultimately leaves the door open.

The Indonesian comments, however, begin somewhere completely different. For many of the commenters we observed, the first connection was not heartbreak, hope, or the emotional ambiguity of the lyrics. It was Jokowi.

This does not mean that the meme replaced the original meaning of the song. Rather, it created a new doorway into it.

The most revealing evidence is the small group of comments that explicitly describe coming through the joke and then reacting positively to the music. Only four comments in our classification fell into this category, so it would be inappropriate to treat them as evidence of a measurable conversion rate. But they show something important nonetheless:

The reason someone clicks on a song does not necessarily determine why they stay.

How the Song Travels Beyond Its Original Context

A song can travel without its original context traveling with it.

“Mou Koi Nante Shinai” was written as a Japanese song about complicated feelings after a breakup. More than 30 years later, some Indonesian listeners encountered it through a completely different cultural reference.

The path looked something like this: Noriyuki Makihara → resemblance to Jokowi → Indonesian meme → YouTube video → song

That path is very different from the one the songwriter originally imagined. And yet, once listeners reach the song, they can still form their own relationship with it.

This contrast is fascinating. One listener may arrive because the singer resembles a former president. Another may arrive because the song is suddenly circulating in Indonesia. Another may return to a song they knew as a child and discover a completely different emotion in it as an adult.

The song itself has not changed. The context surrounding the listener has.

That may be one of the reasons older music can suddenly become relevant again. A song does not always need to be rediscovered on its original terms. Sometimes, it simply needs a new reason for someone to press play.

What This Means for Artists

There is a useful lesson here for anyone creating music.

You cannot always control the first reason someone discovers your song. They may come for the lyrics. They may come because of an artist. They may come through an anime, a meme, a joke, or something that seems completely unrelated to the music itself.

What matters is what happens after they arrive.

The comments around “Mou Koi Nante Shinai” suggest a possible pathway: unexpected entry point → first listen → personal reaction → deeper engagement with the song

The sample is too limited to claim that this happens at scale. But the comments make the pathway visible. And that is something streaming numbers alone cannot tell us.

A chart can show that a song is being listened to. A YouTube comment can sometimes show why someone arrived in the first place—and what made them stay.

Perhaps that is one of the most interesting things about music in the internet age: a song can be written in one country, released more than 30 years ago, become associated with a completely unexpected person in another country, and then find new listeners through that connection.

What makes someone stay after the reason they clicked is gone?

Learn more about Music Data Analysis Lab

Sources: Billboard JAPAN; official artist interview (Uta-Net); YouTube (Warner Music Japan official channel); Yahoo! News; Togetter. Comment analysis is based on 500 top-level comments on the official music video (collected September 2, 2026), classified using keyword matching. This is independent analysis, not an official statement from the artist or label.