Creativity Quote by Utada Hikaru

Utada Hikaru slips an entire cultural critique into a sentence that sounds like small talk. “And also” is doing real work: it frames the observation as an add-on, not a manifesto, which is exactly how you make a potentially loaded claim about national taste feel natural rather than scolding. The modesty reads as strategy. Coming from an artist who’s lived between Japanese and Western pop ecosystems, it’s the kind of understatement that lets you say “this matters here” without turning it into “you’re doing it wrong over there.”

The specific intent is partly explanatory and partly self-positioning. Utada is often discussed as a bridge figure: bilingual, genre-fluid, global-facing but unmistakably Japanese in sensibility. Pointing to Japan’s “great value” on lyrics quietly justifies her own priorities as a songwriter, especially in a pop landscape where production can swallow meaning whole. It’s also a reminder that in Japan, the public treats the lyric sheet like an artifact, not packaging: fans parse lines, quote them, and carry them into daily life the way people elsewhere might carry a hook.

The subtext is comparative without naming an opponent. It hints at an industry difference: in some markets, “vibe” can outrun language; in Japan, the words are part of the product’s proof. For Utada, whose work often trades on emotional specificity and interiority, that’s not just a market preference. It’s a cultural permission slip to write songs that expect to be read as much as they’re replayed.