The song that led me home

Daisaku Ogata sings the song Mushaku Ryojo.[File photo]

In the autumn of 1986, a song called Mushaku Ryojo (Impressions of a Traveler in Wuxi) swept across Japan. It was everywhere — on the radio, in karaoke bars, on the streets. Almost overnight, many Japanese people were humming about Wuxi, a city in East China's Jiangsu province that few of us had ever heard of.

At the time, I was working in ship trading for Nissho Iwai, a major Japanese trading house. I knew nothing about Wuxi. I simply liked the melody.

Forty years later, I still find myself deeply moved whenever I listen to that song.

Written by Daizaburo Nakayama and performed by Daisaku Ogata, Mushaku Ryojo sold more than one million copies, earned a spot on Japan's most-watched annual music program Kohaku Uta Gassen, and won a Gold Prize at the Japan Record Awards. But what impresses me most isn't its commercial success. It's the remarkable impact the song had on a city — and on countless lives, including my own.