Japan’s oldest record company is betting that artificial intelligence can revive one of the country’s most tradition-bound genres. Nippon Columbia, founded in 1910, has launched Neo Kobushi (Neoこぶし), a new “cyber enka” label that pairs enka’s signature kobushi vocal ornamentation with high-speed dance beats and AI-generated performance. Its flagship virtual artist, Kodama Hikari (呼魂ひかり), will release her debut single “Yobeba, Hikari” (呼べば、ひかり) on Thursday, 1 October 2026 — the company’s founding anniversary — according to Columbia’s official artist pages and Japanese press including Sanspo and News On Japan.
Kodama Hikari’s voice, visuals and music videos are described by the label as fully AI-created. Columbia presents her as an emotional kobushi singer designed to share a bill with living artists rather than replace them: the same 1 October digital drop also includes “Neon Shigure” (ネオンしぐれ) from enka singer Ruka Mochizuki (望月琉叶) and from ENKA GIRLS REVOLUTION, the five-member idol project she produces.
Cyber enka: tradition, beats and co-creation
Neo Kobushi’s pitch is “cyber enka” — the seven-five syllable cadence and “aesthetics of blank space” associated with classic enka, fused with club-tempo production. Label materials say AI and human singers will debut together so that “co-creation and co-performance” become the product, not a novelty side project. Columbia frames the move as continuous with its history of format firsts, from Japan’s earliest domestic phonographs to early LP and CD releases.
Label producer Masadokoro Takano (高野政所), a figure known from club culture, told Sanspo that enka “can afford to do more outrageous things,” casting AI as a collaborator that can reach places humans alone cannot. Staff cited production speed, precise direction and wider pitch range as advantages of an AI vocalist, while acknowledging that human “imperfections” sometimes create atmosphere that perfect pitch cannot.
Beyond the debut trio, Columbia says Neo Kobushi aims to release about four tracks a month — roughly 50 songs in a year — and is planning a 2027 joint VR and real-world live show pairing Mochizuki and Kodama Hikari. Pre-add and pre-save campaigns for “Yobeba, Hikari” on Apple Music and Spotify ran from 18 to 30 September 2026 with a limited phone wallpaper reward.
Why it matters beyond Japan’s catalogue
The launch lands as major labels and platforms worldwide argue over generative music. Universal and Sony’s second lawsuit against Suno, filed in Boston federal court on 18 September 2026, alleges that new model generations remain “fruit of the same poisoned tree” when trained on unlicensed catalogues. Against that legal backdrop, Nippon Columbia is choosing a different path: a heritage enka house openly branding an AI singer inside a licensed label structure, with human co-stars and a stated goal of exporting Japanese pop culture.
Whether listeners treat Kodama Hikari as a gimmick, a touring partner or a new lane for enka will show up first in streaming numbers after 1 October, then in whether the monthly release cadence and 2027 hybrid live plan actually land. For now, Japan’s oldest record company has put a clear stake in the ground: the next century of enka, it says, will have to meet new technology rather than wait it out.
This article draws on Nippon Columbia’s Neo Kobushi pages, Sanspo and News On Japan as of 19 September 2026. Japanese names and titles follow the outlets’ romanisations where available; catalogue numbers cited by Columbia include COKM-46897 for “Yobeba, Hikari.”