Do we like Hikaru Utada?
Our score: 8 out of 10. A long, clean record with open support for LGBTQ+ people and anti-racism, held back from a 9 or 10 only by how little there is on the planet and on how they treat staff.
Utada was born in New York to a record-producer father and an enka-singing mother, then moved to Tokyo as a kid. They became a star at 15 or 16, and have said that fame was traumatic and that they felt crushed by public opinion at times. The 1999 debut First Love is still the best-selling album in Japan's history.
The career since has been a long, strange, brilliant run: Kingdom Hearts and Evangelion themes, a Coachella debut, and a 2022 album, BAD MODE, that Pitchfork named album of the year. In 2025 they popped up at Coachella again with Arca, and had a hit with Kenshi Yonezu. This is no nostalgia act.
On the harm check, it's a clean sheet. In June 2021 Utada came out as non-binary on an Instagram livestream, saying “happy Pride Month!”. They later said they felt they should start the conversation because gender and sexuality are so rarely discussed in Japan.
That song copped some flak. Some right-leaning accounts said Utada had no right to speak because they weren't born in Japan, and one called the idea “Communism”. Others praised Utada for taking a stance even though it could cost them support. Nothing in what I read suggests Utada backed down.
The good stuff is real. After the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, Utada gave blood and, according to a TokyoHive report, donated 80 million yen to the Red Cross. In that same message they asked people to think about how much energy they use, which is an early green nudge. I found no lawsuits, court cases or credible allegations, and no word either way on how they treat staff.
The record has gaps. I found nothing on Utada and climate beyond that 2011 message, and the gossip sites circulating 2026 rumours about Utada's private life are tabloid territory, so I've ignored them. Nothing credible turned up against them.