Sakanaction perform “Kaijū” at Music Awards Japan 2026. Fuck “Iranai”, I guess.

Sakanaction performed their 2025 single “Kaijū”, which kinda caught me by surprise, as I thought they would have performed their latest single “Iranai”. Although, the “Kaijū” featured in the intro to the Music Awards Japan 2026 and was a hit, so I guess it shouldn’t have surprised me too much. But still. So often artists will just perform a song which was popular, rather than perform their latest single which could do with exposure, and I get this just as much as I don’t.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of “Kaijū” when it first released, but I liked this performance of it. Really understated, but with a cool visual twist that makes you go ‘OH, that’s cool’. The whole setup of having the dancers’ hands be displayed over the live video footage of lead singer Ichiro Yamaguchi’s face was a cool nod to the cool shit Sakanaction do during some of their live shows. If you’re yet to watch any of their live shows, do yourself a favour and get on that — especially if you are a Perfume fan. There’s similar levels of cool approaches to staging, tech wizardry and visuals that you’ll definitely appreciate. The same goes for their music videos too. And Sakanaction work with some of the same directors and creative teams that Perfume worked with. So you’ll definitely feel a sense of familiarity. Some homework and suggested viewing for Perfume fans.