The soundtrack of Showa American Story is built out of licensed Japanese pop recordings from the 1980s and early 1990s, used as period music inside the fiction rather than as an original score. NEKCOM Entertainment licensed the original master recordings rather than commissioning re-recordings. The studio said in 2024 that the rights work was very difficult and that it insisted on doing it anyway. Licences were arranged through a Japanese agency, which as of September 2026 has not been named.
Confirmed Tracks
Track | Performer | Use |
|---|---|---|
Sore ga Daiji (それが大事) | Daijiman Brothers Band (大事MANブラザーズバンド) | The game's theme song, used from the first trailer onward. |
Moshimo Ashita ga… (もしも明日が…。) | Warabe (わらべ) | Used in the 2024 trailer, and heard at a bathhouse reception desk on Mount Neo Yokohama in the build shown at gamescom 2026 Demo. |
The Sky of the 21st Century (二十一世紀の空) | MeiMei | Scores the character montage in the gamescom 2026 trailer. The creative director is credited as a co-lyricist. |
The first two are long-established first-party choices that the studio has discussed at length. The third reaches us through a single credit, so the co-lyricist detail is the thinnest of the three and is recorded here on that basis.
Why These Songs
Song selection was not driven by how famous a track was, and not by matching lyrics to scenes. The creative director said in 2026 that he drew on his own childhood listening and checked the lyrics afterwards, sometimes finding that they fitted the game more closely than he had expected.
He said in 2024 that he associated the theme song with recovering from the collapse of the bubble economy, and that it fitted the game for that reason. Of the second song he said it is full of hope for tomorrow, and that it expresses a state of mind both before and after The Cataclysm. Both songs also exist in Chinese-language cover versions, which he has said is part of why they mean something to him personally. The era they belong to is set out on Showa 66 Setting.
Clearing the Rights
The rights holders were initially uneasy about licensing period songs to a game with such an unusual, sexualised and gory presentation. The creative director said in 2024 that he explained the intention behind it, which was to remind people living with a sense of stagnation of that era and to encourage them, and that they consented on that basis. He said in 2026 that these conversations have become easier since.
Licensed music is not confined to the trailers. Asked in 2026 whether Japanese licensed songs appear in the main game, he answered that there are many. As of September 2026 no count has been published, no total number of licensed tracks and no composer for any original music has been announced, and there is no announced soundtrack release. The wider production is covered on Development History.
Music in Combat
Battle music follows three stated criteria, given by the creative director in 2026. It has to fit the enemy or the faction, with different tracks for different enemy types. It has to carry the musical characteristics of 1980s Japan. And the melody has to be catchy, which he regards as a defining quality of Japanese pop from that era.
In the build shown at gamescom 2026, fights opened with a title card and a period pop track that cut against the seriousness of the encounter, which lines up with that stated intent. The fights themselves are covered on Combat.