SAN­DRA L BLOOD

Japan­ese singers Aaayah (Ayako Hi­raya­ma) and Ann G (An­gel­la Gius­ti­ni) have joined forces on a new crossover sin­gle, Wasabi Wine—an up-tem­po dance track fea­tur­ing a play­ful blend of Japan­ese and Eng­lish lyrics.

The song cel­e­brates iden­ti­ty, con­fi­dence, and the deep­en­ing cul­tur­al con­nec­tion be­tween Japan and T&T’s Car­ni­val.

Fram­ing them­selves as the Japan­ese Spice Girls, the duo de­scribes their sound as “hot and spicy like wasabi,” of­fer­ing Wasabi Wine as a bold state­ment: Japan­ese women are not just spec­ta­tors but ac­tive, em­pow­ered par­tic­i­pants in Car­ni­val cul­ture.

“This song is about con­fi­dence, joy and cul­tur­al pride,” said Ann G.

“It shows that Japan­ese girls feel the rhythm, un­der­stand the free­dom, and cel­e­brate so­ca in our own way.”

Aaayah added, “We want­ed to show our strength and our love for so­ca while stay­ing true to who we are. Wasabi Wine is fun, fear­less and un­apolo­get­i­cal­ly Japan­ese.”

The sin­gle is part of a broad­er wave of Japan­ese en­gage­ment with T&T’s Car­ni­val cul­ture.

Each year, more Japan­ese vis­i­tors take part in Car­ni­val ac­tiv­i­ties—play­ing mas, per­form­ing with steel­bands in the Na­tion­al Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tion, DJing at fetes, and ap­pear­ing on live stages.

Wasabi Wine cap­tures this cul­tur­al ex­change, re­flect­ing the in­ter­sec­tion of Japan­ese and Caribbean ex­pres­sion.

At the fore­front of this move­ment is Ann G, wide­ly recog­nised as Japan’s Car­ni­val Queen. With over a decade on the so­ca scene, she has be­come a cul­tur­al bridge be­tween Japan and the Caribbean. Her ca­reer in­cludes ap­pear­ances on the In­ter­na­tion­al So­ca Monarch stage, serv­ing as Japan Caribbean Car­ni­val Am­bas­sador, host­ing so­ca events across Japan, and found­ing her plat­form So­ca Mag­ic.

Ann G’s mis­sion is to fos­ter mean­ing­ful cul­tur­al ex­change through so­ca, cre­at­ing spaces where di­verse au­di­ences con­nect through rhythm and ex­pres­sion.

Aaayah, a Tokyo-based dance­hall and so­ca fu­sion artiste, brings her own Caribbean-in­formed en­er­gy to the col­lab­o­ra­tion. She has per­formed at ma­jor events, in­clud­ing Ex­po 2025 Os­a­ka and Japan So­ca Week­end’s Is­land Na­tion, and has col­lab­o­rat­ed with Ja­maican artistes on mul­ti­ple projects. Through these ex­pe­ri­ences, she con­tin­ues to build bridges be­tween Japan and the wider Caribbean mu­sic scene.

The pro­duc­tion of Wasabi Wine is a true in­ter­na­tion­al ef­fort: Japan­ese pro­duc­er Imachi cre­at­ed the hy­brid sound, T&T pro­duc­er Luke Samer­son mixed and mas­tered the track, the mu­sic video was di­rect­ed by Hot­ta Vy­bz, with dancers Iy­ona, Nanako, and Natha­nia, fash­ion di­rec­tion by Mayu of Fetable, and hair and make­up by Haru­ka Ishi­da.

Wasabi Wine is avail­able now on ma­jor dig­i­tal plat­forms.