Lakuen
, stylised as "LAKuEN", is a song by Japanese singer Ken Hirai. It was released on January 19, 2000 as his eighth single, and became his biggest hit since his debut in 1995. Background and development. "Lakuen" was Hirai's first release in two years, since the single "Love Love Love" in 1998. Hirai's debut single "Precious Junk" in 1995 charted at number 50 on Oricon's singles charts, but since then he had not charted on Oricon's singles chart. The popularity of this song managed to revitalise Hirai's career. Promotion and release. The song became popular  after intense radio play from FM stations across Japan. Hirai's follow-up album "The Changing Same", released in June 2000, debuted at number one on Oricon's albums chart, and became certified for over one million copies sold. Hirai performed the song three times on TV Asahi's "Music Station": first on March 10, 2000, followed by on the 2000 New Year's special on December 29, and a week before the release of his sixth album "Sentimentalovers" on November 19, 2004. Hirai performed the song at the 51st "Kōhaku Uta Gassen" New Year's TV song contest on  December 31, 2000. Critical reception and covers. "CDJournal" reviewers described the song as a "mellow soul number" that was "an emotionally moving good quality work". They noted Hirai's strong use of falsetto in the song not present in his previous works. They further praised the lyrics for the strong imagery of "pure love" that they create for the listener. In 2007 on her extended play "Sings: Winter, and Luv", Satomi' covered the song, and in 2010 Nami Tamaki covered the song on her single "Omoide ni Naru no?" (2010). In 2012, bilingual singer Beni covered the song in English  for her album "Covers 2". She wrote the new English lyrics in collaboration with lyricist Seiji Motoyama.