Why don't Japanese songs rhyme?

Question

even though they rhyme in english?

Answer 1

that's a good question, and it doesn't look like you have any adequate answers so far.
I'm not 100% certain myself but I think it has a lot to do with the Japanese idea of poetry. If you look at any poem in the English language, up until around T.S. Eliot's time, they all rhymed, even down to Milton's Paradise Lost. Translators often attempt to force poems to rhyme, even when there was none in the original writing. English poetry is heavily tied into rhythm. If you read any classic poem you'll notice a certain rhythm to it, and rhyme assists in emphasizing that rhythm.
Japanese poetry, on the other hand, has nothing to do with rhythm or rhyme. It has all to do with structure. Lines have a set number of characters, not beats, that they're allowed to have. The concepts of "rhythm" or "rhyme" never existed in Japanese poetry. Try explaining those concepts to a Japanese person. You'll have difficulty.
So, there is nothing in Japanese culture that says you HAVE to rhyme when writing lyrics. That's a very Western concept.

Answer 2

They don't rhyme in Japanese because of how it is put together. It is put together differently when you hear it here in English. That is why it doesn't rhyme in Japanese.

Answer 3

because it was written in english?
just cuz it rhymes in english, and then is translated, it most likely wont rhyme in japanese and vice versa.

but songs written in japanese rhyme. i would know. i'm a major japanese music fan.

Answer 4

listen to rap...they rhyme a lot...

Answer 5

They do rhyme.
If you understand Japanese, you can tell how they do it.

Answer 6

they dont?? i thought they did?