toryanse

Since we're into a Japanese music thing, what about Toryanse - a traditional children's song, the title of which literally means "Plese let me pass"? If you've been to Japan, maybe you have heard it in the road crossings:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ommgK1dPwL0&feature=player_embedded

Or from Boogiepop Phantom (it also appears in the segment "Beyond" of "Animatrix2, in 2Lost in Translation", in "Lain", etc):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZTexwjxXb0

A more surprising (or not) source that uses the Toryanse theme is the song "Akashingo" ("red light/sign") from Lucky People Center who used it in their documentary "International":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqCEE9jovTU

Here it is, sang:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2CNNthajW0

Michael Cooke arranged it as part of a symphony, for a string quartet first and then for an orchestra. It is available here under the name Symphony No.3 IV "Shadows of Japanese Children" (2005).

[It's] a four-movement work based on Japanese music. A book found in a Dallas used bookstore, Unforgettable Fire, inspired it. Atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki filled this book with drawings and stories. Many were about children turned into ash statues - their shadows burned on the ground. This very powerful book reminds us that war is not a video game. This work is dedicated to those children.
The fourth movement, "In the Fallen Sun only Shadows Remain" makes use of two more folk melodies "Hora Nero Nen Nero" & "Toryanse". The title of this movement and the first movement come from lines in the beginning of Unforgettable Fire. *

More info at THAT ANIME BLOG