Aikoku Kōshinkyoku

"Aikoku Kōshinkyoku" (愛国行進曲) is a Japanese patriotic song composed by Tōkichi Setoguchi with lyrics by Yukio Morikawa. It was released in December 1937.

History
At the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Cabinet of Japan sponsored several public competitions for lyrics to Aikoku Kōshinkyoku in September 1937. There were 57,578 entries for lyrics that were received, and Morikawa's entry was selected as the winner. For the music, 9,555 entries to accompany the lyrics were then received, and Setoguchi was declared the winner. Setoguchi was already a noted composer who had written the Gunkan kōshinkyoku, the official march of the Imperial Navy.

A few days after its release, Aikoku Kōshinkyoku sold a hundred thousand copies from six labels. It sold over a million by 1938.

In popular culture
This song is used in the 1972 Malaysian film Laksamana Do Re Mi, but with different lyrics. This song appears chanted by children and soldiers in Nobuhiko Obayashi's 2017 Hanagatami.