By RJHH Team | June 6, 2026 · Tokyo | 4 min read
Source Abema Times | @norikiyomegane | Photo: Shunichi Oda
June 6, 2026. Through his official Instagram account, NORIKIYO has announced the release of his new studio album, L.I.V.S. (Life Is Very Short), dropping August 7, 2026. The announcement comes alongside a first single, Sinner’s Excuse, with a music video already available online.
L.I.V.S. stands for Life Is Very Short. It’s not a title chosen lightly. NORIKIYO has been diagnosed with an incurable disease, and the album was fully completed before 2023, the year he began serving a three-year prison sentence. Originally, this project was supposed to be the last work released during his incarceration. But NORIKIYO was granted early parole, which paradoxically nearly buried the album altogether. It was fan pressure, at live events, through online exchanges, that convinced him to release it anyway. The Sinner’s Excuse music video was filmed after his release from prison, specifically to accompany the launch. The next album will contain 13 tracks.
Sinner’s Excuse: a song written in 2019
Sinner’s Excuse was recorded in 2019. A few years later, the author found himself convicted and incarcerated. There’s something unsettling about that gap — almost literary. The lyrics are worth sitting with. NORIKIYO weighs the gravity of his actions in “grams”, describes himself as “human and shallow” while acknowledging the sheer scale of his mistakes. He also touches on how hard it is to exist in a world where comfort leaves people blind to their own condition.
The track was written long before his conviction — but heard today, it sounds like a retrospective reckoning. Few lead singles have ever earned their title quite this literally. The music video was directed by the Studio Ishi collective. It features NORIKIYO dressed as a Buddhist monk, in a visual that leans into introspection and a dialogue with the self. Understated, symbolic, and consistent with the track’s tone.
L.I.V.S. · Out August 7, 2026
Sinner's Excuse · Dir. Studio Ishi
Pre-orders for the CD edition are open on ZAKAI.jp. Every physical copy comes with a download card for an unreleased track — a song whose lyrics were written by NORIKIYO from his cell. In a message addressed directly to his fans, the artist writes:
ストリーミングの時代にCDというフォーマットで俺の13枚目のアルバムをお買い求めいただきサポートしてくださる皆様へ、ささやかですが未発表曲１曲をダウンロード出来るカードをプレゼントさせてください。この未発表曲は獄中で書いたリリックを載せたものです。是非聞いてみて下さい。別件ですが昨年獄中から開催し、皆様から沢山のご支援をいただいたクラウドファンディングの返礼品としてお渡しする約束の作品の情報は近日中に発表できると思いますのでしばしお待ちを！(NORIKIYO)』
“To everyone who supports me by purchasing my album in CD format in this streaming era — I’d like to offer you a small token of appreciation: a download card for an unreleased track. The lyrics for this song were written while I was in prison. I hope you give it a listen. On a separate note, I believe I’ll soon be able to share information about the rewards promised to those who supported the crowdfunding campaign I ran from my cell last year — please bear with me a little longer!”
The message says a lot about where NORIKIYO is at right now: he’s thanking people, honoring his commitments, not overselling anything. For someone coming out of prison with an incurable illness and an album he nearly never released, that’s a pretty grounded place to be. Since his release, NORIKIYO hasn’t slowed down. He has published NORIKIYO / 脱獄のススメ 弍 (A Guide to Escaping, Vol. 2) and dropped the track Prison Diary. L.I.V.S. fits into a dense period of output — as if the years away stored up more than enough material to release.
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