TAKARA, the new duo formed by No No Girls alumni ASHA and KOKONA, have released their debut single ‘Time is money’ alongside its music video. The track arrived digitally on August 8th via CHANMINA’s NO LABEL ARTISTS imprint, with the duo also confirming their first EP, ‘宝’ (‘Takara’), for release on August 24th.
‘Time is money’ is a hip-hop track that sees the pair trading bars about hard-won success and pride in the path that brought them there, with their contrasting vocal tones and flows playing off one another.
The video casts the pair as a ninja and an oiran, an Edo-period courtesan, opening at the gates of a temple where traditional iconography meets contemporary hip-hop and gyaru sensibilities, from rapping atop a giant block of cash to speeding around in a dekotora.
On the credits, the pair wrote the lyrics and composed the music alongside MONJOE, with CHANMINA producing. In comments shared to mark the release, ASHA and KOKONA explained how it took shape over the year they spent developing it.
ASHA comment
“‘Time is money’ started when TAKARA was formed. CHANMINA said to us, ‘I think it would be good to have a song that really values the Japanese language’. She suggested that something like toki wa kane nari (time is money) could be interesting, and we started working on the song from there. At first, it was completely different from what it is now, but little by little it gradually took shape and became what it is today.”
KOKONA comment
“When you’ve been sitting on a song for a whole year, your style naturally changes little by little, and so does what you’re thinking and feeling at the time. We thought that properly updating it to reflect that would make it feel more like us, so we kept reworking it together, saying things like, ‘Maybe it would be better if we did it more like this’. We were born and raised in different places, and until a year ago, we were living completely separate lives. There are things about us that are similar, but there are also things that are different. Those experiences are real, and we want to value each other exactly as we are. I think that way of thinking has taken shape in what we’ve made.”
RELATED: No No Girls alumni ASHA and KOKONA to debut as new unit TAKARA with self-produced single ‘Time is money’
The music video’s premiere was followed immediately by a commemorative live stream titled TAKARA 8.8, during which the pair received video messages of support from HANA, FUMINO, and CHANMINA. TAKARA announced the EP during the broadcast, and their official fan club launched the same day.
TAKARA
Time is money
Release Date: 08/08/2026
Label: NO LABEL ARTISTS
Stream: Links
TAKARA
宝
Release Date: 24/08/2026
Label: NO LABEL ARTISTS
