If you have watched ep 5 of "silent", you may remember coming across this scene when Tsumugi (Kawaguchi Haruna) was listening to songs on her mobile phone while having breakfast. Suddenly, she pressed the stop button when this song "Minato" by Spitz came up in her playlist which suggested that listening to the song at that moment was too much for her to bear. Nonetheless, she plucked up the courage to call Minato after this in a bid to find a chance to salvage things between them.
The more obvious interpretations as to why this song was featured in the story could be:
1) The title is the same as Minato's. And the word "harbour" mentioned repeatedly in this song is pronounced as minato in Japanese.
2) The lyrics of this song seem to echo Minato's situation since the subject in the song stands alone at a rusted harbour to reminisce about the happy days which had passed after his love left. Minato's intention to breakup was due to his wish to see Tsumugi get back with Sou. However, this song is also applicable to Tsumugi because she was the one left behind after Minato initiated the breakup.
3) In the lyrics, there is this line which says "weaving words together to form a song". This seems to suggest that the scriptwriter is referring to Tsumugi by choosing this song. In Japanese, Tsumugi refers to the soft silk cloth that is created by weaving silk threads together and the word for weaving in Japanese sounds similar to her name i.e. tsumugu 紡ぐ.
Of course, the scriptwriter could have other meanings attached to the song choice which may not be so apparent. I also wonder if the character names were chosen as such because of this song.
So far in the story, we've seen a number of references to Spitz's songs which are also featured prominently in "Hachimitsu to Clover", a popular manga which had been made into anime, drama and movie versions. There was an article before which suggested that the scriptwriter of "silent" is a big fan of both Spitz and "Hachikuro" so that was why these elements have been included in this drama. In fact, there was even a famous line from "Hachikuro" which made it into an earlier episode when Minato commented that he "witnessed the moment of when Tsumugi fell in love with Sou".
This song from Spitz was the band's 41st single and first released as a pre-single on 27 April 2016 before it was included in their 15th album "Samenai" released in the same year on 27 July. The CD jacket's photo was taken from the 1933 movie "Ongaku Kigeki Horoyohi Jinsei" which was one of Japan's earliest musical comedies before WWII. The music video was entirely in monochrome and included scenes of the band playing the song and animation.
In order for you to understand the song better and see how it corresponds to the situation in the drama, I have translated the lyrics to English. If you would like to listen to the song, here is the music video.
It's not as if I am getting onto a boat
However, I am at the harbour
I stop in my tracks in a gap while surrounded by strangers all around
Collecting words which I want to send to you who had travelled to somewhere far away
Carrying one song which was made by weaving these words together
An universe which will someday be kind even to dirty stray cats
I recall the mysterious light we saw together on that day at dusk
This is a song I made in order to meet you again
I sing again today at the rusted harbour
Sometimes, I don't have the courage
And then I'm at the harbour
Thinking about the meaning of the cotton clouds which seem like they are disappearing
The evidence of you having gone far away has also started to become hazy
I close my eyes and restart from zero to hundred
The smiles passing each other
I believed that I could be like that too
The sunrise's morning glow painted us who were young
We started running while yawning
An important song for meeting you again
I sing again alone at the harbour
An universe which will someday be kind even to the dirty stray cats
I recall the mysterious light we saw together on that day at dusk
This is a song I made in order to meet you again
I sing again today at the rusted harbour
At the harbour
At the harbour
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