JaME's 5th Anniversary: Partner's Comments - Japan

In the five years that JaME has been around, we have worked with many other J-music related companies.

As a token of our partnerships, in some cases young and others several years old, we collected and present to you the comments of companies, agencies, writers and labels who are also working with the common aim of introducing Japanese music to the world at large.

In the comments that follow, they let us know of their own unique JaME experiences, share behind the scenes incidents and offer hints of their future activities.


Darkest Labyrinth, JAPAN

This is BLOOD's Kiwamu's label, Darkest Labyrinth. My label is working with BLOOD, GPKISM, 2 Bullet, Seileen, Spectrum-X, Takuya Angel, Noir du'Soleil, Virgins O.R. Pigeons, Suicide Ali and Angelspit.

Reyep started helping us with JaME from 2004. Especially, he started to book BLOOD in new countries in Europe and around the world. From 2005 to 2006, Reyep booked two North European tours and one South European tour. Before the tours, there were many difficult situations because of organizers' skills in each country, but we got a good reaction. Before we met JaME, BLOOD had already gone to France, Germany and Poland. But without JaME, we couldn’t have gone to Finland, Sweden, the UK and Spain.

Now, due to BLOOD and JaME's pioneering activities, many bands have come to Europe. Unfortunately, there were many low quality bands. So, in the end, was it good for the European scene? I don't know the answer. Nowadays, I focus on my label activities. Until 2007, I just used my skill for my band BLOOD. However, I am currently set on helping my label's bands to get good reactions.


Lynks International, JAPAN & USA

Congratulations on the 5th anniversary of JaME!

My name is Yaz Noya, founder of Tofu Records. I established my own company Lynks International in 2008.

I've been enthusiastic about bringing Japanese music scene overseas over ten years. And I have achieved in bringing many Japanese rock and Japanese pop bands, such as L'Arc-en-Ciel, T.M.Revolution, HYDE, PUFFY AMIYUMI and more, overseas. Since JaME launched, you guys made my job much easier. JaME has been trying very hard to work with us at a professional level.

I remember one episode with JaME and ORESKABAND. While we were having an ice cream party in Austin, Texas, Cynthia came and joined us. It was a cold day. A cold day and an ice cream party - what a crazy idea. But we had a really good time with her and all the fans.

I personally appreciate Pierre, Philippe, Cynthia and Kay for all your participation. I know people who get involved with JaME are always passionate about Japanese music; I admire your support.

I know we can grow and develop more artists on an international level with JaME keeping people together.

Love and Cheers,
Yaz Noya


Rightsscale, JAPAN & USA

First of all, I’d like to congratulate JaME on their 5th anniversary!! I’m honored to be a part of this event.

I’m a manager at Rightsscale USA, Inc. Our head office in Tokyo is known as the first digital music distributor in Japan since Apple’s iTunes Music Store opened in Japan. I am stationed in the international division of the company as label and management; we provide Japanese music and artists to the world. Moreover, we’ve recently started a music publishing company named BNZ Music Publishing, which handles Japanese music all the way overseas.

I believe that our first contact with JaME was back in 2006 when we were working with ELLEGARDEN for SXSW in Austin, Texas. I myself started working with JaME directly when Pistol Valve released their international debut CD from our label, and the band's European tour followed. Our relationship with JaME doesn’t quite have a highlight just yet, so we’re looking forward to it, and I hope I will be able to tell the readers all about it soon.

We’ve started working with JaME in the USA and I got introduced to Japanese labels by a JaME member in Japan. I had an accidental meeting with JaME members in France, and I got hooked up with a JaME member in Brazil and so on. One day, I realized that JaME members are everywhere: it's so amazing. It is quite possible that I have missed meeting a lot of JaME members in other countries...I think that JaME has been contributing many good things in many ways to the readers. Obviously, many people are doing similar things, but individually, what I like about JaME is that all the countries work together as one, and even though hard work is required to put these members together, I’d love to see many more country names and flags in the website. I’m Japanese, born and raised in Tokyo, and I really appreciate all the people in the world who are interested in Japanese music and culture.

We distribute Japanese music both in CDs and in digital form, we manage Japanese artists, we do promotions, marketing, live booking, organizing events and now we have publishing systems, too. We represent Japanese artists and help them make things happen outside of Japan. Our aim is true...

Thank you.

Kanpai to JaME!!


SHOXX editor-in-chief: Kuniaki Suzuki, JAPAN

I'm Kuniaki Suzuki, or known to most of you as "Pokkun," who works editing the visual kei magazine SHOXX in Japan. As I sit in my office in Tokyo, it is amazing to think that what I am typing will be released to people all over the world to see.

I grew up listening to rock music from America and Europe. Not just me, but music fans around me also preferred to listen to western rock more than Japanese rock. At that time (from the later 70's to the beginning of the 80's), most Japanese rock was a rip off of American and British music, so to me Japanese music was at that time just a coarse counterfeit of the real thing.

Rock music was born in North America, then hybridized with original cultures in various countries, such as the UK, Jamaica, France, etc., and metamorphosed into new styles of rock and began gaining global acceptance. However, Japanese rock has made a lot of effort not to engage or mix with Japanese culture and has continued to import rock from the west. The result was that there wasn't any new discoveries made in Japanese rock, as almost everything was just an imitation. So not only in Japan, but also overseas, Japanese rock was not accepted for long time because of this. I think you, who are reading this, would probably find it difficult to name any Japanese rock bands that came before X JAPAN.

However, what changed this situation totally was 'visual kei,' and X JAPAN was part of that. X JAPAN didn't try to exclude or avoid Japanese-ness in their work (which was considered taboo at the time). What they wanted to show and give us through their performances, CDs and picture albums was 'surprise' and 'stimulation.' And in their search for more stimuli to express their messages, they broke the stereotype that prevailed in Japan of this so-called right of Japanese rock.

They did not care about the pureness of rock, nor did they purposely try to express Japanese-ness. They just did what their instincts told them to do and expressed. The result was something that was distinctively Japanese that was pushed up onto the world stage for many to see and appreciate. Perhaps YOSHIKI of X JAPAN expressed where X JAPAN stood best. He once said that he had blue blood flowing in his body, both to appeal to people that he was something unique, while at the same time telling them that they were not bound by normal taboos or stereotypes that existed about Japanese music.

Rock originally was a total mixture of music that contradicted tradition and pureness, by repeating its unexpected metamorphosis and continuing to surprise us with its stimulation and free ideas. Visual kei continues this and is the first rock style that the Japanese invented and exported to the world.

But even now, there are many listeners, media people and musicians in Japan who, while noticing the uniqueness of visual kei, close their eyes to the fact that it's accepted by overseas music fans and deny visual kei its rightful place by saying that it's fake. I receive so many letters from overseas every month from visual kei fans telling me how they love Japanese music and culture that I find those who refuse to recognize the role visual kei has in music simply ridiculous.

I want to take this opportunity to say to those who are reading this in far away foreign countries and to the JaME staff, who are working tirelessly to show the world that visual kei is indeed a wonderful thing, thank you. Thank you for supporting visual kei music.

And lastly, congratulations to JaME on its 5th anniversary! You are indeed the frontier in promoting visual kei, I look forward to seeing your continued growth in the future.


star child/ Zy. connection, JAPAN

Hello, visual kei fans in all over the world! How are you? And of course, JaME staff all over the world, thanks for all your hard work.

I’m Seiichi Hoshiko, the president of star child/Zy. connection in Japan. JaME and SC24 (the free video website of our company) have been partners since November 2007, with interviews from Zy. magazine and live reports from our concerts appearing in the Zy. section of the JaME website. I hope that you enjoy reading them.

We are pleased to be able to continue our partnership with JaME and thankful for your continued support, and, needless to say, your continued support of visual kei bands.

The president of star child/Zy. connection, Seiichi Hoshiko


Tomonori Nagasawa, JAPAN

'Visual kei' is still a musical genre which is somewhat looked down upon in Japan. Western music has had a big influence in Japan, and perhaps it may be part of the reason why visual kei is seen the way it is by some, even now. 'Visual kei' is actually very Japanese...it is music which has implicit beauty and elegant simplicity which is combined with aestheticism and momentary happiness. I think that we could even say that visual kei has in some ways shaped popular and rock music too. I think visual kei is like measles in some ways. We Japanese tend to catch something and then get totally absorbed in it - with music it is no different. Before, however, it was western hard rock and heavy metal or punk that we used to listen to, but now it's visual kei. It should be a genre that grows on the Japanese easily, however, even now it is still considered by some to be 'not cool.'

We can say the same thing for anime theme songs. I think that visual kei adapts itself to the new generation and takes over from where traditional Japanese music stops. But what is ironic to me is that it is non-Japanese who have been able to do what many in Japan can't, which is to have an open mind to critique or even recognize the merits of these two genres. Visual kei and anime are really things that the Japanese should be able to boast about proudly to the world.

For those of you who are reading this, I ask that you continue to appreciate the music that many Japanese seem to despise so much. Take what is good and let others listen to it; spread the word about the music that the Japanese should be proud of because you understand the beauty and power in this music. Please keep supporting the Japanese music industry. There is a lot of great music in this country, and I hope that JaME will continue to introduce it to you. But why there isn't a Japanese version of JaME? I can only read Japanese so I never understand what is written!! (laughs)

Original Visual Kei Writer, Tomonori Nagasawa


VAMPROSE, JAPAN

I was first introduced to JaME by fans of HYDE and VAMPS, one of the bands I represent at VAMPROSE. I quickly searched their website looking for MONORAL, our other VAMPROSE label band, and noticed I needed to update them about some things, so I wrote to JaME. At first, they were a bit shocked that any Japanese band had a foreign manager, so they checked my credentials. A few interesting and rather incredulous mails later, from both sides, they were convinced that I was a random American working for two Japanese bands, so JaME updated the artist profiles for MONORAL and VAMPS. However, it wasn't until months later that I realized just how powerful the JaME network was: that was when I met the Brazilians. For those of you who don't already know, the Brazilian JaME team is a very real and very powerful one.

The Brazilian JaME team first contacted me asking for VAMPS and MONORAL; they wanted to create a tour for either or both bands. Well, VAMPS was already busy, but MONORAL could work! So, the Brazilian team introduced us to the Chileans, the Chileans introduced us to the Mexican JaME folks, and then we got introduced to the Argentinians...and what came next was the MONORAL Via Latin America Tour 2008!

That tour was an absolutely amazing experience, and I expect to be friends with the people I met on that tour for the rest of my life! And it would never have been possible without JaME! Now, as I am planning many other tours for VAMPROSE, I know the importance of making JaME my first stop for news and promotion. Happy 5th anniversary JaME! Thanks for your awesome, free, worldwide network of support and promotion of Japanese artists...you make my job so much easier!

I really wanted to give you a capital "A" for your anniversary present... but well, I wasn't sure if you would use it.

Many thanks and much love,

-J
VAMPROSE