Japanese reggae is reggae

Reggae

Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...

 music originating from Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. The first reggae band to perform in Japan was The Pioneers

The Pioneers (band)

The Pioneers are a Jamaican reggae vocal trio, whose main period of success was in the 1960s. The trio has had different line-ups, and still occasionally performs.-Founding and early years: 1962-1967:...

 who toured in 1975. However it was not until 1979, when Jamaican singer Bob Marley

Bob Marley

Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers...

 visited Japan on holiday that reggae would gain momentum. Marley wanted to attend a concert by the Flower Travellin Band and when looking for information, he met famed Japanese percussionist "Pecker" who informed him that the group had already disbanded. The two became good friends, and Pecker suggested to Marley a collaboration between acclaimed Japanese and Jamaican artists. This suggestion resulted in the albums Pecker Power, and Instant Rasta being recorded in Jamaica at "Channel One" and "Tuff Gong Studio" in 1980. The albums featured Japanese artists , , , , and , alongside Jamaican artists Augustus Pablo

Augustus Pablo

Horace Swaby , known as Augustus Pablo, was a Jamaican roots reggae and dub record producer, melodica player and keyboardist, active from the 1970s onwards. He popularized the use of the melodica in reggae music...

, Sly & Robbie, The Wailers, Rico Rodriguez

Rico Rodriguez

Rico Rodriguez MBE , also known as Reco or El Reco, is a ska and reggae trombonist. He has recorded with many producers, including Karl Pitterson, Prince Buster, and Lloyd 'Matador' Daley...

, Carlton Barrett

Carlton Barrett

Carlton "Carly" Barrett was an influential reggae drummer and percussion player. His musical development in the early years were with his brother Aston "Family Man" Barrett as a member of Lee "Scratch" Perry's "house band" The Upsetters. The brothers joined Bob Marley and The Wailers around 1970...

 and Marcia Griffiths

Marcia Griffiths

Marcia Llyneth Griffiths is a successful female singer, also called the "Queen of Reggae". One reviewer described her noting "she is known primarily for her strong, smooth-as-mousse love songs and captivating live performances".Griffiths started her career in 1964...

. These two albums influenced both Japanese and Jamaican artists, and are regarded as spreading reggae to Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

.

Some of the first reggae artists from Japan were Joe Yamanaka

Joe Yamanaka

, better known as Joe Yamanaka, was a half Japanese and half African American singer, known for both his work with Flower Travellin' Band and as a solo musician. He was also an actor and appeared in many movies, such as Takashi Miike's Deadly Outlaw: Rekka and the 1989 version of Zatoichi...

 and Mute Beat

Mute Beat

Mute Beat was an influential dub reggae band from Japan. Their first release was a self-titled cassette on New York's Roir label. - Members :* Kazufumi "Echo" Kodama - trumpet* Akihotp Masui - trombone* Hiroyuki Asamoto - keyboards...

, the latter's recordings made Japan internationally renowned for dub

Dub music

Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...

 and influenced many artists such as Dry & Heavy

Dry & Heavy

Dry & Heavy is a Japanese dub and reggae band, formed in 1991 by drummer Shigemoto Nanao and bass player Takeshi Akimoto . Their names come from the Burning Spear album of the same name...

, Fishmans

Fishmans

Fishmans was a Japanese dub music band formed in 1987, and are known for their unique sound and the distinctive vocals of lead singer Shinji Sato.-Biography:...

, UA

UA (singer)

, simply known by the stage name UA , is a Japanese singer-songwriter. She debuted under Speedstar Records in 1995 with the single "Horizon".-Biography:...

. Another pioneering artist was Nahki. He was scouted by Sugar Minott

Sugar Minott

Lincoln Barrington "Sugar" Minott was a Jamaican reggae singer, producer and sound-system operator.-Biography:...

 and began performing in Jamaica, and later formed Japans first reggae festival "Japansplash" in 1985. The esteemed band combined punk rock

Punk rock

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

, jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, and funk

Funk

Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...

 with reggae and influenced hybrid artists such as Ego-Wrappin'

Ego-Wrappin'

EGO-WRAPPIN’ is a Japanese jazz band which formed in Osaka, Japan in 1996. They were first signed to RD Records in 1999, but transferred to Universal Music Japan two years later. The band primarily consists of two main members, Yoshie Nakano as the vocalist/songwriter and Masaki Mori as the...

. The dancehall

Dancehall

Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s. In the mid-1980s, digital instrumentation became more prevalent, changing the sound considerably,...

 style was brought to Japan by Rankin' Taxi

Rankin' Taxi

Rankin' Taxi is a Japanese reggae artist, from Yokohama. His 2011 anti-nuclear song 誰にも見えない匂いもない with Dub Ainu Band, despite receiving little airplay in the mainstream Japanese media, attracted the attention of the New York Times in June 2011 in an article by Dan Grunebaum titled Japan's New Wave...

 in the mid 80's, and rock group The Roosters

The Roosters

The Roosters were a Japanese rock band that mixed punk, blues-rock, ska and straightforward rock and roll.-History:They formed in 1979 in the Hakata ward of Fukuoka. Although there were four different lineups throughout the life of the band—all centered around guitarist Hiroyuki Hanada--Shinya Ohe...

 incorporated ska

Ska

Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...

 into some of their songs which influenced artists such as the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra

Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra

, commonly abbreviated by fans as Skapara or TSPO, is a Japanese ska and jazz band officially formed in 1988 by the percussionist Asa-Chang, and initially composed of over 10 veterans of Tokyo's underground scene...

, and Kemuri

Kemuri

Kemuri was a Japanese ska-punk band formed in 1995. They have an upbeat sound with positive lyrics which they refer to as PMA . While the majority of the songs are in English, they do also sing in Japanese....

.

Musical relations between Jamaican and Japanese artists continues to remain strong, often with collaborations between artists. For an anthropological study of the development of Jamaican popular culture in Japan, see Marvin Sterling's "Babylon East: Performing Dancehall, Roots Reggae and Rastafari in Japan" (Durham NC: Duke University Press.)