Japanese jazz

Common card · No. 445826

Japanese jazz (Japanese: 日本のジャズ, Nihon no jazu) is jazz played by Japanese musicians or jazz connected to Japan or Japanese culture. According to some estimates, Japan has the largest proportion of jazz fans in the world. Jazz was introduced to Japan in the 1910s through transpacific ocean liners, where Filipino musicians took influences from jazz, with the Philippines being an American colony at the time. Following the rise of the music recording industry, the lyrics of popular jazz records such as "The Sheik of Araby" and "My Blue Heaven" were translated into Japanese. Jazz was associated with Japanese counterparts to flappers and dandies and often played in dance halls. Although considered "enemy music" in Japan during World War II, due to its American roots, the genre was too popular for a ban, and many disobeyed the state-mandated destruction of jazz records. During the occupation of Japan following World War II, there was a large demand for entertainment for American troops, and...

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