On a late afternoon just before Christmas 2009 I walked through the bustling streets of Shibuya, a major nightlife area and one of the fashion centers of Tokyo where the young and hip gather. As I walked through the small and crowded streets to my favorite sushi restaurant, I suddenly noticed familiar colors on a billboard on top of a nearby building. Red, gold, green and black. Squashed in between two tall buildings and surrounded by flickering neon lights, the billboard announced the upcoming release of a new album containing music called ‘regga-enka’, a combination of reggae and enka, sentimental Japanese music resembling traditional Japanese music. At that moment I realized how far reggae music had traveled through time and space from its birthplace Jamaica in the 1970s to Japan in 2009 and how it had thus overcome cultural and linguistic barriers. Moreover, it inspired me to continue my research about Bob Marley and reggae in Japan.
In the spring of 1979, Bob Marley and The Wailers visited Japan, New-Zealand, Australia and Hawaii as part of the Babylon By Bus-tour to promote reggae in places Marley had not visited before. Marley was greeted by enthusiastic fans in Japan and the promotional tour became a great success: reggae gained a definitive and steady foothold in Japan where in subsequent years a native reggae scene would develop and flourish.
But why did the Japanese like Bob Marley and reggae? And how did the music develop from ‘Jamaican reggae’ into ‘Japanese reggae’? And is reggae nowadays still popular in Japan? These and many other questions are answered in this document which primarily provides an account of the history of reggae in Japan and the role of Bob Marley therein. Moreover, I try to explain the popularity of reggae in Japan – by amongst others exploring similarities between reggae and traditional Japanese culture and music – and the developments that took place within the music since 1979. This work is the culmination of months of research and many years of interest in – and love for – Japan and reggae music. I hope readers will find back something of my enthusiasm and will find it as interesting and entertaining to read as it was for me to do research and put my findings into writing.