Toru Mitsui is Professor Emeritus of English and Music at Kanazawa University, Japan, where he taught the first postgraduate course in popular music studies in the country. He has been a corresponding editor for Popular Music since 1983, is on the Editorial Board of Popular Music History, and is an International Advisory Editor for Bloomsbury’s Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World. His publications in English include Karaoke Around the World: Global Technology, Local Singing (co-edited with S. Hosokawa, 1998) and Made in Japan: Studies in Popular Music (edited, 2014).

In this magisterial march through the history of Japanese popular music, Toru Mitsui shares with us the fine, fun, and surprising details of the happy marriage between Japanese makers of music and the music they loved, mastered, and elaborated. He tells the story of one of the 20th century's great and joyous achievements of profligate cultural synthesis. This is a Japanese story, an American story, and a global story.

• List of FiguresPrefaceNotes on names, spelling and translationA note on the cover imageTransformation inspired by the West (1)1. The French Revolution and the emergence of enkaTransformation inspired by the West (2)2. Songs in triple time sung in duple timeTransformation inspired by the West (3)3. “Sing Me a Song of Araby” and “My Blue Heaven”: When the production of hit songs began in the late 1920sTransformation inspired by the West (4)4. Far Western in the Far East: Japanese Country & WesternTransformation inspired by the West (5)5. Music and protest in the late 1960s: the rise of underground folkTransformation inspired by the West (6)6. Japan in Japan: looking for inexpensive, potential stars from abroadTransformation inspired by the West (7)7. Nurturing the Japanese version of an American tradition: music from the South Transformation inspired by the West (8)8. Domestic exoticism: a trend in the age of ‘world music’Transformation inspired by the West (9)ReferencesIndex

Toru Mitsui is Professor Emeritus of English and Music at Kanazawa University, Japan, where he taught the first postgraduate course in popular music studies in the country. He has been a corresponding editor for Popular Music since 1983, is on the Editorial Board of Popular Music History, and is an International Advisory Editor for Bloomsbury’s Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World. His publications in English include Karaoke Around the World: Global Technology, Local Singing (co-edited with S. Hosokawa, 1998) and Made in Japan: Studies in Popular Music (edited, 2014).

In this magisterial march through the history of Japanese popular music, Toru Mitsui shares with us the fine, fun, and surprising details of the happy marriage between Japanese makers of music and the music they loved, mastered, and elaborated. He tells the story of one of the 20th century's great and joyous achievements of profligate cultural synthesis. This is a Japanese story, an American story, and a global story.

• List of FiguresPrefaceNotes on names, spelling and translationA note on the cover imageTransformation inspired by the West (1)1. The French Revolution and the emergence of enkaTransformation inspired by the West (2)2. Songs in triple time sung in duple timeTransformation inspired by the West (3)3. “Sing Me a Song of Araby” and “My Blue Heaven”: When the production of hit songs began in the late 1920sTransformation inspired by the West (4)4. Far Western in the Far East: Japanese Country & WesternTransformation inspired by the West (5)5. Music and protest in the late 1960s: the rise of underground folkTransformation inspired by the West (6)6. Japan in Japan: looking for inexpensive, potential stars from abroadTransformation inspired by the West (7)7. Nurturing the Japanese version of an American tradition: music from the South Transformation inspired by the West (8)8. Domestic exoticism: a trend in the age of ‘world music’Transformation inspired by the West (9)ReferencesIndex