Japan's metal underground, written in English. Every day.
Most foreign coverage of Japanese metal stops at Babymetal. Most Japanese coverage of Japanese metal isn't translated. metalJapan is the gap between those two — written from inside the country, in English, every day, by someone who actually goes to the shows.
This site exists because every time a foreign metal magazine writes about a Japanese band, they get the venue wrong, mispronounce the city, miss the joke, or — most often — just don't know the band has put out three records since the one they reviewed. We want to fix that. Not by being the loudest voice. By being the one that's actually here.
What we cover
Band of the Day
One Japanese band, every day. Working musicians, basement acts, legends, the new ones nobody's heard of yet.
Scene Decoded
Long reads on the structure of the scene — venues, labels, scenes within scenes, why things are the way they are.
Tour News
Foreign bands coming through Japan, Japanese bands going out. With booking details, venue notes, and ticket-buying tricks.
Live House & Bars
The rooms. How to get there from the nearest station, what the drink-charge system actually means, where to eat after.
Metal Numbers
Monthly. CD sales, streaming numbers, ticket revenue, label economics — read through a business and supply-chain lens.
Voices / Interviews
Conversations with bands, bookers, photographers, label heads. Long-form, lightly edited.
Who writes this
Someone who has spent the better part of thirty years inside Japan's underground metal scene. Not a magazine. Not a label. Not a PR shop. A longtime fan who goes to the shows, buys the records, and knows which venues lie about their capacities — and writes about it in English so the rest of the world can finally hear what's happening here.
How we work with bands and labels
Editorial coverage is free, unsolicited, and never paid. PR placements are clearly labeled Sponsored and live in their own section. We don't sell links and we don't write hatchet pieces. If a band sends us their record and we love it, we'll write about it. If we don't, we won't — but we won't trash it either. Life's too short.
Get in touch
Press, PR, interviews, hellos — everything goes to one inbox:
mj_info@metaljapan.tokyo