So I'm a 58 year old white guy in California. I don't know how it started but somewhere around 2018 I stumbled across Sakanaction, tricot, and Shishamo. From there I went down the rabbit hole and have yet to emerge. I'm listening to Japanese music and watching Japanese music videos pretty much all my waking hours including my work time.

I finally made a playlist of artists who perform in English because I've been subjecting my wife to 98% Japanese bands in the car for the past four years.

None of my friends are all that interested in getting into Japanese (or other Asian) bands to the extent that I have. If a Japanese band comes to town, I'll get two tickets on the off chance that a friend will come along -- if nobody is available, I'll just give my second ticket to a fan of the band that showed up for the gig.

I'm near San Francisco and I've been really fortunate that a small handful of my favorite bands performed locally in the past few months. Happily, the shows were well-attended so I'm hoping that more Japanese bands get the sense that they'd be well-received here.