Playlist Nhật Bản

Japan's club floor right now is loud, mixed and nowhere near one sound. Kroi's SPIN, the opening theme of the Netflix anime *Steel Ball Run*, runs Funk, Soul and Hip-Hop through a Western-film sound, and it is pulling a big weekly audience on YouTube. YAJU-MC's INMU KING climbed to second place on the chart with an internet-meme song and a generative-AI video, a career high. The clubs are just as wide. Ryogo runs the techno night Interzone at West Harlem in Kyoto. Chiki Chiki Rambo has built its party on reggae and dub roots at Grassroots in Higashi-Koenji, which runs only once every three months and feels like an event for that reason. Shibuya carries most of the weekend, with CUT OFF 20s, FOCUS and chain at SHIBUYA LUSH.

This month the WorldWidePop playlist added 19 videos, bringing it to 105. The push comes from Osaka and Tokyo: Natchan Montana's JからG, the SUSHIBOYS' Zzz prod. play in stereo, 梅田サイファー with TOYOTOMI, and greedymonkeys' OSAKA LAND all came in alongside JO1's ANIMAL. Two throwbacks sit in the mix too, classics that have been on YouTube for years and still work on a dancefloor. Manaka's Going feat. Litty is part of the new set, and the rough, sticky sound of the new Japanese rap is what ties the additions together.

Listeners in the comments are writing in from Thailand, Brazil and Indonesia, so the Japanese floor is travelling. Watch the autumn lineups, especially the 2020s-themed CUT OFF 20s and the idol-leaning day party at Club Malcolm, to see where the next wave of crews comes from.