[Glathannus]

1. What was the first Japanese song you heard?
That is very difficult to recall. It's probably anime-related, but I didn't necessarily first get exposed to anime songs from actually... watching an anime, which makes it harder to remember than, what my first anime viewing was. But then again, what about video games? In early days, practically all of them originated from Japan, so technically a Super Mario song on the NES is a "Japanese song". Or what if a game song was Japanese-made and had singing, but also had English vocals? What if it were Japanese vocals? Where do you draw the line? If you're talking about Japanese music that wasn't actually made for a soundtrack (but may have been later featured in a soundtrack), then the KSK vinyl version of Kuki was my cherry-popper, and boy oh boy was my intellect bleeding.

2. Which artists got you interested in finding out more about Japanese music?
Once again this is a messy topic for me to answer, because I got interested in video game music much earlier than I got into Japanese standalone music. Yasunori Mitsuda was the game music artist who peaked my interest and got me into habits that led into buying other artists' game music, and helped to shape my impression that Nobuo Uematsu is overrated (his remakes are decent though - and FFX OST was decent but hardly any of the tracks were actually his). Yoko Kanno has always been my favorite anime musician, and with blind love I throw money at her newer soundtracks for animes I haven't even seen yet. Shiina Ringo was the first standalone Japanese artist who peaked my interest.

3. Are there any genres of Japanese music or artists you particularly like?
I'm not a big fan of the Japanese Pop or R&B scene. It's okay when a group like Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra does something Pop-like once in awhile, because it'll have other styles like Reggae or Jazz for undertones. I suppose I'm a big fan of multi-genre (bonus points of the artist is consistent about including rock and/or jazz into the mix), indie (like Heart Bazaar or Hirama Mikio), and folks like SOIL&"PIMP"SESSIONS who may not evolve their style much, but they have their own fairly crazy niche.

Aside from whom I've already mentioned, I especially like Acidman (I have mixed feelings about their not-so-rockin' latest album), Asai Kenichi (pretty much everything the man has ever touched - solo career or otherwise), PE'Z, Shiina Ringo, and Yuu (solo career of the GO!GO!7188 lead girl).