I don't know when Japan caught the bossa nova bug, but I suspect it was in 1964, when Sergio Mendes toured there with Nara, the Brazilian vocalist. Helen Merrill's chill Bossa Nova in Tokyo album, recorded for Victor in March 1967 and released there, probably was influential as well.
Long story short, Japan produced a large amount of home-grown bossa nova albums starting in the 1960s, yet few here in the U.S. know about them. I only found out about this bossa sub-genre while nosing around on YouTube a couple of weeks ago.
Japanese bossa nova collections are pretty pricey. For example, Tokyo Bossa Nova Lounge (Teichiku), a gorgeous CD, is going for around $120.
What follows are three of my favorite YouTube bossa nova tracks that were made in Japan. If you want more, just type “Japanese Bossa Nova" into the YouTube search engine and scroll around.
