In April, Sizzla will become the first reggae act in some time to tour the Land of the Rising Sun.

He is scheduled to do 13 shows in major cities such as Yokohama, Osaka, Okinawa, and Hiroshima.

In the 1980s, Japan was the new frontier for Jamaican music. Although Bob Marley toured there in 1979, it was not until the next decade that Japanese warmed to Jamaican pop culture through shows like Japansplash.

According to niceup.com, Sizzla kicks off the Everlasting tour on April 25 at Vibes, a venue in Ibaraki. The following day he is at Duckbill in Kagoshima.

Sizzla will also perform in Fukuoka, Yokohama, Sapporo, and Toyama in April.

In May, he has dates confirmed for Osaka, Kobe, Okinawa, Tobishama, Kyoto, Shibuya and historical Hiroshima, where the tour closes on May 7.

Japan became a stomping ground for Jamaican artistes and musicians during the 1980s. Many of them appeared on Japansplash, the massive version of Reggae Sunsplash promoted by Tachyon, a Tokyo-based company.

All the big names in dancehall/reggae performed in Japan during the 1980s, led by Sugar Minott, who is largely credited with introducing sound system culture to that country. His trendsetting move led to dancehall music taking off among Japanese youth and inspiring the birth of home-grown ‘sounds’ like Mighty Crown and artistes such as Naki.

Japan was still a fertile area for reggae artistes during the 1990s. Dennis Brown, Freddie McGregor, Yami Bolo, Augustus Pablo, Garnet Silk, and Shabba Ranks were some of the major acts who performed there. While artistes such as Anthony B and Etana have performed in Japan in recent years, there has been steady decline in reggae tours to the country.

— Howard Campbell