Japanese hip-hop culture has become more popular and mainstream within the last decade, especially among Japanese men. While hip-hop has become more appealing to international communities, these Japanese male artists use techniques that are eerily similar to Black American hip-hop aesthetics and styling.

Many local Japanese male rappers in major cities have adopted these ‘hip-hop’ styles, citing their influences on Black American rappers and gang culture while performing at Japanese hip-hop clubs. Japanese hip-hop clubs have also become more popularized in major cities, with club posters promoting their spaces and forming a sense of community with both party-goers and performers.

This research will explore how and why local Japanese male hip-hop artists in the Kansai region use Blackness and Black masculinity to express and rap about their daily lives in Japan through a Black feminist perspective.

Drawing from thirteen in-person interviews from male Kansai rappers and autoethnographic data, this research aims to analyze and critique the formulation of these identities using narrative analysis, interpretative phenomenological analysis, and Black feminist framework. These artists utilize Black American hip-hop culture to create parts of their identity and diverge from traditional Japanese societal norms through their rap career, aesthetics, lifestyle, and formulation of community, while also remaining distant from Black social movements and awareness of sociohistorical Blackness.