Jazz kissa (a term that’s shorthand for the Japanese phrase “kissaten,” which roughly translates to “tea-drinking shop” in English) culture first gained traction in Tokyo after the ...

Over and over, I came across Ryo Fukui, the godfather of Japanese jazz piano (or at least the most famous jazz pianist outside Japan). I ordered a copy of Scenery, his 1976 debut, and from the cover ...

In the same way that a bartender serves a drink, the bar, which does not have a name yet, will staff “somebody who serves you music,” he said.

Japanese-style listening bars — loungey drinking spots equipped with state-of-the-art sound systems designed to attract music lovers — grew out of Tokyo’s legacy of jazz kissa, cafes ...