Who Is Masayoshi Takanaka? Everything You Need to Know About the Viral Japanese Guitarist

A 72-year-old Japanese guitarist who hasn’t performed in the UK in roughly 50 years just expanded his London comeback from one night to two at Brixton Academy. Most of his world tour dates are already sold out — and the fans buying tickets are largely in their 20s.

Masayoshi Takanaka, a towering figure in Japan’s rock fusion scene since the 1970s, is experiencing a global resurgence powered by YouTube algorithms, TikTok clips and a Gen Z audience that discovered his catalog decades after it was recorded.

How Gen Z Discovered Masayoshi Takanaka

Takanaka’s revival traces back to the growing international appetite for 1970s and 1980s Japanese jazz and pop, which gained traction on YouTube through algorithmic recommendations that surfaced vintage tracks for new listeners.

In 2019, Light in the Attic Records licensed his 1979 track “Bamboo Vender” for its Pacific Breeze compilation series, introducing his work to a wider Western audience. A fan-run Instagram account called Takanaka Vibes, created in 2023, has gained over 138,000 followers. Its creator cited discovering Takanaka through a 1981 performance at Tokyo’s Budokan.

A viral TikTok from one of his U.S. performances p...