Of all the cliches about Japanese music being bandied around, the one I find most baffling is the idea that bands here are "just copying Western music." It's a rehash of the old jibe, originally born from fear of Japan's rapid postwar industrial growth, about the Japanese being dedicated imitators but lacking originality, so let's just call it out for what it is: obvious and utter nonsense.

Of course a selective perusal of the Japanese music scene will always throw up its fair share of imitators, just as every musical genre in the history of rock and pop has its adherents the world over and, yes, mainstream music here is in as dire creative straits as anywhere. But for all its problems, the Japanese alternative scene remains thrillingly alive with its own power to inspire, and one of the places this energy burns most fiercely is in Tokyo Boredom.

Driven by a restless 10-member team of organizers, the event occurs only when and where the collective's members think they can do something fresh. Tokyo Boredom inspired Canadian music fan Steven Tanaka to set up his "Next Music From Tokyo" tour series, Tanaka telling The Japan Times in 2010 of the event's "unbelievable energy and camaraderie," and how it, "dissolved any kind of hierarchy or barrier between the musicians and the audience."