All it took was a single song — 2013’s “Khona” by South African pop group Mafikizolo — to turn Yoko Itaya into a champion for African dance music in Japan.
Since her early 20s, the Tokyo native had been making annual trips to South Africa with her family, the first coming in 2008. As a result, she says she instantly fell in love with the people and their culture. During her travels, she naturally encountered musical genres like Afro-pop and Afro-soul, and upon returning to Tokyo she was eager to hear more.
“Back in Japan, I started to search for (the genres) on YouTube and a music video for a South African house tune, ‘Khona,’ came up,” she recalls. “The tune was incredible, and from then on I started to listen to African dance music.”
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