Japanese Metal Family TreeThe Music Cities™ · network and lineage map · 1967 to 2026
The Music Cities™

The Japanese Heavy Metal Family Tree

A network map of bands, musicians, labels, festivals, venues and documented relationships across Japanese heavy music, 1967 to 2026, with the female led scene mapped member by member.

Work in progress. This map is not exhaustive. It presents the result of documented research at this release and changes as sources are added, corrected, or superseded. Every node is based on at least one public source and carries its sources and confidence class. If something is missing or wrong, submit it.

Public disclosure policy: This map uses public business records, public corporate filings, property records, public calendars, public civic documents, public press coverage and public listings. It maps commercial infrastructure and documented civic activity, not endorsements, partnerships or private cultural behavior. Inclusion does not require participation, consent or approval. The map corrects factual errors promptly and considers removal requests case by case where a listing is outdated, an entity has closed, publication presents a material safety concern, or the entity is not conducting public facing commercial activity. Public commercial infrastructure is mappable; private cultural behavior is protected.

Open the interactive mapRead the reference日本語の案内
324 bands, people and institutions · 496 connections · 11 lineages · 10 cities
Version 1.4.0. Data current through 24 September 2026. Activity after that date is described as announced or scheduled, never as completed.
The network view of the interactive mapNetwork view. Three more: Lineage timeline, Cities and 3D, plus a Play animation from 1967 to 2026.

Read the reference

The same text as the PDF, generated from the same data file as the map, so the counts never disagree.

Reading the mapA scene is a network before it is a genreWhat the nodes and lines mean, the inclusion rules, the timeline placement rule, the people rule and the eleven lineages.Lineage, era by eraFrom Satori to Metal ForthRoots, the boom, X and Extasy, the underground, consolidation and export: the scene era by era, 1967 to 2026.The female led sceneFour generations, one familyFour generations of the female led scene, the Destrose tree, the 2025 to 2026 recombination, personnel migrations and status as of the cutoff.CitiesWhere the scene comes fromWhere the scene comes from: bands by hub city, the counting rule and the Loudness family.InstitutionsWho decides who gets heardThe labels, magazines, festivals and venues that decide who gets heard, the Nordic connection, and the export milestones from Satori to Metal Forth.Network metricsWho carries the connectionsDegree and betweenness computed on this dataset, on the full graph and on the personnel only graph.MethodConfidence and sourcesConfidence grades, the evidence standard, terminology, the Japanese forms of names, open items and the source register.AppendixIndex of nodesEvery band, person and institution on the map, grouped by lineage, each with its own entry.

Current cases: how Japanese heavy music travels

Four bands singled out because each shows a different route from a scene network to international growth. Node size and centrality are computed, not adjusted.

Women's scene · TokyoNemophilaLineup transition across five prior scene lines. Personnel continuity, rebuilding and international orientation.Babymetal and idol metal · TokyoBroken by the ScreamMetal Blade signing plus European bookings. Hybrid idol metal entering global metal infrastructure.Women's scene · FukuokaBridearFukuoka based: Metal Matsuri to a UK label to a world tour cut short, then a crowdfunded restart. Export sustained from outside the Tokyo hub on a founding core that has held since 2011.Women's scene · TokyoLovebitesFrom personnel roots to institutional reach. First on the full graph, far lower on personnel only: labels, festivals and awards scale a stable working unit.

Eleven lineages

Every band belongs to one lineage, the one that best describes the network it sits in. Open any lineage in the index of nodes.

Roots and proto metal6 nodes1980s heavy metal boom34 nodesX, Extasy and visual kei metal35 nodesThrash, death, black, grind28 nodesHardcore crossover11 nodesDoom, sludge, noise12 nodesPower, neoclassical, prog21 nodesNu metal and metalcore16 nodesWomen's scene101 nodesBabymetal and idol metal10 nodesLabels, festivals, media50 nodes

Most connected in this dataset

Betweenness on the full graph: the nodes that bridge otherwise separate parts of the map. Full table and method.

  1. Lovebitesラヴバイツband · betweenness 0.170
  2. Loud Parkラウドパークfestival · betweenness 0.142
  3. JPU Recordslabel · betweenness 0.134
  4. Loudnessラウドネスband · betweenness 0.134
  5. Nemophilaネモフィラband · betweenness 0.117
  6. Anthemアンセムband · betweenness 0.091
  7. Crystal Lakeband · betweenness 0.086
  8. Babymetalベビーメタルband · betweenness 0.085

Data and downloads

The PDF reference, the Excel dataset and data.json, with the rules, the evidence standard and how to cite, on the data page.