The past few years have been a boom time for Japanese reissues, as labels dredge up everything from ambient obscurities to glossy disco-pop for the benefit of listeners who missed them first time around. For Yukihiro Takahashi, it's all a bit confusing.
"Do you understand that?" the 66-year-old musician and style guru asks, pondering the current appetite for vintage Japanese sounds. "I don't get it. It was all just copies of music from overseas, wasn't it?"
It's a surprising comment coming from someone who helped establish Japan's international reputation for musical creativity, first as part of Sadistic Mika Band and then with techno-pop pioneers Yellow Magic Orchestra.