Moichi Kuwahara's office occupies a crumbing apartment building in Tokyo's Yutenji district. The warren of small rooms resembles an art squat -- packed full of editors, graphic designers, writers and other creative types who provide the artistic fodder for Club King, a company whose products, magazines, radio and television programs are perhaps best described as cultural goods.

Assistants scurry up and down the narrow stairs bringing copies of the various magazines, pictures and books that Kuwahara has produced to illustrate the whatever point he is trying to make. Casually manipulating the turntables, mixers and other audio equipment piled behind the ratty, but totally hip, table that serves as his desk, Kuwahara mixes a background track, DJing his way through the interview.

As Tokyo's foremost music selector, Kuwahara has provided soundtracks for everything from Comme des Garcons' fashion collections to beer commercials to a good portion of the daily programming at the hip radio station, Shibuya FM. It is too simple to call Kuwahara a producer; he is a subcultural nurturer, a cultivator of new styles, new art and new ideas.

"What I am really trying to do," he says, "is get people to question how free they are."

In the '70s, this took the form of the Japanese edition of Rolling Stone, a heady mix of rock music, fashion and radical politics. When the '70s (and the magazine) crashed to a close, Kuwahara turned to music, producing the Snakeman show, a potent combination of Tokyo's then-burgeoning electro-pop like Yellow Magic Orchestra and comic noodling.

His next venture was Pithecan Tropus, recognized by many as Tokyo's first club. Conceived of as an "entry point" for foreign culture into Japan, it also served as a platform for many of Japan's first internationally recognized artists such as UFO, Melon, and the Plastics. The evolution of clubs from cultural mingling spaces to business opportunities pushed Kuwahara to look for new venues.

The primary one has been Dictionary, a small monthly magazine that can be found scattered through Japan's trendy shops and nightclubs. The contents include music and film recommendations, short essays and commentaries by Japanese and foreign creators, tied together with challenging, cutting-edge design.

"The club scene became too snobbish, too exclusive," says Kuwahara. "I couldn't see any hint of the birth of a new culture in it, so we started introducing ideas through a different medium, through print. The initial idea was to introduce foreign culture to Japan. This idea is still there, but we realized that it was more important to cultivate domestic artists and creators.

This is not to say that Kuwahara has abandoned the club scene entirely. He has been busily reconceiving it. Afterschool Dictionary, a limited three-weekend event beginning June 5 at Shibuya's Space Edge, is Club King's attempt to revive the combustible atmosphere of the early club scene in a space comfortable and attainable by both the old and the young (hence the afterschool). The space will include a bookstore and library, cafe and, of course, a concert on the closing day. But it is the lecture series, a sort of Dictionary cram school, that is the centerpiece of Afterschool Dictionary.

"For the past 12 years, all sort of creators from many different backgrounds have taken part in Dictionary," says Kuwahara. "But the form this has taken, print, has many irritating limitations. We wanted to bring that network onto a broader stage, introducing it to as many people as we can reach. It's meant to be a space where people can connect with each other, and hopefully, a new wave of communication can be born."

Each day of the event will feature three speakers, with each lecture lasting approximately two hours. Among the speakers are musician Takuji Aoyagi from Tokyo group Little Creatures, fashion designer Kosuke Tsumura and Fumihiro Hayashi, editor of the fashion and culture magazine Dune.

The gathering of Dictionary's disparate contributors under one roof is also connected to Kuwahara's other current interest: family.

"The most important thing is to redefine the idea of family," says Kuwahara. "But to do that, you have to analyze yourself first. I'm the kind of person who works on impulse and impulse pulls me toward the things I get involved in. Something in me directs me to certain people. As a result, a new society is being born around me. It's not blood relations, but there is something in common with people I work with or get to know well."