Japan's indie music scene is a fractured miasma of competing and collaborating subgenres. The sheer number of bands is, as anyone who has looked at Pia's live house listings recently, overwhelming. Like a fan searching for a hidden venue in the twisted back streets of Shimokitazawa or Koenji, you can easily get lost.
Information in English (the pages of The Japan Times entertainment section aside) is hard to come by. Comprehensive guides have focused more on the mainstream or, like the Rough Guide's recent Japan CD, on traditional music rather than new sounds.
"Japanese Independent Music," an exhaustive guide to the interesting, the out-there and the just plain weird, is a welcome addition.