As one of Japan's longest-standing maritime gateways to the world, Yokohama has absorbed many cultures from the West over the last 150 years — not least its abiding love of jazz.
Indeed, many residents of this metropolis — known in Japan and worldwide for its friendly attitude toward anything foreign or new — take pride in the fact that Yokohama is truly the birthplace of jazz in Japan.
According to Koichi Shibata, a third-generation resident and artistic director of the annual jazz festival Yokohama Jazz Promenade, on July 1, 1925, the city hosted the nation's first public jazz performance at a theater named the Kirakuza.