Minyo Crusaders
Twelve Tokyo musicians set min'yō, Japan's ancestral folk song tradition, dancing to cumbia, Afro-funk, reggae and salsa rhythms. The Minyo Crusaders have become the most joyful ambassadors of Japan's new music scene — new album From Japan with Love (2026).
Biography
'For Japanese people, min'yō is both the closest and most distant folk music,' says Katsumi Tanaka, leader of the Minyo Crusaders: these work songs from rural communities, tied to daily life and seasonal rituals, are ingrained in the country's DNA. After the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, searching for Japanese roots music he could identify with, the world-music-loving guitarist immersed himself in min'yō and its eccentric mid-twentieth-century arrangements mixing it with Latin and jazz.
Tanaka then gathered around ten musicians — the band, co-founded with vocalist Freddie Tsukamoto in Fussa, on the western edge of Tokyo, now numbers twelve — to adapt these traditional songs to music from elsewhere: Afro-blues, Afro-funk and Ethiopian groove from Africa, Thai pop from Asia, reggae and cumbia from the Caribbean and Latin America. Their debut album, Echoes of Japan (2017), was a huge success in Japan before an international release on Mais Um in 2019.
Then came the world's biggest stages: Trans Musicales, Le Guess Who?, Oslo World, WOMAD in Australia, New Zealand and the UK, Roskilde, Fusion, Sziget, Lowlands, Primavera Sound Bogotá — over 20 countries and some fifty shows that established Minyo Crusaders as the most dynamic representatives of Japan's new music scene, praised by The Guardian, Rolling Stone and NPR Tiny Desk. Their album From Japan with Love (June 2026), featuring guests Chitose Hajime, Saya Asakura and Frente Cumbiero, continues the journey from Tokyo to Bogotá.
On video — official clips and live performances
Live at Le Guess Who? festival · Official video
Tanko Bushi · Official video (Mais Um)
Minyo Cumbiero project with Frente Cumbiero · Official video
NPR Tiny Desk session · Official video
Milestones
band formed in 2011 in Fussa (Tokyo) by Katsumi Tanaka and Freddie Tsukamoto; debut album Echoes of Japan in 2017, picked up for international release by Mais Um in 2019; tours across more than 20 countries with some fifty shows, including Trans Musicales, Le Guess Who?, Oslo World, WOMADelaide, WOMAD New Zealand, WOMAD UK, Roskilde, Fusion, Sziget, Lowlands and Primavera Sound Bogotá; albums Tour of Japan (2023) and From Japan with Love (2026).
Show formats
- Live concert (big band)
- Open-air festival
Pro Kit & contact
Booking: Jaspir Prod — booking and touring via the artist page on prod.jaspir.com.