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This is an article that identifies the roots of rockabilly culture in Japan. Japan’s rockabillys were a big thing in the US youth media during the 1980s. People were surprised that there were rockabilly clubs and a youth scene in Japan. I initially though that they were some kind of outgrowth of the UK scene which had nurtured The Stray Cats.
Nope. Turns out that it was a postwar phenomenon going back to the 1950s, when rockabilly first took off. Just like the rockabilly fandom in the UK, incidentally.
This reminded me of Kyu Sakamoto.
Sakamoto was a Japanese R&B musician. He’s best known here for the song Sukiyaki, done in the enka genre, but his main musical style was rhythm and blues and rockabilly. Here’s a verson of Elvis’ “G.I Blues”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPbIdYVswrI
The song was about GIs in the German Occupation and was made into a movie in 1960. The Japanese Occupation ended, I think, in 1952.
Kyu covering Jimmy Jones’ “Good Timing”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Lzm0MdveeY
The original:
This last one has nothing to do with this theme, but I came across it in a search and it was so unusual, except, it’s not that unusual considering the crosscultural mixtures above.
Here’s a version of Sukiyaki that’s kind of “country westernized” but done in Quechua, the Incan language.
She also did a Quechua version of the Digimon theme song.