Japanese hip hop (or
J-hip hop) is said to have begun when
Hiroshi Fujiwara returned to
Japan and started playing hip hop records in the early 1980s. Japanese hip hop generally tends to be most directly influenced by
old school hip hop, taking from the era's catchy beats,
dance culture, and overall fun and carefree nature and incorporating it into their music. As a result, hip hop stands as one of the most commercially viable mainstream music genres in Japan, and the line between it and
pop music is frequently blurred.