JaME 10th Anniversary: Comments from the Members of JaME

JaME UK/US


Kay, JaME UK/US Team Manager

I joined JaME - JMusicEuropa back then - about a month after its creation in 2004. I was delighted to see so much information in different languages about my favourite kind of music, and I wanted to be part of it.

In the ten years of its existence, JaME has grown a lot, and so have I. JaME has given me the opportunity to work with a huge number of team members, and the experience to lead a team. It brought me in contact with so many people from all over the world and gave me an invaluable amount of work experience. It's amazing to see the way that all the hard work of these hundreds of volunteers has paid off and claimed JaME a place in the Japanese music world, and I'm proud to say that we are the only (overseas) media that has been invited to the Tokyo International Music Market for various years, showing that we are finally being taken serious by the Japanese music industry.

I'd like to thank all the amazing people we've worked with through the years, and I’m hoping that there will be many more anniversaries to come!


Silverfaye, JaME UK/US Co-Team Manager

Hello, I'm Silverfaye and I've been part of the JaME English team since 2010.

I discovered JaME while searching for Japanese music news, and I decided to join the team with the goal of providing high quality English content about Japanese music to music lovers all over the world.

I'm really glad to be able to work with team mates from various countries. It's amazing to see how people who live thousands of miles apart come together because of a common goal.

I hope to see JaME continue to delight existing Japanese music fans with interesting content as well as reach out to those who've yet to experience the beauty of Japanese music.

Happy 10th anniversary, JaME!


Tomo

I found JaME by chance while internet surfing. It is a privilege and joy to support artists who put their lives and talents on the line. As a lifetime resident of the world of J-rock, I know how a simple news item or an article about an artist can lift the spirits of people. It's all about music and people. The most memorable encounter I’ve had so far would have to be the live report I did for J. Back in my college days I was eagerly reading his and also LUNA SEA's books and articles. And decades later, I had the chance to write about one of my biggest inspirations. My wish for JaME and J-rock related media would be "sustainable growth" - for it to become easier for us to bridge the gap between Japan and the rest of the world. Thank you for loving our culture. ありがとう from Japan.


Christine

While I’ve only been a part of the JaME team for about three years now, I feel like it has given me much more confidence in my writing, and I’ve been able to learn about so many artists, labels and events that I never would have been exposed to otherwise. Most of all, JaME has shown me just how many people around the world love Japanese music and are working hard to help its popularity grow.

I think the fact that JaME offers clear translations of its content into so many different languages makes it a unique, valuable resource for both fans and artists, and the kindness and devotion of all of the team members always amazes me. I hope we’ll be able to keep working together for years to come. Happy 10th anniversary, JaME!


Victor

I don't even remember how I found JaME; all I know is that I've been reading for years. I'm relatively new, having just started as a writer a couple of months ago, so I don't really have any stories yet. However, I do have a lot of enthusiasm! Writing for JaME has not only allowed me to begin building a respectable writing portfolio, but has let me do so by writing about something I love very much. All of my life I've felt very strongly that international music deserves the same exposure as American music, and an interest in the Japanese language made Japanese music my most obvious focus. Thanks to JaME, I'm now finally able to tell people about what I love in a meaningful capacity.

Ten years is already a long time, so here's to one hundred more! Happy anniversary, JaME!


Hanamogeraed

I've been a fan of Japanese music for over 15 years now, and have been writing for JaME since 2010. When I began I didn't think that over the next few years I'd be exposed to so many amazing artists, both in recorded form and in person. It's been great to see the passion of the musicians and the fans, and to share that with others around the world. I've really enjoyed working with the team at JaME, and I hope it continues for many more years!


Polina

I used to read JaME from the early days and noticed that there was no Russian version, so in late 2005 I decided to join JaME myself to try and bring some news to Russian readers as well. Wanting to create material myself, I took the initiative to start writing live reports and interview articles during my travels to Japan, which I have been doing for the English version since 2008. Unfortunately, I have not been able to contribute a lot recently, but I could not have imagined my life without this project. I have had great experiences meeting with both the JaME workers who come from all over the world, and the wonderful artists who were always a pleasure to work with. Moreover, it was my experience with JaME that made my current workplace employ me, so it is not an overstatement that JaME may have made my dream of working in Tokyo come true. Thank you to all the colleagues, all the artists and staff for their work, and to all the readers for making it a wonderful time. Let’s keep on rocking together!


Jessieface

I joined JaME at the end of 2009. I had been interested in Japanese music for a few years prior, but decided to take up a writing position while being a student. Concurrently, I studied Japanese in college but took my studies further by translating content for JaME when writing news items, or researching content in Japanese. In turn, I know more than double the amount of Japanese that I did in when in class, and I have JaME to thank for that outcome.

Backed by its diverse and equally hard-working staff, JaME is the backbone for J-music in Europe, but also provides a fresh content for readers around the world.

Here's to another exciting ten years!


JaME France


Vanessa (aka LuCioLe), JaME French Team Manager.

I joined JaME in March 2009 (five years already!) thanks to Tanja. I tried to join the team without any real confidence in my abilities, and yet...the French team gave me a chance, and it was the beginning of a great adventure. A great adventure that also helped me a lot while I was creating my company "Lulu Communication" and during my work with Râmen Events as a promoter and artist manager. JaME has also helped me gain confidence in myself and has allowed me to meet some great people, not just among the team members but also Japanese artists.

JaME celebrates ten years now, and I must say that without this website, at the time, I never would have been able to know and follow so many artists. Thanks to JaME’s news I could stay connected to my favourite artists and follow their careers.

JaME, thank you! Thank you to all those who have contributed over the years! Happy 10th anniversary and long life!


Kamiko

Hello, I’ve been a J-music fan for at least ten years, and I knew about this site since long before it became JaME. I think it was called “J-Rock France” back then, and for a teen like me, it was THE reference for news about my favourite artists, and I shared it with my friends. And then we grew, and the site evolved with us. Until recently, I always followed JaME from an outside perspective (Facebook ...). I thought, “Wow, this must be a lot of work, putting it all online." I was also looking for a way to live my passion. And this year, I saw that the French team was trying to recruit translators. Thanks to Kularu, I started working with JaME, and I became part of the French team. I was received very well. When I saw my first article translated online, I really felt that I was able to live my passion for Asian music, and especially to help spread the J-music!

So thank you, JaME, and happy birthday!


Lu-chan

Hello, JaME readers!
I’m Lu-chan, a new rookie on the JaME France team! Indeed, I just joined the team in February 2014 as a beta-reader. As a reader of JaME’s articles for several years and fervent lover of J-music, I dared to send in my application to participate in this great musical and human adventure: JaME. And I don’t regret it!

JaME has been my yardstick of quality and quantity since my discovery of Japanese music, and I'm really pleased to be able to contribute to the activities of this website. Especially since JaME also gave me the opportunity to make my first steps as an "apprentice music journalist" during a live report - and not a live report for just any artist, but for one of my favourites! It was a very good experience for me.

A keen J-rock fan and hunter of spelling errors, JaME has allowed me to combine two of my personality traits. Thank you JaME, and especially the French team for their hospitality and their work.
I wish a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to JaME for its 10 years of existence and to all the teams!

Happy birthday, JaME!


Mani

I’ve been part of JaME’s adventure for nearly three and a half years now. I don’t remember how I came across the website - probably searching for an artist or a group - but I tried my luck as a beta-reader. I learned a lot, and I was even offered the opportunity to try other positions. But the most important thing for me is that I had the chance to meet a bunch of different people. It is difficult to put into words what an incredible human adventure this has been.

Thank you to all the readers too, who we are also sometimes able to have interesting conversations with. JaME, happy birthday! May the future be as good as the present - or even better.


Noah

For me, the adventure with JaME started in 2005. Then, I was a fairly new fan of J-music. Thanks to this fantastic, passionate team, I had the pleasure of following the news of my favourite bands. I would firstly like to say a big thank you to all the past and present team members for their dedication!

This year, I had the chance to be integrated in the editorial team, and I intend to fulfill my new role with the same passion. I hope that myself and the team continue are able to continue working together with JaME to provide you with fun content for the next ten years!

Thank you to the fans of J-music! Thank you for supporting JaME!
お誕生日おめでとうJaME ! !


Kularu

It is impossible for me to remember how or even when I discovered this website. What is certain is that checking it became an essential part of my daily routine for several years. Thanks to JaME, I could follow the best and the worst news of J-music each day. My passion for the Japanese music universe had no limit - or almost none. I quickly wanted to join the team to make my contribution to the site. And even if I wasn’t accepted immediately, my third attempt was good (!), and I thank the members of the French team very much for trusting me.

Recruited as a beta-reader in 2012, I also contribute daily to the translation of articles as well as writing reports and interview questions. Working for JaME also allowed me to reconnect with one of my oldest passions: photography. I absolutely didn’t expect to begin doing it again so quickly, and I hope to continue taking photos as often as possible.

Finally, I would like to thank all members of the French team who welcomed and supported me so warmly during my first steps on the website, and that are so nice to work with everyday. A big thank you also to all the teams for your seriousness, your kindness and your unfailing solidarity. Work with you is a real pleasure. Thank you to the artists, labels and promoters who were able to trust us until this day. Your support is precious to us. Finally, thank you to you, the readers who have been following JaME for ten years now, and without whom we wouldn’t have been able to go so far.

JaME, happy birthday! May the road be long and passion always with you.


JaME Germany


Viktor Hemminger (formerly known as YURA-sama)

When I joined JaME at the end of 2005, it was just starting to become a well known source for Japanese music-related news and articles. And since I wanted to contribute to JaME with my reviews and biographies, I spent a lot of time writing and doing research to ensure that we had confirmed facts. This was very important for me, since my goal was to not let JaME become just another gossip news site, as there were a lot at that time and still are. And now, ten years after its launch I think JaME became just what I hoped it would be. I'm glad that I had the opportunity to write for the site, get to know a lot of great people - other team members as well as musicians - and I think that it was worth all the time I spent working on it, even after I nearly dropped out of university due to concentrating more on JaME than on my studies. One of the things that led to this was probably the creation of the ANTI FEMINISM band profile, for which I did research on several sites that had info on which musicians played for the band in the past. And as you may know, there were a lot of them!

Unfortunately, I had to retire from the site recently, although I still write some reviews from time to time. And who knows, maybe, when things in my personal life settle down a little bit, I'll find the time to come back and write even more reviews and band profiles. And this time, there won't be a university to be dropped out of!

I wish JaME another successful ten years of promoting Japanese music around the world.


Geisha

Japanese music and fashion have been my passion for many years. Working for JaME is a privilege for me because we're independent, so we can write about anyone we feel deserves our support, and because we're multi-national we can reach people in many different countries around the world. Since joining the family in 2006, the extent of my contributions has varied as my circumstances have changed, but I already look forward to the next 10 years. カンパイ!


Jasy, JaME Deutschland Team Manager

Hi there, this is Jasy. Wow, has it really been 10 years already? It seems to me as if I joined JaME just yesterday, even though it's been seven years now. During all these years, I came in touch with lots of great people from around the globe and improved my writing abilities, but I also witnessed a few changes: new versions of JaME, as well as the coming and going of members. Even I thought more than once about quitting, but the thought that kept me going was: "What will happen to the German version and its readers then?". And so I stayed. Little by little, I got more and more administrative duties and for the past two years, please don't ask me how this happened, but I've been in charge of our small but fine team.

In the future, I hope that the upcoming projects and ideas for JaME will come true and that we all, including you, will still enjoy and support Japanese music.

Happy anniversary, JaME~


SaKi

Hello! This is SaKi. I’ve only been part of JaME for a year and a half, but during this time I’ve experienced many great things. Trained as a journalist, I loved Japan and especially Japanese music for 14 years, and now I am happily part of the biggest web portal for Japanese music worldwide. This perfectly combines my abilities with what I love most. In a few days, I will attend my first concert as press and it feels like "Yes, this is what I always wanted to do".

And just recently, JaME made one of my biggest dreams come true: I was able to conduct an interview with the person I respect and love the most in the entire Japanese music scene: YOSHIKI.

Thank you so much, JaME! Happy 10th anniversary! May there be many more anniversaries in future. I hope there will always be as many lovely and dedicated team members as there are now. Let's keep doing our best from now on!


JaME Suomi


allisapp, JaME Suomi Co-Team Manager

Hiya, everyone. I am allisapp, and I have been part of JaME Finland's team for a couple of years - actually since 2011.

I had known about JaME for years before I joined, but what got me to write an application was that I wanted to affect the opinions of Japanese music listeners and get the news running a bit faster.

Japanese music has been part of my life for almost ten years, so it was a logical step to join this site, which has proven to be a very interesting, lovely and important period of my life. JaME, its database and its people have swarmed their way into a piece of my heart, which is something I don't ever want to lose.

Happy anniversary, JaME, and hopefully we will see a 20th as well!


JaME Polska


neejee

It has been almost six years since I joined JaME. Before that, I was interested in Japanese music for quite some time, but somewhere along the line I started to feel that it wasn't enough. I wanted to do something more than just listening to the music and collecting the information about artists only for myself. That's why I decided to become a member of JaME’s Polish team.

One of the greatest advantages of JaME is that it gives us the possibility to work with amazing people from all over the world, whose voluntary work has been the base of JaME’s long life. Working with them helped me gain confidence in my own skills and start writing my own articles. I still find it really fantastic that some of my reviews or live reports are read by people from Spain, Russia or even China. Additionally, it is a real pleasure to know that our common work is not done for nothing - that there are readers who read our articles, sometimes even wait eagerly for a new ones. It really motivates me to go on.

I wish JaME all the best for the next ten years!


jawachu

Hello, I’m jawachu from JaME Polska. I joined JaME in 2008 when I decided it was time to become a more active member of the J-music fandom. At that time, the Polish version was in a big crisis, so it required a lot of commitment and hard work. As a result, step by step, JaME became an important part of my life, and now it’s difficult to imagine not being involved in it.

Anyway, thank you for the years we’ve spent together and all the memories. I wish JaME and everybody involved with it a happy 10th anniversary and many more years to come. I hope that our readers will continue to support us.