History Trivia / Japan

* ObviousBeta: According to then-guitarist Rob Dean, European Son was rush-released before he could record his guitar parts (which can be heard on early live versions). As a result he finds it frustrating to listen to.

** The US CD release of ''Gentlemen Take Polaroids'' compensates for its LateExportForYou status (coming out 14 years after the original UK LP) by adding "The Experience of Swimming" and "The Width of a Room", previously the B-side and C-side to the double-7" release of the TitleTrack, as bonus tracks. The songs would later be included as bonus tracks on the 2003 remaster across regions.

* BetterExportForYou: Most CD releases of the GreatestHitsAlbum ''Exorcising Ghosts'' cut out five tracks in order to fit the compilation on a single disc. Japanese reissues on the format in the '90s, however, feature the full 16-song tracklist across two discs.

* OutOfOrder: At the height of the band's popularity with ''Tin Drum'', their previous label Hansa released several late 70s songs as singles in order to promote their compilation ''Assemblage''. As the group couldn't stop them coming out, they helped commission special remixes and cover art. In the strangest instance Japan themselves proceeded to release the two year old "Nightporter" as their final official single in 1982, whilst Hansa followed with a release of 1979's "All Tomorrow's Parties" in 1983. This led to a lot of the newer fans thinking Japan was a new band who were putting out all these great non-album singles. One notable thing is that Steve Nye, responsible for many of the remixes, went on to be Music/DavidSylvian's long term producer.

* ChannelHop: The band were originally signed to Hansa Records, a German {{disco}} label. However, all three albums that they put out on the label were commercial flops, resulting in Hansa dropping them in 1980; the band would subsequently sign with Creator/VirginRecords and stay there all the way up to their reunion as Rain Tree Crow. Virgn would inherit the US rights to the band's first three albums, reissuing them under the Caroline Records imprint, while Hansa would maintain ownership in the rest of the world until their absorption by Creator/SonyMusic, who are now responsible for handling reissues under the BMG imprint.
* CutSong:

* ThePeteBest: Rob Dean to a degree. Even though he's on their first four albums, he left before their commercial breakthrough with Tin Drum due to creative differences with David Sylvian. On studio albums, Sylvian had always played some of the guitar parts, so he simply took over all of them (although, the band was becoming far less guitar-oriented anyway). On tour, Dean was first replaced by David Rhodes, but more famously by Masami Tsuchiya, whose time with the band is immortalised on the band's popular live video Oil On Canvas. Dean didn't do too badly for himself, however, he later worked with Gary Numan and Sinead O'Connor, and moved to Costa Rica where he became an expert on exotic birds. He wasn't invited to the Rain Tree Crow reunion, but has stated that he didn't particularly want to either.

** Whilst the UK release of ''Assemblage'' is a best of compilation, the Japanese had a successful Singles EP earlier that year so it wasn't released there. In 1983, Hansa released a Japanese version of ''Assemblage'' with a totally different tracklist of 12" mixes and live tracks, as well as the album versions of "Quiet Life" and "Fall In Love With Me" as filler. The UK Special Edition cassette has the Japanese tracklisting on a bonus tape.

* BuryYourArt: According to Mick Karn in [[https://www.innerviews.org/inner/karn.html a 1996 interview]], the band were "really ashamed" of, and "would absolutely hate anyone to hear", their early demos for the German Hansa record label (at the time "basically a disco-oriented label with Music/BoneyM and people like that"), which Karn describes as the result of "spend[ing] quite a long time in the studio to convince [the label] that we were not a disco band—that we weren't very good at disco music". The demos have never been released as a result.

** "Some Kind Of Fool" was, rather infamously, dropped from ''Gentlemen Take Polaroids'' at such a late stage that the original UK sleeves were printed with it still listed (a sticker indicated its replacement, "Burning Bridges"). Sylvian felt that the track wasn't quite finished due to having to record the LP in less than a year. The group toyed with reworking it as a final single in 1982, though this ultimately went to a remix of the two year old "Nightporter". Finally in 2000, "Some Kind Of Fool" got a rerecording for Sylvian's solo comp "Everything And Nothing", though the original has never been released, with Sylvian personally vetoing each attempt despite fan demands.

** Rather than release ''Quiet Life'', ''Gentleman Take Polaroids'', and''Tin Drum'', Virgin USA released a self-titled compilation via U.S. distributor Creator/EpicRecords of ''Tin Drum'' (sans "Canton" and "Sons Of Pioneers") with the addition of the previous LP's "Gentlemen Take Polaroids", "Swing" and the rare "Taking Islands In Africa" remix (which had at the time only appeared on the "Visions Of China" 7", though it was later included on ''Exorcising Ghosts''). It received a single, "Visions Of China" backed with the removed "Canton", though ultimately album and single went nowhere.

** Rather than release ''Tin Drum'', Virgin USA released a self-titled compilation of that album (sans "Canton" and "Sons Of Pioneers") with the addition of the previous LP's "Gentlemen Take Polaroids", "Swing" and the rare "Taking Islands In Africa" remix (which had at the time only appeared on the "Visions Of China" 7", though it was later included on ''Exorcising Ghosts''). It received a single, "Visions Of China" backed with the removed "Canton", though ultimately album and single went nowhere.

* NoExportForYou: The band seemed to give up on America after the failure of ''Obscure Alternatives''. Their later albums wouldn't even be released there until 1994 and the band stopped touring America as well. Japan's breakup coincided with [[Music/DuranDuran another new wave band full of pretty boys whose keyboardist looked a lot like David Sylvian]] becoming popular in the U.S.

** "European Son" was at one point the title track of the album that would become ''Quiet Life'', though it was later dropped entirely. "A Foreign Place" was intended for ''Quiet Life'', though cut from the LP at a relatively late stage. The two were later {{BSide}}s, with "European Son" getting a remixed single release in 1981.

* OldShame: According to Mick Karn in [[https://www.innerviews.org/inner/karn.html a 1996 interview]], the band were "really ashamed" of, and "would absolutely hate anyone to hear", their early demos for the German Hansa record label (at the time "basically a disco-oriented label with Music/BoneyM and people like that"), which Karn describes as the result of "spend[ing] quite a long time in the studio to convince [the label] that we were not a disco band—that we weren't very good at disco music".

** ''Assemblage'' itself is essentially an expanded European version of the Canadian ''Special Edition EP'' (a very popular import released the previous year) with a few band-chosen tracks added from each of the three LPs released on Hansa. It did contain one unreleased track; the planned 1979 single mix of "All Tomorrow's Parties" which did not get released (it was eventually remixed as the compilation's last single in 1983).

* AuthorExistenceFailure: Mick Karn's death in 2011 put an end to any possibility of a reunion.

* TrailerDelay: "European Son" was written and played live on the "Obscure Alternatives" tour in early 1979, and announced as the title track from the group's then-upcoming titled LP. When the group attempted to get Giorgio Moroder to produce it as their next single, he didn't have time and suggested they rework an unreleased track, which resulted in the single "Life In Tokyo". After this, the group got John Punter to produce the third LP, "Quiet Life", during which "European Son" was recorded (rearranged in a style similar to "Life In Tokyo"), though ultimately dropped, with a planned UK EP release cancelled. Whilst the Japanese single of "I Second That Emotion" included "European Son" as the b-side, it wasn't until 1981 that it was released in the UK, as the b-side to a reissue of "Life In Tokyo", and that later appeared on Assemblage. In January 1982, European Son finally received its single release, almost three years after intended, in conjunction with the Assemblage comp.
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: "Rhodesia" is about the apartheid regime of the white-ruled country at the time. By 1980, however, it was black-ruled and renamed Zimbabwe. Despite this, the group continued to play it live. The lyric, written from the perspective of the racist government Rhodesia had at the time, uses a racial slur and it would be impossible for a white man to get away with using the n-word in a song nowadays.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: "Rhodesia" is about the apartheid regime of the white-ruled country at the time. g By 1980, however, it was black-ruled and renamed Zimbabwe. Despite this, the group continued to play it live. The lyric, written from the perspective of the racist government Rhodesia had at the time, uses a racial slur and it would be impossible for a white man to get away with using the n-word in a song nowadays.

* TrailerDelay: "European Son" was written and played live on the "Obscure Alternatives" tour in early 1979, and announced as the title track from the group's then-upcoming titled LP. When the group attempted to get Giorgio Moroder to produce it as their next single, he didn't have time and suggested they rework an unreleased track, which resulted in the single "Life In Tokyo". After this, the group got John Punter to produce the third LP, "Quiet Life", during which "European Son" was recorded (rearranged in a style similar to "Life In Tokyo"), though ultimately dropped, with a planned UK EP release cancelled. Whilst the Japanese single of "I Second That Emotion" included "European Son" as the b-side, it wasn't until 1981 that it was released in the UK, as the b-side to a reissue of "Life In Tokyo", and that later appeared on Assemblage. In January 1982, European Son finally received its single release, almost three years after intended, in conjunction with the Assemblage comp.

* TrailerDelay: "European Son" was written and played live on the "Obscure Alternatives" tour in early 1979, and announced as the title track from the group's then-upcoming titled LP. When the group attempted to get Giorgio Moroder to produce it as their next single, he didn't have time and suggested they rework an unreleased track, which resulted in the single "Life In Tokyo". After this, the group got John Punter to produce the third LP, "Quiet Life", during which "European Son" was recorded (rearranged in a style similar to "Life In Tokyo"), though ultimately dropped, with a planned UK EP release cancelled. Whilst the Japanese single of "I Second Than Emotion" included "European Son" as the b-side, it wasn't until 1981 that it was released in the UK, as the b-side to a reissue of "Life In Tokyo", and that later appeared on Assemblage. In January 1982, European Son finally received its single release, almost three years after intended, in conjunction with the Assemblage comp.

TrailerDelay: "European Son" was written and played live on the "Obscure Alternatives" tour in early 1979, and announced as the title track from the group's then-upcoming titled LP. When the group attempted to get Giorgio Moroder to produce it as their next single, he didn't have time and suggested they rework an unreleased track, which resulted in the single "Life In Tokyo". After this, the group got John Punter to produce the third LP, "Quiet Life", during which "European Son" was recorded (rearranged in a style similar to "Life In Tokyo"), though ultimately dropped, with a planned UK EP release cancelled. Whilst the Japanese single of "I Second Than Emotion" included "European Son" as the b-side, it wasn't until 1981 that it was released in the UK, as the b-side to a reissue of "Life In Tokyo", and that later appeared on Assemblage. In January 1982, European Son finally received its single release, almost three years after intended, in conjunction with the Assemblage comp.

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