The once relatively hidden world of jazz kissa, dotted across the Japanese archipelago, have recently emerged from the cultural underground to take their place on the global stage. These pseudo-sacred spaces, often silent but for vinyl records played on high-end audio equipment, are dedicated to the worship and preservation of jazz culture, and run by passionate owners, many of whom have made it their life's work. Since 2015, the Tokyo Jazz Joints project has been documenting this unique subculture. In the wider context of the contemporary revival in hifi and analog culture, the project has been integral in helping create the explosion of interest worldwide in jazz kissa. In this lecture, through a selection of images and stories, Tokyo Jazz Joints creator and photographer Philip Arneill will explore its origins, its history and impact over the last decade, and ask what might be next in jazz kissa’s continued evolution.

Philip Arneill is a Belfast-born photographer, researcher and writer who lived and worked in Japan for 20 years. His Tokyo Jazz Joints photographic monograph was published by Kehrer Verlag in July 2023 and is now in its fourth edition worldwide. A Japanese version was published by Seigensha in August 2025. Philip’s photographic practice explores the illusory ideas of home and culture by examining insider-outsider dynamics and autoethnographic issues of place and identity, combining images with creative nonfiction and fiction texts. His photographs have been published and exhibited worldwide, and in 2024 he was awarded Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society (FRPS).

If you have any questions, please call The Japan Society office on 020 3075 1996 or email events@japansociety.org.uk.

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