Jellow Glow is a pretty young indie band that went viral on social media due to their Shibuya clean-up project, their English language posts and them mostly focusing on foreigners staying or living in Japan. The band, playing a catchy mixture of typical J-Rock and western alternative pop-rock, is based in Tokyo, but I happened to catch up with them in Kyoto where they served as one of the opening acts of up-and-coming nu-metal / rap-rock girl duo EMNW. We used this opportunity to do a short, fun and somewhat chaotic interview just outside Kyoto Gattaca, the venue for that evening’s show.

Jellow Glow @ Kyoto Gattaca live gallery

So, when did you guys start the band and what were your main musical inspirations?

Koto (Vocals): We started in November, 2025 and I love One OK Rock!
Yusei (Drums): My fave is Mötley Crüe and their drummer, Tommy Lee.
Genki (Guitar): I also love One OK Rock!
Rukia (Bass): And my favorite is Jacob Collier.

And how did you all got together and ended up forming a band?

Koto: Me and Genki, we were born on the same island and we used to play football together. And we ended up moving to Tokyo from Okinawa and formed Jellow Glow here. And then Genki found Yusei who in turn brought Rukia to the band.

Oh, so you two are from Okinawa!

Yusei: Yes they are, and I am from Nagoya.
Rukia: While I am from Tokyo.

How did you come up with the band name?

Koto: The pronunciation is “Yellow Glow”, so, it is not pronounced as “jello”. We replaced “Y” with “J” because we are Japanese. And “yellow” of course represent Asians, so, as we are Asians and specifically Japanese, we wanted to add J to the name. And this way it also means Asian Glow, as I really want us to glow all over the world as an Asian band.

Based on your very foreigner-friendly, English language social media posts it seems that you mostly try to reach out to overseas audiences and also foreigners staying in Japan… whom you often try to convince to go to your shows in your videos.

Koto: Yes, absolutely! We are living on this small rock of a planet, and I don’t wanna spend my whole life inside Japan. And that is why I write songs in English and make content in English. But the biggest reason is: I do not want my parents and grandparents to know, as they are kinda conservative. Very Japanese. And they worry about me so much, so I don’t want them to know exactly what I am doing.

So, you are doing the band in secret?

Koto: I mean, they do know that I am in a band, but they don’t know what kind of message I am screaming to the world.

And exactly what is your message?

Genki: Be yourself!
Koto: No matter where you’re from, no matter what language you speak, no matter your skin color, no matter the religion you follow, we don’t care, we love you just the way you are. And that’s why we always scream to everyone: Be Yourself!

Besides hanging out with foreigners, you often speak up against racism in general. How do you see the current political climate in Japan that seems to be moving to a more nationalist and anti-foreigner direction?

Koto: Hmm, this is kind of difficult to talk about. I am not right wing or left wing. I just believe in humanity. Me and Jellow Glow love people. So, no matter who you are, we do not care. Everyone is welcome to our show and we say fuck racism! But we are also Japanese, we were born and raised here, so we have to protect Japan as well. And of course, there are a lot of racist or conservative people, but they also deserve to live, to exist. But we also deserve to exist and I don’t wanna fight, so, the only thing we can do is to co-exist with them.

When and why did you start the Shibuya clean-up project? (it is their project, documented on their IG account, to gather people to meet up in central Shibuya at 5AM every Sunday and clean the streets that tend to be quite dirty at that time, following the Saturday night parties.)

Koto: Today we have a show here in Kyoto, but most of the time we actually play in Shibuya. And every time we go to Shibuya, we are like “Oh, it is disgusting!”. There is so many trash there. But still, Shibuya loves us, so we should love Shibuya back. And that’s why we started the clean-up. So, if you can, come join us there!

How do you feel, how much you have grown as a band since you started back in 2025?

Yusei: We are just going with the flow.
Genki: Yes, “go with the flow”, that is our band motto.
Koto: We live in the moment, we believe that everything happens for a reason. Everything we do is what we need to do and everywhere we go is where we need to go. That is how we are growing.

Are you getting more popular on an underground level?

(They start to talk all at once, saying everything from “yes” and  “no” to “not yet”, with Koto trying to figure out what’s going on.)
Koto: So, Yusei thinks we are popular, while Rukia thinks we are not popular yet. What do you think Genki?
Genki: Not yet!
Koto: And I think: not enough!

However, you just recently announced your first ever one-man show.

All at once: Yes, it’s on the 8th of August!

How did you get to the point where you felt that, yes, it is time for a one-man?

Koto: It is thanks to all the people on the internet. We got 30k followers on IG, and many reach out to us and tell us to keep doing what we are doing and that they want to come to our show one day. We got a lot of messages about this on Instagram, so we decided to give it a try. And while we are not that popular yet, we definitely gonna be one of the biggest rock stars in the world! If you have a passion, you can do it! Nothing is impossible!

Is it a viable option to make a living as an indie musician in Japan?

Koto: It is hard, very hard, but possible. We just need to keep doing what we are doing.

You seem to have a very good relationship with Shibuya Cyclone, where you play very frequently and where you will also hold your one-man. How did you end up being a regular at that specific live house, which is known as a mostly metalcore centered club?

Koto: Actually this is simple. Cyclone is one of the best venues in Shibuya and it is really popular. And many of the bands that we respect, like SiM, Coldrain and Crossfaith, they all played at Shibuya Cyclone. And for us, they are like senpai. So, that’s why we wanted to play there.

And when you grow bigger, do you want to play in other countries as well?

All: Yes, yes!
Koto: And which country do we want to play the most?
Yusei: Thailand for me.
Koto: Yes, Thailand is Yusei’s paradise!
Rukia: And I want to go to the United Kingdom.
Genki: I wanna play in Germany. Because I am a big fan of football and my favorite team, BVB – Borussia Dortmund is from Germany. I want to play in their stadium before the start of their match!
Koto: And me, I want to play on the Moon! I want to get out of this planet, Earth is just too small for me!

Thanks for the interview guys!

Jellow Glow online
Instagram, Tiktok, Youtube, Spotify, X

All photos by Japan Vibe.