Sake of the Song: The Wall Street Journal Correspondent Who Became Tokyo's First Pop Star

In 1925, a young elite American journalist named Burton Crane arrived in Yokohama as a financial correspondent for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. This was, by any reasonable measure, a respectable career trajectory.By 1931, he was Tokyo's biggest pop star.Nobody planned this. Least of all Burton Crane.Episode 5 of Post-Whatever “Sake of the Song: The Wall Street Journal Correspondent Who Became Tokyo's First Pop Star” tells the story of a man who learned Japanese in the bars of Asakusa, stumbled into a recording contract at a corporate drinking party, and accidentally became the forerunner of an entire genre of Japan”s “Gaikokujin” celebrity — all whilst filing financial dispatches for some of America's most serious newspapers. He was dubbed the "Bing Crosby of Japan." His first single was heard from virtually every café on the Ginza. Toshirō Mifune reportedly sang it when pickled.Along the way: a detailed investigation into the 40-plus tram lines of pre-war Tokyo (yes, really), the February 26th Incident of 1936, the tragic fate of his duet partner in the firebombing of 1945, and the founding of the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan.Also: why you could stay out later in Tokyo in 1931 than you can today. Some things were more civilised back then.This is Post-Whatever — the show that lives in the cultural space between Japan and the West, and occasionally gets lost in translation.Music featured in this episode courtesy of Burton Crane (1901–1963), originally recorded and released on Columbia Records Japan between 1931 and 1936. These recordings are believed to be in the public domain in Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom. If you are the rights holder to any recording featured and believe this to be in error, please contact us directly.#PostWhatever #KenNishikawa  #TokyoLife #ExpatJapan #Podcast #JapanPodcast #TokyoPodcast #JapanExpat #LivinginJapan #TokyoExpat #JapanTips #JapanLife #TokyoLife #JapanVlog #HiddenJapan #TokyoVlog #JapanCulture #JapanBritain #JapanvsUK #CulturalDifferences #JapanObsessed #LearnAboutJapan #CulturalCommentary #Observational #Japan #Tokyo  #TalkShow #WeeklyPodcast #CulturePodcast #JapaneseCulture #TravelJapan#TokyoHistory #JapanHistory #BurtonCrane #1930sJapan #JapanAndTheWest #EnglishPodcastJapan #JapaneseCulture #TokyoPodcast #expatllife #PopHistory #MusicHistory #JapanExpat #AsiaHistory #CulturalHistory #PrewarJapan #TokyoLife #PodcastsInEnglish #BurtonCrane #JapaneseMusic #MusicHistory #JapanAndTheWest #ExplorJapan #AsiaHistory #DocumentaryStyle #HiddenHistory #ForgottenStars