Japanese music is starting to get more popular among gamers, thanks to titles like The World Ends with You, Persona 3: FES and Persona 4. In order to recreate the Japanese environment and experience, the soundtracks for all three of these games was filled with Japanese hip hop, rap, pop and rock.

And while these three games seem to be getting the majority of the credit for bringing Japanese music to the attention of a wider audience, there are quite a few other games which include Japanese rock to round out the experience. The majority of games with Japanese songs included are JRPGs, but this isn’t a hard and fast rule.

Important Importables today is looking at a handful of video games which feature Japanese rock, or JRock songs by well known artists. The context in which the song appeared in the game will be discussed, as well as a little information on the artist and some songs of his, hers or theirs that may be similar to the track in question. Who knows, you may end up finding some new songs for your iPod or mp3 player…

I have never been so excited about the release of a game on a system that I don’t own. Namco Bandai has just sent out a press release announcing that Bonnie Pink will be performing the theme song for the Xbox 360 game Tales of Vesperia. The song for the game is called “Ring a Bell” and it is already available on iTunes. I think it’ll be a good fit. For some reason the Tales of games always relaxed me, and a lot of her songs are very soothing and airy.

In case you haven’t heard of her, Bonnie Pink is pretty famous. She’s been singing since 1995 and has released 15 albums – one of them a greatest hits collection. She’s one of the few Japanese pop/rock stars I like who doesn’t mangle and mutilate the English language. Well, there are a few pronunciation issues in some songs (cough – “Get in My Hair” or “Sweet” – cough). If you’re interested in her music, I recommend “Last Kiss,” “5 More Minutes,” “Just a Girl” or “Sweet.” Yes, I know I just criticized “Sweet” – it’s still a good song and I love it. All the songs I’ve mentioned are available on iTunes.