A young American with hip hop swagger is inching his way up the pop charts in Japan. It's not Chris Brown. It's not Usher. Meet Jero, a soft-spoken 26-year-old who specializes in enka, a traditional style of Japanese pop music.

Born in Pittsburgh, Jerome White, Jr. was a young child when he was introduced to enka by his Japanese grandmother. Like Mexican boleros, enka songs are melodramatic pop ballads; they're hugely popular for karaoke. Intrigued by his grandmother's culture, Jero began taking Japanese lessons in high school and lived in Japan as an exchange student while in college. In 2003, he graduated from the University of Pittsburgh and moved to Japan to become an English teacher.

Jero was cutting his teeth in karaoke bars and singing competitions when he caught the eye of Japanese major label Victor, a division of JVC. They signed the wiry singer and made him take voice lessons for two years before releasing his first single, Umiyuki (Ocean Snow). The syrupy song dripped all over Japan's top five, debuting at number four on the charts. The first 10 seconds of "Umiyuki" hint at a hip hop sound, but the rest of the track is pure enka: dramatic synth strings, cheesy electric guitar flourishes and lyrics about lost love.

Jero, known for wearing fitted caps, jewelry and baggy clothing, says he's embraced by young and old because he isn't trying to be something he's not: "I’ve been wearing hip hop fashion since I was in high school. Now, if I were to wear a kimono on stage when I sang, no one would take me seriously."

(image via Hiroko Yoda)

Patrick Macias knows hella Japanese things. The Sacramento native has made his teen dreams into a reality, writing full-time about Japanese animation, comics and society for magazines and newspapers. He's even an authority in Japan, where he appears semi-regularly on TV show Tokyo Eye from NHK World TV.

What's your heritage – Mexican, right? Where are your parents from?

My parents are from the Fresno, CA area. Their parents came from Mexico. So I'm technically Mexican-American, but I try not to get too hung up on labels. Don't get the wrong idea. I'm proud to be of Mexican heritage, but I don't want to be defined by it, if that makes any sense.

What first got you into Japanese subcultures? Was there one thing that made you think, "This is it, this is my passion."

I got hooked on Japan thanks to whatever television pumped into my head. The UHF channels back in the '70s and '80s were full of Godzilla movies, superhero shows, and early anime like Star Blazers and Robotech. They just seemed to come from this entirely different planet called Japan. I wanted to know as much about it as possible and I'm still trying to learn as much as I can to this day.

The thing is, writing has been my passion – more so than just enjoying Japanese pop culture. I started writing professionally for a news syndicate when I was around 19 years old, mainly covering youth issues and U.S. pop culture. But my interest in Japan kept rearing its head to the point that there was no ignoring it any longer. I've since been lucky to write a lot about something I like, but its entirely possible I'll want to write about something else at some point. Clearly, I'm the sort of person who'd like to have the freedom to choose to define myself as much as possible.

Americans who follow Japanese subcultures tend to be kinda "geeky". Did growing up Latino push you towards this world?

I was raised in the Sacramento suburbs, which wasn't exactly a hotbed of Latino culture. It was basic middle-class America. My mom and dad spoke Spanish sometimes, made Mexican food every now and then, but that was about it as far as "culture" went. The same thing went for the other families in the neighborhood, who were racially and culturally a mixed bunch as well. It was an era between the belief in the "melting pot" and identity politics. I think I sort of slipped through the cracks somehow and here I am now, spending half the year in Japan, the other half in America.

Does your heritage play into your work in Japan? Do you feel like even more of an outsider there?

I had no idea what a Japanese audience was going to make of me, but I quickly discovered that I represent an American voice to them, not a Latino or Latin American voice. Maybe this is because few of them have met an actual "Mexican" before. Perhaps its because I don't carry much in the way of Latino cultural baggage with me. Either way, it's been a bit of a relief to relate to people on the basis of nationality rather than skin color for a change.

Even so, just being a foreigner gives you plenty of "outsider" status to deal with already. But I like not fitting in and seeing things from the outside. It gives you stuff to write about.

What's the most interesting thing happening in Japan right now?

I'm really interested in street culture now, which really seems to have totally dried up in the USA. Most people, I think, spend way too much time in front of the computer interacting with others electronically (myself included). But Tokyo is still a place where there's a lot to see and do and you are constantly forced to interact with others.

There's also a lot of youth "tribes" that spring up in Tokyo districts like Shibuya and Harajuku – like the Gothloli girls for instance – who turn the area into kind of a year-round outdoor festival by dressing up crazy and hanging around in public. My latest book, Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno: Tokyo Fashion Subculture Handbook, traces the lives and times of these wild women, along with the crazy clothes they've worn over the years.

Are you seeing more Latinos showing up at anime and manga conventions and festivals in the U.S.? Does otaku-ness have anything to do with heritage?

It's pretty clear from the escalating numbers of people who attend cons that *all kinds* of people from all kinds of background are interested in Japanese pop culture now. Having said that, I do think American otaku are people who have complex feelings about their native culture and identity, sometimes racial, sometimes relating to gender. Japanese pop culture explores a lot of the same themes, so I think it's a good match for people who don't feel like they fit in elsewhere. Myself included!

Your blog asks if it's possible to make a living off of Japanese subculture. Is it?

I really don't know! I'm writing as fast as I can!

For more about the otaku lifestyle, visit Macias' blog: An Eternal Thought in the Mind of Godzilla.