Could anyone tell me some good japanese bands?

[Chocobo]

To Bloomingdale. Oh yes. Thank you for the lovely grey rep. You're so kind.

I consider a band to be anyone who sings music. Thus, I consider BoA and Utada to be Solo-Bands, even though the technical term is Solo-Artist. I mentioned them because I find them to be great singers, even though the thread asked for bands.

[loveyourfate]

Ikimono Gakari and Aya Hirano

[Diocletian]

The Pillows,L-Arc-En Ciel,Dir En Gray,Imongikari.

[cough_cough2]

L-Arc-En Ciel is good, Asian Kung-Fu generation, Fairy Fore..

[Guren]

FAIRY FORE is awesome! Try listening to their songs, which are extremely catchy!

I'm impressed that someone has mention Versailles! One word: Awesomeness! Try listening to them. They are a fairly new Visual Kei band, so you may not like them. But, if you are a Visual Kei fan like me, they are awesomeness to an extreme. (They have a style similar to Malice Mizer...)

LAST ALLIANCE is extremely good! I love all of the 20 songs I have from them, although they are pretty rare to find.

Stance Punks is rare, too. Although, the rest of their songs are actually pretty good! (I love them... not only the Naruto openings.)

[red_sky300]

alice en chains , dir en gray, nightmare, gazzete, Uverworld, abingdon boys school,

[daft]

If all the music you've heard from Japan is from anime, you should dig a little further. It's kind of silly to do that, you know.

Anyway, I know, I KNOW I'm going to shoot myself later for saying this, but AKFG is a good band to look into. ): -dead-.

Damn true!

Envy - http://www.myspace.com/officialenvy
Polysics -http://www.myspace.com/polysicsna
Melt-Banana - http://www.myspace.com/azap
The Pillows - http://www.myspace.com/thepillows
Boom Boom Satellites - http://www.myspace.com/boomboomsatellites
Maximum The Hormone - http://www.myspace.com/maximumthehormone
The Mad Capsule Markets - http://www.myspace.com/jrockmcm

Some of these bands do sing in English, and Maximum The Hormone and The Pillows basically got noticed a little more thanks to Death Note and FLCL. But hey, they're Japanese and they make great music. ^ ^

[hirokiaibalovex3]

Arashi, SMAP, NEWS, Kat-Tun, & Orange Range

[Ruby_MoonT]

depends on the direction you want to explore so I've seperated them into categories. the names are in alphabetical order for easier reference(?), some names might've been already mentioned, but I'm too lazy to look through all the posts


Anime:
Akino Arai, Joe Hisaishi (composer for Ghibili films), KOTOKO, Maaya Sakamoto, Masami Okui, Megumi Hayashibara, Mikuni Shimokawa, Nami Tamaki, Nobuo Uematsu (composer for FF), Rie Tanaka, Yoko Kanno (composer), Yoko Takahashi, Yui Makino, Yuki Kajiura (composer)/FictionJunction YUUKA/See-Saw

J-Pop (female vocals):
Ai Otsuka, Ayaka Hirahara, Ayumi Hamasaki, BoA (also sings Korean), Do As Infinity(disbanded), Every Little Thing, Hikaru Utada, Ikimono-gakari, Kumi Koda, Mika Nakashima, Namie Amuro, Perfume, Ringo Shiina, RURUTIA

J-Pop (male vocals):
Arashi, CHEMISTRY, EXILE, KanJani8, KAT-TUN, Ken Hirai, Ketsumeishi, KinKi Kids, m-flo, Monkey Majik, Mr.Children, NEWS, Noriyuki Makihara, redballoon, RIP SLYME, Southern All-Stars/Keisuke Kuwata, SMAP, Spitz, Tackey&Tsubasa, TegoMasu, T.M.Revolution/abingdon boys school, TOKIO, V6

J-Rock: (sorry, but not my fault when the band names are in caps)
ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, BEAT CRUSADERS, BUMP OF CHICKEN, B'z, ELLEGARDEN, HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR, L'Arc~en~Ciel/HYDE, ORANGE RANGE, RADWIMPS, UVERworld

Visual-kei:
alice nine., An Cafe/Antic Cafe/Antique Cafe (which ever it is), D'espairsRay, Dir en grey, Girugamesh, Kagrra,, LM.C, MUCC, Nightmare, SID, the GazettE, Vidoll

If you're also interested in 90s Japanese music, I can start listing those too. But I think it's long enough for now ^^;;