Reading a list of X Japan’s accomplishments on a press release issued by their American promoter’s Web site is like checking off a wish list for every Japanese band hoping to make it big on American soil. “They are the biggest rock band in Japanese history,” it says before continuing their list of accoldes. They’ve sold out Japan’s Tokyo Dome, a venue that holds 55,000 screaming fans, 18 times. Their album sales are more than 30 million world wide. They’re credited with pioneering a genre of Japanese music called Visual Kei. Their song “I.V.” appeared on the Saw IV soundtrack and on Rock Band 2 as downloadable content.

And yet, the press release says, “even with all of this success, you may have never heard of them.”

It seems no matter how much success a Japanese band enjoys, there will always be an invisible wall preventing them from receiving mainstream recognition in the States. Polysics have toured here for years and produced English versions of their albums. Yet next time they roll through your town you can bet they’ll be relegated to a tiny venue, not an arena (if they play your town at all). You’ll probably never hear a radio station play Shonen Knife despite the cult following they’ve earned by touring with Nirvana in the ’90s. If Grunge Rock’s most idolzed figure can’t propel a Japanse band to stardom, who can?

My yen’s on X and if you’ve kept an eye on what they’ve been up to lately, it’s easy to see why.

In February, X Japan confirmed their plans to play at Lollapalooza in Chicago. That means hundreds of thousands of people will be exposed to the band’s over the top performance and blazing pyrotechnics; and that’s just the warm-up. Earlier this month, X Japan announced a North America tour kicking off in October and a new album featuring English versions of classic songs.

Strategcally speaking, if there was ever a chance for a Japanese band to achieve some sort of main stream acknowledgement in the U.S., this is it. A new album, a North American tour, and a main stage performance at Lollapalooza means X Japan have set themselves up for success in a way every other Japanese band has only dreamed of. Still the queston remains: will it be enough?

There seems to be a mysterious stigma associated with listening to music in a language you may not be able to understand. You can call it a language barrier, but I think there’s more to it than that. Here’s an experiment: tell a friend you’ve got this new song you want them to listen to. Play a section of a Japanese song without lyrics and see if they like it. If they do, tell them its Japanese and watch how fast they change their mind. It’s as though a their minds instantly file any song identified as Japanese to a folder labeled “things I couldn’t possibly relate to.”

To their credit, X has made huge efforts in their study of the English language. Compare Toshi’s English from Blue Blood to his more recent work and you can tell how far he’s come. Still, it’s hardly perfect. Even if it was, will an English version of “Kurenai” live up to the Japanese version? I’m not so sure.

The story of whether X meets with victory or defeat begins with their Lollapalooza performance on August 8. Leading up to that date I intend to publish a seres of posts covering the band’s history starting with a fateful meeting between Yoshiki and Toshi in high school, continuing through the death of Hide and the band’s break up and wrapping up with a look at the band’s reunion in 2007.

Stay tuned.