Anyone who’s ever taken a stroll across downtown Tokyo knows first hand the peculiar energy in Japanese culture: somehow pragmatic yet dreamlike, technical yet endlessly creative, refined yet outlandish. And that madness sits at the heart of the Japanese male fashion scene, too.

Garments from Japanese menswear brands are characterised by immense technical expertise and rock solid product design — but they also have a sense of fun and a winning desire to push boundaries.

Taking their influences from a raft of international sources — a little Ivy League pomp or Italian sprezzatura here; some Savile Row sharpness or streetwear hype there — Japan’s design scene produces some truly unique garments for the modern man about town.

Here are 15 brands that are worth dipping in to, and the pieces and trends for which they’re rightly celebrated.

Undercover

Best For: Prints With Attitude

The original purveyor of Japanese cool, print-heavy label Undercover was founded in 1993 by then-college student Jun Takahashi. With punk roots and an international outlook, the brand has long fused American and British streetwear with Japanese pop-culture imagery for daring, design-forward garments. Today, it’s best known for its coveted collaborations with big American sportswear icons: Undercover’s Nike crossovers tend to sell out in minutes.

Uniqlo

Best For: Reliable Basics

For the essentials you wear every day, there is no one quite like Uniqlo. The genius of the high street behemoth is that the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same — you can go into any Uniqlo store and find the very same neatly cut classics that you first bought ten years ago, right alongside a brand new collaboration or on-trend colourway. The brand’s shirts are a particularly attractive part of its offering, and for well-priced linen in a range of summer shades, there is little competition. Its chinos, meanwhile, which can be altered in store on the same day, are the bedrock of many a smart casual outfit.