There's a lot of great Japanese jazz from the 70s and early 80s. Check out Kazumi Watanabe, from his early guitar-oriented days to the more full instrumentation of his compositions in the 80s and 90s. A favorite of mine is To-Chi-Ka, which also features Marcus Miller on bass. There are also a lot of great albums with female vocalists such as this one by Noriko Miyamoto and Isao Suzuki.