Unofficial Japanese Fanclubs

Many unofficial fanclubs sprung up throughout Japan during the 70s and 80s. While some of these were one-offs, with single issue zines passed around amongst a small group of friends, some were essentially doujinshi circles whose members regularly attended Queen concerts and events, trailing the band members and drawing comics of their experiences. Although the artists were invariably quite young, many of these comics were of professional quality. Some of these artists went on to debut as mangaka or work as music journalists, further cementing Queen’s place in the history of Japanese publishing.

Perhaps the most storied of unofficial Japanese fanclubs is the QFCJ, a fascinating early Queen fanclub run by a high school girl in Osaka that nearly achieved official status but sadly ended up flying a bit too close to the sun.

We may never be able to completely catalogue all of the unofficial Japanese Queen Showa era fancircles, but I have compiled a list of known groups and publications titles as follows:

Note: this is a long list of known specifically named Queen-centric unofficial fanclubs and circles, but even so it's not exhaustive. Fanmade Queen content can be found amongst broader, less specialized rock fan circles of the Showa era, but I have organized that content under the category of doujinshi rather than fanclubs.

70s

The Queen Fan Club of Japan — May 1974 - August 1975.
(Not to be confused with the official Japanese fanclub which began in late 1975.) The QFCJ was the first prominent Queen fanclub in Japan (possibly the first fanclub outside of England), started by a high school girl in Osaka. It had a quarterly publication called the Queen Times, several people on staff, thousands of card-carrying dues-paying members, and offered merchandise at its height
Queency — Kobe area
Crazy — Hiroshima circle with a publication called "Queen Age"
Clambake — Osaka
Fromages — Saitama
Juno — Matsuyama
ALive — Aichi
QUEEN COMPANY — Nagano circle with a publication called "TENEMENT FUNSTER"
Madman — Kagoshima
Rockin' — This was a rock guitarist-centric circle based out of Shizuoka
Killer Queen — Niigata
Love Affair — Sagamihara
Pleiades — Tohoku
Rouge — Tokyo
Manken Queen's Love — Saitama
Megaromaniac — Iida circle with a publication called "Trial and Error"
Dynamite Queen — Tokyo
Fantastic — Yamamoto
Killer & Bohemian — Koganei, Tokyo
Liar — Higashiyamato circle with a publication called "Misfiar" [sic]
Brighton Queen — Yokosuka
London — Utsunomiya
My Best Friend — Minokamo
Eternity — Nagoya
Deacon Company — A John-specific fancircle based out of Shinjuku, Tokyo
You and I — Sendai circle with a publication called "Nikkori Queen"
GREAT — Abekata
Bohemian — A Freddie-specific circle based out of Shinjuku, Tokyo
Dear Friend — Hamamatsu
Zanzibar — A Freddie-specific circle based out of Osaka. Their publication may have been called "The Mercury of Zanzibar"
White Queen — A John-specific-circle based out of Osaka.
Agape — Kumamoto
Rhye — Fujidera
SWEET LADY — A Fujidera-based group that later changed its name to "GUY BOY" or QCGB.
Joker — Iruma
Quicky — A gossip-based circle involving other rock bands of the time as well based out of Ogikubo, Tokyo
Brighton Rock — Niigata
Young Noble — Yonago
Spirit Mover — Tokyo
Queen Circle Honey — Taito, Tokyo
Magical Queen — Hiroshima
Jesus — Kakegawa
Queen Research Town — Misato
Killer Rollers — A Queen circle apparently started out of an annoyance of people comparing Queen to the Bay City Rollers, another band with huge popularity in Japan at the time. Based out of Itabashi
Sour Milk Sea — 78-80. Based out of Himeji, described as "the legendary heart of Queen fan circles"

80s

Daughters of Eve — 78-83. Osaka. The name is a play on the title of a popular rock-inspired shoujo manga series of the time, "Sons of Eve"
The Queen Mutual Aid Society — 81-86. Itami. This group appears to be one of the main underground Queen fanclubs of the 80s
Queenie — location unknown
FBG — A Freddie fanclub, location unknown
Darjeeling — Fukuoka, other details unknown

80s - 90s

Shadow Queen — Tokyo. I have seen two instances of Shadow Queen—one is a list of bootlegs they put together for an Official Fan Club issue in 1983, and another is an issue of their own publication, "Partners & Crime", from the early 90s.

Unknown

MIRAQLE — Publication was "Sheer Heart Attack", location unknown
Queen Rose — Publication was "Midnight Queen", location unknown

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