History Music / XJapan

* OperaGloves: Yoshiki and Heath have worn these on occasion.

* {{Bishonen}}: The anime avatars of the band members in both the original 1994 ''Rusty Nail'' and in the pachinko-game tie-in videos, all except for Pata.

Bassist Heath died as of November 2023 post a brief illness.

* Heath - Bass single instrument player
* Music/{{Taiji|Sawada}} - Bass, lead guitar on Voiceless Screaming, rare backing vocals. deceased 2011.

* DecapitatedArmy: In the 1994 anime ''Rusty Nail'' PV, the only time the alien invasion in the postapocalypse world is defeated is when hide's character's control eye is broken, and the one-eyed monster using him as the target is turned into roses via Yoshiki's character's throwing roses at it. WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs

* Instrumentals: Most of the band's albums include at least one, with "Dear Loser", "XClamation", and "Piano En Es Dur" being entirely instrumental and "Give Me the Pleasure", "Prologue - World Anthem", and "Love Replica" only containing brief spoken word parts.

* MurderBallad: ''Week End.'' The lyrics are about a murder-suicide from the point of view of the ones committing them, and the music video consists of all of the band members dying in various ways. BolivianArmyEnding, DownerEnding, EverybodysDeadDave, and KillEmAll are all invoked in the universe of the PV.

* IconicLogo: Two of them. The first, which they had until 2010 and still use, is a simple X in bold Times New Roman font - which became one of the most iconic band logos within VisualKei and even outside it to some extent. The 2010 upgrade features a massive dragon winding its way around the X with the Earth in one of its claws, to signify their interest in worldwide success, though it seems to have fallen out of favor for the old-style logo as of 2015-16.

A new GreatestHitsAlbum was released as of 2014 called ''X Japan - The World,'' while they announced a new stylistic look. They would later hold a concert in October 2014 at Madison Square Garden in NewYork - the very venue they had tried to introduce themselves to the Western world at back in TheNineties.

* Music/{{H|iroshiMorie}}eath - Bass single instrument player

** In the ''2010 Rusty Nail'' PV, [[Music/HiroshiMorie Heath]] has a Honda sportbike.

* DistressedDude: Yoshiki, in quite a few PVs and in one live (''White Poem II'')

* FingerGun: Both Taiji and hide would use this gesture in PVs and onstage.

* MurderBallad: ''Week End.'' The lyrics are about a murder-suicide from the point of view of the ones committing them, and the music video consists of all of the band members dying in various ways. BolivianArmyEnding, DownerEnding, EverybodysDeadDave, and KillEmAll are all InvokedTropes in the universe of the PV.

* NiceHat: Taiji's cowboy hat. hide occasionally wore some hats, most notably his witch's hat in Celebration PV.

* SelfHarm: Quite a few of their songs and PVs depict or imply SelfHarm or the intentional seeking of injury/pain. The most visually explicit would be the PV for ''Week End'' or ''White Poem,'' and the most lyrically explicit direct reference to self-harm would be in the 2014 song ''Hero,'' with a direct reference to cutting.

* DidYouJustHaveSex: In one PV there is a scene that is either director's cut or outtake (no one knows for sure) that, aside from FoeYay, was the other thing that fueled the Taiji/Yoshiki ship - a bed scene showing an equally angry and pleased Taiji leaving the bedroom where Yoshiki lay in bed.

* ContemptibleCover: The cover art of ''Vanishing Vision''. It depicts (photoshopped) rape imagery and is pretty much irrelevant to the actual album contents (only the songs "Vanishing Love" and "Sadistic Desire" could even be argued to be related to it. Whether "Vanishing Love" does is arguable because the "rape you" chorus could be due to BlindIdiotTranslation and ''also'' translate as "make a pass at you," which is obviously not the same thing as rape, and Sadistic Desire isn't the title track, so the cover ''still'' makes little sense.)
** The band have admitted that this cover was nothing more than attempt to shock people into noticing them. Yoshiki now refuses to sign copies of this album.
** ''Born To Be Free'''s cover is similar, although it implies BDSM more than rape.

** The band have admitted that this cover, and the BDSM imagery they sometimes adopted, was nothing more than attempt to shock people into noticing them. Yoshiki now refuses to sign copies of this album.

** The entire sketch that opens the ''Celebration'' video. It somehow manages to be *even narmier* than the Twisted Sister "We're Not Gonna Take It" video that so obviously inspired it.

** The entire sketch that opens the ''Celebration'' video. It's the most narmy possible attempt at re-creating the equally narmy (but much better produced) Twisted Sister "We're Not Gonna Take It" video that was tearing up MTV at the time.