82-year-old woman spins hot beats as a club DJ in trendy Tokyo

Japan's first octogenarian DJ can spin a mean beat.

82-year-old Sumiko Iwamuro, who goes by "DJ Sumirock," is a monthly fixture at DecabarZ, a club in the heart of Shinjuku, Tokyo.

And boy can she play.

Iwamuro, who's spent over 50 years running a gyoza (dumpling) restaurant, only took up the turntables in her 70s, after her husband passed away.

She spent a year doing DJ training in a local music school, The Times reports.

Later, she was introduced to the club scene after meeting a French event producer.

Iwamuro said she fell in love with music because of her father, who was a jazz drummer. During World War II, she would listen to jazz records, muffling the gramophone with a cushion so others didn't know that she was listening to music from enemy Allied cultures.

But she was pulled into helping out at the family's gyoza restaurant since she was 19, and didn't pursue music, according to AFP BB News.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Iwamuro usually opens her set with the theme to popular 1980s Japanese anime series Astro Boy -- and her sound is fundamentally techno music with jazz, French chanson and classical music.

Working the turntables is similar to running a gyoza restaurant, she said. "In both, results can be seen immediately. If the customer eats what you have made, it shows on his face if it is delicious; and if a DJ is good, everyone will dance happily."

Despite her age, she's still stealing the hearts of Japan's club-goers.

"She's got this energy that goes beyond age, and that can equal any young person's here," 25-year-old clubber Fuminari Fujii told Reuters.