Japanese musical scales

A variety of musical scales are used in traditional Japanese music. While a twelve-tone (dodecaphonic) Chinese scale has influenced Japanese music since the Heian period, in practice Japanese traditional music is often based on pentatonic (five tone) or heptatonic (seven tone) scales. In some instances, harmonic minor, like in the famous piece Sakura Sakura, is used, while the melodic minor is virtually unused.