Japanese Music Industry

 Yoshiharu Abe is known as the father of personal multi-track recording in the audio engineering field.  He was one of the five founders of TEAC in 1957 and went on to become one of the company’s most important product designers.  Abe-son designed several landmark products over his long career including the 80-8 and the Portastudio series.  He later worked for Fostex and was a key player in the teams that created the B-13 and X-15.  Beginning in 1948 he also began writing extensively

 Takehiko Akaboshi, the legendary Japanese music therapist and founder of the world renowned Japan Music Volunteer Association, began his career as a popular singer who recorded traditional and new folk songs as early as the 1950s.  While singing around the country he began seeing the benefits of music on the ill and in 1972 created “ryouiku ongaku” or therapeutic music programs that have since been proven to reduce stress and pain in mind and body for his many patients.  Mr.

Shiro Arai is the founder of Aria Guitars, a Japanese electric guitar company that gained great international success in the wake of the Beatles invasion—both in America and (as some of us may forget) Japan.  Mr. Arai was an early pioneer of Japanese/American commerce, developing one dealer base that represented both countries.  When Mr. Arai established the company in 1956, his focus was on classical instruments, as he himself was a trained classical guitarist and educator. 
 

Athan Billias had a rather impressive vantage point to witness the growth and development of the synthesizer in the late 1970s and early 80s. After performing as a professional musician in New England for several years, Athan found himself working on the landmark M1 keyboard as an engineer for KORG USA. He was later asked to work in Japan, where he lived for six years before returning to the United States. He would later serve as Director of Marketing for Yamaha Corporation of America in the Pro-Audio Division, where Athan continues to serve the industry.
 

Tsutomu Chiba is the president for the Barock Music Company in Japan. He is also a musical instrument designer for many products. With the distribution company named PlayWood Professional Percussion Instruments, Chiba-San has introduced his own designed products ranging from drum sticks and mallets to triangles and cowbells. One of his most noted products are the food-shaped shakers. He expanded on the idea he saw with the egg shakers in a toy shop and created shakers in the shape and colors of food such as apples, peanuts, corn and strawberries. His innovative ideas have led to newer audiences being introduced to the concept of making music!

Yohsihiro Doi joined Yamaha in 1980 and worked in retail for the company for two years before transferring to the wholesale department within the musical instrument division. Doi-san worked with the Yamaha school programs as well as with the labor union before moving to Yamaha Corporation of American in 1995. He worked as the planning manager in the keyboard division before returning to Yamaha Corporation of Japan in 2003 as senior executive officer.

Robert Dove joined Steinway & Sons at a time of global change and development. He helped establish the Far East division of the piano company and for many years assisted with the company’s growth in the US and in Asia. He helped to develop the company’s two OEM brands, Boston and Essex and worked on creating sales and marketing programs for the Steinway dealers, worldwide.

Tadamichi Fukuda is the Chairman for the Global Corporation, located in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1975 based on the repairing of musical instruments, especially violins. Fukuda-San soon expanded the company to become the exclusive supplier of many brands in Japan including Jupiter Band Instruments, G. LeBlanc and Gemeinhardt Flutes. Over the years Fukuda-San has focused on providing training for instrument repairs and was the founder of The Global Wind Instrument Technical Academy, which has provided instrument repair classes for hundreds of students over the years.
 

Jim Funada has proudly served the music products industry in several important ways over the last 40 years. He began his career by working for the Yamaha Corp. in keyboard retailing. Beginning in the late 1960s, Jim oversaw the Yamaha school programs among keyboard dealers in the San Francisco Bay Area. The success of the programs resulted in expansion to several other western cities and states. Jim later worked at Yamaha’s headquarters in Southern California. After retiring from Yamaha, Jim became an advocate for NAMM with a focus on building stronger relationships with the Japanese music industry. Jim has also assisted in the arranging and completion of many important Japanese interviews for the NAMM Oral History program.

Karl Hirano was a synthesizer engineer for Yamaha in Japan during the great MIDI boom of the early 1980s. In fact, Karl was a member of the team that gathered at the 1983 NAMM Show to discuss the MIDI spec and agree on the protocol and how MIDI would be engineered into the vast number of new electronic keyboards and synthesizers that were in high demand at the time. Karl later played an important role in several MIDI organizations, presentations and focus groups, marking an important part of the music product industry’s history.