Ikuo Kakehashi’s passion for music developed early in his life. Of course, he was exposed to many innovative electronic musical instruments being the son of synthesizer pioneer and Roland...

Shiko Onodela is the President of the Japan Music Trades Magazine. This monthly magazine was established in 1962 by Mr. Rikuro Hiyama to support the music industry and to encourage sharin...

Masako Koyama worked closely with the Japan Music Trades Magazine founder, Mr. Hiyama. The magazine was launched in 1962 with the goal of sharing stories about the instruments and people ...

Fumio Mieda was hired by the founder of KORG, Tsutomu Katoh, back in 1967. Mieda-san began working on a number of innovations as he hoped to improve the function of electronic organs. The...

Ryoichi Totsuka began his notable career in the music industry right after college as a salesman for Kawai Pianos in Japan. The experience inspired Ryoichi-san as he sought other opportun...

Yuji Tanaka is a Senior Executive Officer for Roland Corporation who has enjoyed a successful career in the music products industry. Yuji provided detail about how and why he came to work...

Takaki Maeda and his team were celebrating the 40th anniversary of Casio's Musical Instruments division while attending the NAMM Show in 2020. This special occasion was the perfect opport...

Takashi Yamazaki developed a passion for music at an early age. He played guitar and piano and was encouraged by music teachers, which became an inspiration for him in starting his chain ...

Kyoko Hara is proud to continue her family tradition of being involved in the music products industry. It all began in 1919 when her grandfather opened a small store. Her father, Ryoji Ok...

Nat Kusano has always been compelled to create and market ideas and products that inspire and encourage people to pick up an instrument and play. Having had piano lessons when he was a ch...

Masato Horibe is proud of the origins of his company, which date back to 1917 when Mr. Niimi opened a small store in Japan. He first began selling phonograph needles and later brought int...

H. John Nonaka keeps in mind that his grandfather, who established the family owned music business, always supported musicians - an element of the business John happily continues. Since j...

Reiko Suzuki discovered her passion for music at a young age as she watched her father and mother operate a company that manufactured harmonicas and other instruments. This coupled with h...

Takeomi Nishimura found his way to Suzuki Musical Instruments while studying engineering in college. Upon returning home from school one day a friend suggested he work for the company and...

Seiki Kato is the president of KORG, the Japan based electronics company that has created innovative musical products since his father first established the company in the 1970s. Seiki pr...

Jun-Ichi Miki joined the Roland Corporation in 1977 right after graduating from university. After working in research of sound synthesis and analysis for electronic musical instruments, i...

Makoto Muroi's passion for music began in school when he played the French Horn.  He studied computers in college and worked on microcomputer development.  While working on drum machines ...

Ryo Okumoto began his professional musical career as a keyboardist during the height of the electronic musical instrument boom of the 1970s.  The synthesizer was growing nearly every mont...

Yoko Leader learned to play as a student of the Yamaha Electone school, but later graduated university with her major in Mathematics. When Yoko was picked up from graduation by Matsushita...

Keisuke Kobayashi is the Director and Chief Marketing Officer for Audio-Technica in Japan.  His long and very interesting career in the music products industry started when he began worki...

Hiroaki Oh-oka sat on a thin mat in front of a leg-less table in his traditional Japanese home where he outlined the history of the bamboo flutes his five- man company produced. The compa...

Takeshi Inomata is the noted jazz drummer who, among other things, helped design the first percussive instruments for Yamaha.  His work with Yamaha took place during the early 1960s when ...

Ryoichi Sasaki was hired by Yamaha in 1967 working in the method book division.  In 1978, he formed his own publishing company, Rittor Music, which focuses on producing music-themed magaz...

Kazuo Matsushita is the son of the founder of Audio-Technica, a creative and innovative company that has been an important  part of the music industry since the early 1960s.  When Kazuo b...

Hiro Miyaji is the president of Miyaji Music, which opened in 1917 in Japan.  He later expanded the wholesale business his grandfather started to include retailing.  The company began pro...

Kenji Chiwaki followed in the footsteps of Toru Hora as the president of Buffet Crampon Japan.  Hora-san opened the branch in Tokyo in 1967 and helped establish the brand within the Asian...

Motohichi Harada led the movement that brought the very first marching band to Japan, which took place in 1963.  He has since worked for the NHK for over thirty years and formed the Japan...

Tadahiro Sato loved music and baseball!  In fact after playing baseball for many years in his youth, he joined the music industry while playing baseball all along.  His sister's husband e...

Isao Tomita was the world-renowned composer of electronic music who famously used the Moog synthesizers to create award winning music that influenced a generation of music makers!  Among ...

Toru Hora was classically trained on the piano and attended Juilliard. He joined the Buffet Crampon company in 1964 and both established and served as president of the Buffet Japan branch...

Ken Taniguchi runs the store his father opened in 1936 in Ochanomizu, Japan.  The store started as a repair shop for accordions in the years before World War II.  When US soldiers came in...

Yutaha Kurihara formed his own case company in Japan, which came into its own in the 1989s when he introduced a line of cases in a variety of colors.  Since that time Yutaha has been very...