Japanese Music Industry
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...
Tsunesaburo Kurosawa has a deep passion for instrument building and has become one of Japan’s leading classical guitar luthiers. The success of his guitars grew into the need to create a showcase for his instruments and soon he opened his own shop in Tokyo. This success was followed by a second...
Yoichi Minagawa began his career in the music industry in 1961 on the sales floor of a large music store in the heart of Tokyo. Minagawa-san soon met Moridaira-san, the founder of the company he would later manage and run. Moridaira-san (who passed away in 2011) became a mentor to Minagawa-san...
Hidesato Shiino’s great-grandfather formed a music business in Japan, which gave young Shiino-san a strong background in the industry. He also had a passion for playing musical instruments, which he and others in his country were unable to obtain in the years following World War II. Over time he...
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...
Tetsuya Takagi served as Executive Vice President of Yamaha International Corporation (currently Yamaha Corporation of America) and worked for Yamaha Corporation in Japan holding several important positions during his long and successful career. Mr. Takagi received scholarship from Yamaha while in...
Kazuo Ishibashi spent over 25 years in the Special Equipment Division of JVC (Japan Victor Corporation) and headed their musical instrument engineering section. JVC marketed electronic organs and portable keyboards in Japan under the "Victron" label and exported them under the "JVC" brand. In the...
Haruhiko Ikebe developed a novel way of approaching music retailing, creating Super Pro Shops that stock vintage and new instruments along with accessories and knowledgeable sales staff for a very specific item. In other words, Mr. Ikebe created a saxophone store, a guitar store, a flute store and...
Yoshitada Hoshino is the president of Hoshino Gakki Company, a music company that has remained in his family since first opening in 1908 to sell sheet music in Japan. The distribution segment of the business began to grow throughout the next hundred years. Along the way the company developed the...
Hisatake Shibuya takes great pride in developing music education opportunities for students wishing to bring music into their lives. By forming music schools in Japan and later opening the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, CA, Hisatake-san has created a model for extended musical education programs...