Japanese Music Industry
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...
Takuya Nakata is the Director and Executive Officer for Yamaha in Japan. During his NAMM Oral History interview he provided details about the development of Yamaha’s electronic musical products beginning with the D-1 organ in 1959. Mr. Nakata also related the stories of the GS-1 digital keyboard in...
Hiroo Okabe is the Director and Managing Executive Officer of Yamaha’s Musical Instrument Business Group. During his NAMM Oral History interview he provided the history of how Mr. Torakusu Yamaha began his career in the music industry by first repairing a reed organ and later, in 1900, introduced...
Mitsuru Umemura is the eleventh President of the Yamaha Corporation. During his NAMM Oral History interview he provided details about the development of Yamaha beginning in 1887. He likes to explain the four main elements of Yamaha’s rich history beginning with the craftsmanship of instrument-...
Shuji Ito began his career with Yamaha Corporation in 1965 and has since held a series of positions in Japan, the United States and in Europe including managing director and senior managing director. He served as president and representative director for Yamaha from 2000 until 2007. Mr. Ito has...
Akira Jimbo, a drummer out of Japan, has been playing drums since he was 17. Akira has released over 10 solo albums throughout his career and has demonstrated a passion for education through his instructional videos. In his 2008 interview, Akira talks about his unique playing style and how others...
Masani Yanagisawa’s father formed the Pearl Drum Company in Japan just after World War II. Masani applied his marketing knowledge to assist in the growth and development of the company. Working with his brother, who served as president, they built the brand name out of a pure OEM business to become...
Mototsugu Shimamura grew a small Japanese music retail store into the country’s largest music retail chain. Shimamura Music has played a vital role in music education and the expansion of the music market in Japan since 1962. As both president of Shimamura Music and an active member of several...
Takashi “Hagi” Hagiwara has been called the “godfather of Yamaha drums” as the unofficial ambassador of the company’s percussive products around the world. His father was a silversmith in Tokyo, a profession he was thought to continue, however he decided to take a part time job as a teenager in a...
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...