Curated category
Japanese video game composers
- Kentarō HanedaKentarō Haneda entered the world in Tokyo, Japan. His musical journey began at the Toho Gakuen School of Music. He completed his formal studies there before…
- Mitsuto SuzukiIn the early 1980s, Mitsuto Suzuki's life changed when his older brother brought home a synthesizer. The instrument became a playground for the young boy who…
- Naoshi MizutaNaoshi Mizuta grew up in Kochi, Japan, and by the time he was in second or third grade, something had already taken hold. Not law. Not economics. Music.
- Masashi HamauzuMasashi Hamauzu was born in Munich, Germany, into a household where music was not an elective subject but a household language. His mother taught piano.
- Tappi IwaseTappi Iwase, sometimes credited professionally as TAPPY, is a Japanese musical composer whose work shaped the sound of two landmark video game franchises.
- Yuji YoshinoYuji Yoshino began his career composing for video games in the early 2000s. His first major credit appeared on .hack//Legend of the Twilight, a title…
- Junya NakanoJunya Nakano was three years old when his parents signed him up for electronic organ lessons through the Yamaha Music Foundation.
- Masaharu IwataMasaharu Iwata was born on the 26th of October 1966, in Tokyo, a city that was just beginning to feel the first tremors of a digital entertainment revolution.
- Hitoshi SakimotoHitoshi Sakimoto was born on the 26th of February 1969 in Tokyo, Japan, and by the age of 16 he was already being paid to compose music for video games.
- Kumi TaniokaKumi Tanioka grew up in Hiroshima listening to video game music, not because she was a gamer herself, but because her younger brother was.
- Yoko ShimomuraYoko Shimomura was born on the 19th of October 1967, in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, and started taking piano lessons "at the age of four or five".
- Akira YamaokaAkira Yamaoka was born in Niigata on the 6th of February 1968. He initially sought to become a designer rather than a musician.
- Rika MuranakaRika Muranaka spent almost two decades composing music for Hideo Kojima without ever being allowed to write English lyrics for him.
- Joe HisaishiJoe Hisaishi was born in Nakano, Nagano, Japan, and by the age of four he was already holding a violin, learning through the Suzuki method his parents had…
- Nobuo UematsuNobuo Uematsu was born on the 21st of March, 1959, in Kochi, the capital city of Kochi Prefecture, Japan. He never took a single formal piano lesson.
- Masayoshi SokenMasayoshi Soken composed the music for an entire expansion of Final Fantasy XIV from a hospital bed. For most of 2020, while his colleagues were working on…