WYasushi Akimoto is a Japanese record producer, lyricist, and television writer, best known for creating and producing some of Japan's top idol groups, Onyanko Club and the AKB48 franchise. Total sales of the singles he has written exceed 100 million copies, making him the best-selling lyricist in Japan.
WYukio Aoshima was a Japanese politician who served as Governor of Tokyo from 1995 to 1999. He is also well known as a TV actor, novelist, film director, screenwriter and songwriter.
WMaki Asakawa was a Japanese jazz and blues singer, lyricist and composer. She was an important voice of the Japanese urban counterculture.
WMasashi Hamauzu is a Japanese composer, pianist, and lyricist. Hamauzu, who was employed at Square Enix from 1996 to 2010, was best known during that time for his work on the Final Fantasy and SaGa video game series. Born into a musical family in Germany, Hamauzu was raised in Japan. He became interested in music while in kindergarten, and took piano lessons from his parents.
WChiaki Ishikawa is a Japanese singer-songwriter. She is also the lead vocalist of Japanese musical duo See-Saw. Many of her songs, both solo and with See-Saw, have been used as theme songs in various anime series. Since 2003, her popularity abroad as part of See-Saw and as a solo artist has risen significantly. She made an appearance at Anime Expo 2007 as a Guest of Honor. She has also performed at Animelo Summer Live in 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 including collaborations with Chihiro Yonekura in 2008, Angela in 2009 and Minori Chihara in 2012, and being one of the artists in the Animelo Summer Live theme song singles in 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2010. She has also been a guest performer at the C3 anime convention in Hong Kong.
WSaburō Kitajima is a well-known Japanese enka singer, lyricist and composer.
WYuki Chiba , better known by his stage name KOHH, is a Japanese hip hop recording artist from Oji, Kita, Tokyo.
WKoichi Fujita was a Japanese guitarist, lyricist, composer, record producer, and businessman. He was known for producing for Kiyotaka Sugiyama, Carlos Toshiki, Toshiki Kadomatsu, Momoko Kikuchi, and Lazy.
WMasahiko Kondō or Matchy is a Japanese singer, lyricist, actor, racing car manager and former semi-professional racing driver. He was a member of the Tanokin Trio.
WShoko Nakagawa is a Japanese tarento, actress, voice actress, illustrator, and singer. Also known by her nickname Shokotan (しょこたん), she is best known as the presenter of Pokémon Sunday, and as the performer of the opening theme from the anime Gurren Lagann.
WUjō Noguchi was a Japanese poet and lyricist of children's songs and traditional Min'yō folk music. He wrote some of the most beloved and familiar pieces for children and youth choirs, such as "Akai Kutsu ". He, along with Hakushū Kitahara, and Yaso Saijō are considered to be the three great poets and children's songwriters in Japan.
WYui Ogura is a Japanese actress and singer from Gunma Prefecture. She is affiliated with Atomic Monkey.
WSachiko Kamachi , known professionally as Izumi Sakai , was a female Japanese pop singer, songwriter, and member of the group Zard. As Sakai was the only member who stayed in the group while others joined and left regularly, Zard and Sakai may be referred to interchangeably. She was the best-selling female recording artist of the 1990s and has sold over 37 million copies of sales, making her one of the best-selling music artists in Japan of all time.
WHaruichi Shindō is a Japanese musician, lyricist, composer, record producer and author who is affiliated with Amuse, Inc. His artist name at his debut was Haruichi (ハルイチ), and he formed a band named No Score with his classmates at high school which later became Porno Graffitti. Originally he was the lead vocalist, but since Akihito Okano joined, he became the lead guitarist and provided backing vocals. He is also a guitarist for THE Yatou. His wife is actress Kyōko Hasegawa.
WAyuo Takahashi is a Japanese-American composer, poet, lyricist, singer and performer of plucked string instruments including guitar, bouzouki, Irish harp, Chinese zheng, Japanese koto, and medieval European psaltery. He is adept at adapting the ancient music of Japan, China, Persia, Greece and medieval Europe to create a new and original music without abandoning their strict forms, while simultaneously making them relevant to contemporary music styles. He has composed for classical ensembles including string quartets, piano, various chamber ensembles and orchestra, as well as composed, produced and performed with rock, jazz and musicians of various traditional music from around the world. He has also composed many music theater pieces, some of which has been released on CD in the United States and Japan.
WShūji Terayama was a Japanese avant-garde poet, dramatist, writer, film director, and photographer. His works range from radio drama, experimental television, underground (Angura) theatre, countercultural essays, to Japanese New Wave and "expanded" cinema.
WHitonari Tsuji is a Tokyo-born Japanese writer, composer, and film director. In his film and singing work he uses the name Jinsei Tsuji, an alternative reading of the Japanese writing of his name. He debuted as a writer in 1989. His books and stories have been bestsellers in Japan as well as overseas, with his work being translated into 20 languages and selling over ten million copies.