WAkira Fujioka , better known by his stage name of Afra, is a Japanese beatboxer from Suita, Osaka. He formed the beatboxing band Afra & Incredible Beatbox Band in 2005 with Kei and K-Moon. He had a guest appearance alongside Kōichi Yamadera in the eighth episode of the anime Samurai Champloo as the voice of the beatboxing Shinpachi.
WAoki Takamasa , is a Japanese electronic musician and producer.
WKousuke Atari is a Japanese pop singer. He is a self-trained musician, and performs in the shimauta (island-song) style of his hometown.
WKenji Eno was a Japanese musician and video game designer. He gained a reputation as a maverick during the mid-1990s for creating unorthodox games like Real Sound and is perhaps best remembered today for his rebellious marketing techniques. Outside of his native home land he was best known for his survival horror video games, the D series. Apart from creating video games, Eno was also a well-regarded electronic musician and he created the scores for several of his games. During his life, Eno founded the video game development companies: EIM and From Yellow to Orange. He also worked in a variety of fields apart from video games and music including the automotive, cellphone, tobacco, and hotel industries. Eno died on February 20, 2013, due to heart failure brought on by hypertension.
WKoichi Fukuda is a Japanese musician, best known as the lead guitarist, programmer, and keyboardist for the industrial metal band Static-X; he has been a member of the band three times, initially from 1994 to 2000, again from 2005 to 2010 and since 2018. He was also the former lead guitarist of the bands Drugstore Fanatics and Bellusira.
WYukihiko Harry Haida was a composer, as well as a steel guitar and ukulele player. He and his brother Katsuhiko Haida founded the Nihon Ukulele Association.
WEiji Ezaki was a Japanese professional wrestler, stage actor, musician and professional wrestling promoter, better known under the ring name Hayabusa . He was best known for his time with Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW), where he primarily wrestled throughout his career and was the franchise player of the company between 1995 and 2001.
WEitetsu Hayashi is an acclaimed Japanese musician best known for his solo performance work in taiko. Hayashi joined the group Ondekoza at an early age. Later, after parting from group, helped found the taiko group Kodo, though he quickly left to begin a solo career. Hayashi has performed in notable venues such as Carnegie Hall in 1984 and was the first featured taiko performer at the institution. He is also the recipient of multiple awards recognizing the cultural value of his work.
WHikaru Kaihatsu also known as Hikakin is a Japanese YouTube celebrity and co-founder of UUUM, a Japanese multi-channel network. A video of his Super Mario Bros. beatbox went viral in 2010, reaching over 3.8 million views by mid-September of that year. He, alongside fellow Japanese YouTuber Megwin, quit their day jobs in 2012 to focus entirely on their channels. He also collaborated with Gille, appearing in her promotions for her single "Try Again", where it is stated that he is one of the most popular Japanese YouTubers.
WTakashi Hirayasu is an Okinawan musician. He has released two albums and is known in the United States particularly for his collaborations with Bob Brozman. He was also a member of Champloose.
WTsuneo Imahori is a Japanese guitarist and composer.
WFumitoshi Ishino , better known by his stage name Takkyu Ishino , is a Japanese DJ, record producer, and singer from Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture. He is a member of Denki Groove.
WToshio Iwai is a Japanese interactive media and installation artist who has also created a number of commercial video games. In addition he has worked in television, music performance, museum design and digital musical instrument design.
WTatsuya Kato is a Japanese anime composer and arranger. He is known for his works on many anime series, including Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya, Free!, and Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma. He is currently represented by music production company APDREAM.
WHiroki Kikuta is a Japanese video game composer and game designer. His major works are Secret of Mana, Trials of Mana, Soukaigi, and Koudelka, for which he also acted as producer and concept designer. He has composed music for seven other games, and worked as a concept designer in addition to composer for the unreleased MMORPG Chou Bukyo Taisen. He became interested in music at an early age, but earned a degree in Religious Studies, Philosophy, and Cultural Anthropology from Kansai University. He spent the next few years working first as a manga illustrator, then as a composer for anime series, before coming to work for Square in 1991.
WYuki Chiba , better known by his stage name KOHH, is a Japanese hip hop recording artist from Oji, Kita, Tokyo.
WKenichi Maeyamada , also known as Hyadain (ヒャダイン), is a Japanese composer, lyricist, and musician. His primary work is composing anime theme songs and for J-pop musicians. He contracts through Supalove, a Japanese record label. He has released a number of anime and video game music remixes, as well as original songs. These remixes have received over 20 million hits on YouTube and Nico Nico Douga.
WFrank Nagai was a Japanese singer. Known for his attractive baritone voice. His real name was Kiyoto Nagai.
WOki Kano , known professionally as OKI, is a Japanese musician of Ainu ancestry. He was born in Hokkaido, and grew up in Kanagawa Prefecture. He studied industrial arts at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. His father, Bikki Sunazawa, was a renowned wood sculptor. Oki uses the tonkori, an Ainu stringed instrument, in his performances and mixes traditional Ainu music with reggae, dub and other styles of world music. He also plays guitar and traditional Ainu percussion instruments.
WKumoemon Tochuken was a popular rōkyoku recitalist in Meiji Japan. His immense popularity helped rōkyoku break into the mainstream. At his height, he performed Chūshingura productions to sell-out crowds at some of the biggest theatres in Tokyo and Osaka. These performances also roused nationalist sentiment during Russo-Japanese War.
WUragami Gyokudō or Urakami Gyokudō was a Japanese musician, painter, poet and calligrapher. In his lifetime, he was best known as a player of the Chinese seven-string zither, the guqin, but people came to appreciate his paintings after his death. His art features strong brushwork, often in patterns of strokes that build up a strong rhythm, and they reflect his musical compositions in relying on a limited number of possibilities that build up to powerful compositions. His Snow Sifted Through Frozen Clouds is recognized as a National Treasure.
WWowaka, also known as Genjitsutouhi-P (現実逃避P), was a Japanese musician, who was best known for his Vocaloid music and for being the lead vocalist in the band hitorie. Considered to be one of the most influential musicians in the Vocaloid industry, Wowaka had made many critically acclaimed songs throughout his career spanning over a decade.