Feature - Back Numbers
Going Gaga - Yoda Bounces Back (2005.08.27)
2005 is shaping up to be the year of the comeback in the world of J-pop.
First there was female vocalist Ami Suzuki's successful re-emergence on the music scene after she was blacklisted by the industry for daring to sue her management company. Formerly with Sony, "Amigo" is now signed to Avex, which released her aptly titled comeback single, "Hopeful," in January.
Now it's the turn of Tom Yoda to prove that there can be second acts in the never-ending J-pop drama. Yoda was ousted from his post as chairman/CEO of Avex in an August 2004 boardroom coup and relegated to the powerless position of honorary chairman. He also gave up his position as chairman of the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ), the industry group representing Japanese record companies.
Yoda was later replaced by Avex co-founder Masato "Max" Matsuura, who is now Avex's president.
Industry observers say the reason for Yoda's ouster was a power game between Matsuura and Yoda. According to this interpretation, Matsuura didn't want to work with Yoda anymore, because Yoda wanted to expand Avex's activities into various fields, such as the movie business. Matsuura - who was responsible for signing Ami Suzuki, by the way - wanted to concentrate on music.
Matsuura and Yoda - the creative and business brains, respectively, behind Avex - built up Avex from a small import-specialist company in the late 1980s to one of Japan's biggest record labels.
Avex's spectacular rise began in early '0s when, in an astute promotion campaign with the then-popular disco Juliana's Tokyo, the company spearheaded a dance music boom in Japan. Avex then started signing and developing domestic Japanese acts, such as TRF, produced by Tetsuya Komuro. Those acts, featuring Komuro's canny blend of dance rhythms and karaoke-friendly melodies, proved massively popular with young Japanese.
Other big-name J-pop acts on the Avex roster include Namie Amuro, Every Little Thing, BoA, m-flo, globe and Ayumi Hamasaki, to name a few.
Under Yoda's leadership, Avex then expanded into the nightclub business with the Roppongi, Tokyo, disco called Velfarre, as well as into artist management, film production, concert promotion and artist development (Avex Artist Academy).
Despite the company's success, Yoda was seen as something of an upstart outsider by the rest of the Japanese music industry, which is still very much a conservative old-boys club. Yoda stood out from the rest of the pack by being an honest-to-goodness entrepreneur who wasn't afraid to flaunt his wealth and power.
Yoda tried to become one of the boys by playing an active role in the RIAJ, in particular by leading the successful campaign to give Japanese record companies the right to ban imports of recordings for which they are the licensees in Japan. Yoda and others in the Japanese music industry were worried about the possibility of low-priced CDs of Japanese music manufactured under license by Asian record companies flooding the Japanese market.
Yoda lobbied hard in the back rooms of the Japanese political world to get the import right enshrined in law. One measure of how strong Yoda's political ties were came in August 2004 when the Japanese government's Fair Trade Commission (FTC) raided the offices of several Japanese labels as part of the FTC's probe into the labels' alleged monopolization of recordings used for mobile-phone master ringtones. Industry insiders say it's unlikely the raids would have happened if Yoda had still been top man at Avex and the RIAJ.
In the months following his fall from grace, Yoda kept a relatively low profile. He continued to play an active role in various government and private-sector committees in the areas of intellectual-property rights and promotion of Japanese culture (especially music) overseas, as well as acting as a patron of the arts, specifically by supporting classical musicians through the "T.Y. Support Program."
Yoda then bought a 16% stake in Tokyo-based movie distribution company Gaga Communication and was named chairman of the company. That was followed by his purchase of 72% of the shares in Tokyo-based label Dreamusic, whose artists include Yuzo Kayama, Ryoko Moriyama and Ayaka Hirahara. Yoda was recently named chairman/CEO of Dreamusic, and so his comeback can be said to be complete.
But despite its spectacular success with Hirahara, specifically her mega-selling "Jupiter" single, Dreamusic isn't necessarily in the best financial health, and so it's up to Yoda to put the label's affairs in order.
Yoda says his next projects will involve the promising but challenging South Korean and mainland Chinese music markets. He remains one of the Japanese music scene's most colorful and interesting characters: a visionary in the classic "record man" mold. The Japanese music biz needs more shit-disturbers like Yoda if it's ever to break out of its current doldrums.
First there was female vocalist Ami Suzuki's successful re-emergence on the music scene after she was blacklisted by the industry for daring to sue her management company. Formerly with Sony, "Amigo" is now signed to Avex, which released her aptly titled comeback single, "Hopeful," in January.
Now it's the turn of Tom Yoda to prove that there can be second acts in the never-ending J-pop drama. Yoda was ousted from his post as chairman/CEO of Avex in an August 2004 boardroom coup and relegated to the powerless position of honorary chairman. He also gave up his position as chairman of the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ), the industry group representing Japanese record companies.
Yoda was later replaced by Avex co-founder Masato "Max" Matsuura, who is now Avex's president.
Industry observers say the reason for Yoda's ouster was a power game between Matsuura and Yoda. According to this interpretation, Matsuura didn't want to work with Yoda anymore, because Yoda wanted to expand Avex's activities into various fields, such as the movie business. Matsuura - who was responsible for signing Ami Suzuki, by the way - wanted to concentrate on music.
Matsuura and Yoda - the creative and business brains, respectively, behind Avex - built up Avex from a small import-specialist company in the late 1980s to one of Japan's biggest record labels.
Avex's spectacular rise began in early '0s when, in an astute promotion campaign with the then-popular disco Juliana's Tokyo, the company spearheaded a dance music boom in Japan. Avex then started signing and developing domestic Japanese acts, such as TRF, produced by Tetsuya Komuro. Those acts, featuring Komuro's canny blend of dance rhythms and karaoke-friendly melodies, proved massively popular with young Japanese.
Other big-name J-pop acts on the Avex roster include Namie Amuro, Every Little Thing, BoA, m-flo, globe and Ayumi Hamasaki, to name a few.
Under Yoda's leadership, Avex then expanded into the nightclub business with the Roppongi, Tokyo, disco called Velfarre, as well as into artist management, film production, concert promotion and artist development (Avex Artist Academy).
Despite the company's success, Yoda was seen as something of an upstart outsider by the rest of the Japanese music industry, which is still very much a conservative old-boys club. Yoda stood out from the rest of the pack by being an honest-to-goodness entrepreneur who wasn't afraid to flaunt his wealth and power.
Yoda tried to become one of the boys by playing an active role in the RIAJ, in particular by leading the successful campaign to give Japanese record companies the right to ban imports of recordings for which they are the licensees in Japan. Yoda and others in the Japanese music industry were worried about the possibility of low-priced CDs of Japanese music manufactured under license by Asian record companies flooding the Japanese market.
Yoda lobbied hard in the back rooms of the Japanese political world to get the import right enshrined in law. One measure of how strong Yoda's political ties were came in August 2004 when the Japanese government's Fair Trade Commission (FTC) raided the offices of several Japanese labels as part of the FTC's probe into the labels' alleged monopolization of recordings used for mobile-phone master ringtones. Industry insiders say it's unlikely the raids would have happened if Yoda had still been top man at Avex and the RIAJ.
In the months following his fall from grace, Yoda kept a relatively low profile. He continued to play an active role in various government and private-sector committees in the areas of intellectual-property rights and promotion of Japanese culture (especially music) overseas, as well as acting as a patron of the arts, specifically by supporting classical musicians through the "T.Y. Support Program."
Yoda then bought a 16% stake in Tokyo-based movie distribution company Gaga Communication and was named chairman of the company. That was followed by his purchase of 72% of the shares in Tokyo-based label Dreamusic, whose artists include Yuzo Kayama, Ryoko Moriyama and Ayaka Hirahara. Yoda was recently named chairman/CEO of Dreamusic, and so his comeback can be said to be complete.
But despite its spectacular success with Hirahara, specifically her mega-selling "Jupiter" single, Dreamusic isn't necessarily in the best financial health, and so it's up to Yoda to put the label's affairs in order.
Yoda says his next projects will involve the promising but challenging South Korean and mainland Chinese music markets. He remains one of the Japanese music scene's most colorful and interesting characters: a visionary in the classic "record man" mold. The Japanese music biz needs more shit-disturbers like Yoda if it's ever to break out of its current doldrums.
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Originally submitted by: Steve McClure | See Edit History | Edit Article
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