Akira Jimbo, born February 27, 1959, in Tokyo, began drumming at eighteen upon joining the Keio University Light Music Society Big Band, where he met a young keyboardist, Hirotaka Izumi, who went on to help found T-Square. Jimbo joined Casiopea as drummer in 1980 and served across three distinct periods with the band: 1980-1989, 1997-2006, and 2012-2022, when Yoshinori Imai succeeded him.

In 1989, a conflict over the side project Shambara led him and bassist Tetsuo Sakurai to leave Casiopea; in 1990 they formed the duo Jimsaku. Jimbo reconciled with Casiopea founder Issei Noro in 2008, joining Noro's new band, Inspirits, as a member.

Jimbo's international profile is distinct from anyone else in this project's Casiopea-family coverage. In 1999 he placed second in British magazine RHYTHM's poll for most popular drummer, and in June 2000 he became the first Asian drummer ever to appear on the cover of Modern Drummer magazine, performing at that year's Modern Drummer Festival. In 2007, Newsweek Japan named him one of the top 100 Japanese people the world respects.

He built a genuinely distinctive style around Yamaha's DTX drum-triggering system, blending acoustic and electronic percussion to perform fully orchestrated compositions solo, without backing tracks. He helped design Zildjian's K Custom Hybrid Series cymbals, cites Steve Gadd as his drum hero, and endorses Yamaha drums, Zildjian cymbals, and Vic Firth drumsticks. His other notable collaborations include keyboardist Keiko Matsui, the project Synchronized DNA with T-Square drummer Hiroyuki Noritake, and bassist Brian Bromberg.

His solo catalog is the largest of anyone in this project's Casiopea family — dozens of albums, mostly on the Electric Bird label since 2007, including a long-running annually numbered series running from 21 through 30 Tokyo Yellow. He now also plays alongside Sakurai and Minoru Mukaiya in the Katsushika Trio.

Jimbo's style combines technical fusion-drumming precision with pioneering use of electronic triggering technology, allowing him to function as a genuine one-man orchestral act in solo performance — an approach that helped define what a modern fusion drummer's live show could look like, and one directly informed by his admiration for Steve Gadd.