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Profile No. JA-36

Yoshinori Imai

Drums — Japanese — B: November 2, 1987, Kanagawa, Japan
Yoshinori Imai

Official Zildjian artist press photo of Yoshinori Imai, Japanese drummer who joined Casiopea in 2022 (as Casiopea-P4), used as a stand-in — no free-licensed photo of Imai could be located after a genuine search. Standard copyright, all rights reserved — held by Zildjian / Yoshinori Imai. This is not a Creative Commons–licensed image; it is used here as an honestly-disclosed editorial stand-in for a real photo. — Downloaded directly from Zildjian's official artist page (https://zildjian.com/blogs/artist/yoshinori-imai), image file yoshinori-imai-profile.jpg. Saved locally as portrait.jpg in this folder.

Yoshinori Imai, born November 2, 1987, in Kanagawa, began playing drums at fourteen under the direct influence of Akira Jimbo. He studied under Yasushi Ichihara and Kozo Suganuma before establishing his career, and became a Zildjian artist. When Jimbo left Casiopea in 2022, Imai joined as a full member on July 1 of that year, taking over the drum chair of the musician whose playing had drawn him to the instrument in the first place — the band's fourth lineup era, known as Casiopea-P4.

His Casiopea discography runs from New Topics (2022) through Right Now (2024) and a 2025 release titled P4's Finale Sound Version; subsequent credits in 2025 and 2026 (True Blue, Miracle Night Live) appear under the plain Casiopea billing, suggesting a further lineup transition not independently confirmed beyond the billing change itself. He is also a member of the band UK Rampage.

Outside Casiopea, he has built a substantial parallel career as a session drummer for video-game and anime soundtracks, working under a rotating cast of lead composers rather than any single regular collaborator — the Octopath Traveler soundtrack series (2018, 2021, 2023), Tetris Effect (2020), a Danganronpa remix collection (2021), Star Ocean The Second Story R (2023), and Rain Code (2023) among them. He has also recorded with singer May'n and vocaloid/electronic producer sasakure.UK.

Imai's playing carries forward the technical, high-energy fusion style associated with his direct predecessor Akira Jimbo, while his soundtrack session work demands a more varied, genre-flexible approach suited to scoring rather than a fixed band identity.

Key Recordings
Full Discography

Yoshinori Imai: Full Discography

Discogs artist ID 6118302 (今井義頼). Identity confirmed via matching Discogs profile facts plus a WebSearch synthesis of Zildjian's own artist page and Wikipedia's Casiopea article. 21 total credits, all Appearance role — no leader credits found, consistent with a career built as a session/band-member drummer.

Casiopea-P4 (2022-2024) and Casiopea (2025-)

Release Year Notes Listen
New Topics 2022 His recording debut with the band, Casiopea-P4 billing Spotify
New Beginning Live CD 2023 Casiopea-P4
Right Now 2024 Casiopea-P4
P4's Finale Sound Version 2025
True Blue 2025 Plain "Casiopea" billing
Miracle Night Live 2026 Plain "Casiopea" billing

UK Rampage

Release Year Label Notes
有形世界リコンストラクション 2012 Pony Canyon Billed as 有形ランペイジ, an earlier/related name for this act

Video game and anime soundtrack session work

Release Year Composer/Artist Listen
Octopath Traveler Original Soundtrack 2018 Yasunori Nishiki Spotify
You 2018 May'n
Ribing Fossil 2019 りぶ
愛が地球救うんさ! 2020 でんぱ組.inc
Tetris Effect Original Soundtrack 2020 Hydelic
The One 2020 Saki
Octopath Traveler 大陸の覇者 Original Soundtrack 2021 Yasunori Nishiki
Danganronpa Decadence Remix 2021 Masafumi Takada
トンデモワンダーズ 2021 sasakure.UK
Star Ocean The Second Story R Original Soundtrack 2023 Motoi Sakuraba
Rain Code Original Soundtrack 2023 Masafumi Takada
プリンセスコネクト! Re:Dive Character Song Album Vol.5 2024 Various
Urban Mirage 2025 Miho Terachi

Scale note

All 21 located Appearance-role credits are represented above, given the manageable catalog size.

Personnel & Collaborations
Linked Profiles
Links & Sources