Born in Futako-Tamagawa, a Teenage Electone Champion Who Joined Casiopea Before It Had a Record Deal, and Later Wrote Hundreds of Train-Platform Melodies

Minoru Mukaiya was born in Tokyo on October 20, 1956, and grew up around Futako-Tamagawa in Setagaya. He started on organ and piano, reportedly began composing at six, and won a district Electone competition as a middle-schooler. After a year as a rōnin he enrolled at the Nemu Music Academy (now the Yamaha Music Academy) and, in 1977, while still a student, joined the amateur band Casiopea as keyboardist. The group's major-label debut, Casiopea, followed on May 25, 1979. He founded the company Ongakukan in the mid-1980s, released the solo album Welcome to The Minoru's Land in 1985, and in 1995 launched the Train Simulator series. That led to a second career: from the 2004 Kyushu Shinkansen opening onward he composed departure chimes for railways, and the English Wikipedia tallies around 200 melodies for more than 110 subway stations. Casiopea went on hiatus in 2006, and his departure was announced in 2012.