Editing Music of Japan (section)

=== Game music ===
{{See also|Video game music|Chiptune|Bitpop|Nintendocore}}
[[File:Nobuo Uematsu.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Nobuo Uematsu]], composer for the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' game series]]
When the first [[electronic games]] were sold, they had rudimentary [[Chip music|sound chips]] with which to produce music. As the technology advanced, quality increased dramatically. The first game to take credit for its music was ''[[Xevious]]'', also noteworthy (at that time) for its deeply constructed stories. One of the most important games in the history of the video game music is ''[[Dragon Quest]]''. [[Koichi Sugiyama]], who composed for various anime and TV shows, including ''[[Cyborg 009]]'' and a feature film of ''[[Godzilla vs. Biollante]]'', got involved in the project out of curiosity and proved that games can have serious soundtracks. Until his involvement, music and sounds were often neglected in the development of video games and programmers with little musical knowledge were forced to write the soundtracks as well. Undaunted by technological limits, Sugiyama worked with only 8-part polyphony to create a soundtrack that would not tire the player despite hours of gameplay.

A well-known author of game music is [[Nobuo Uematsu]]. Uematsu's earlier compositions for the game series, ''[[Final Fantasy]]'', on [[Nintendo Entertainment System|Famicom]] (Nintendo Entertainment System in America), were arranged for full orchestral score. In 2003, he took his rock-based tunes from their original MIDI format and created [[the Black Mages]].  [[Yasunori Mitsuda]] is the composer of music for such games as ''[[Xenogears]]'', ''[[Xenosaga Episode I]]'', ''[[Chrono Cross]]'', and ''[[Chrono Trigger]]''. [[Koji Kondo]], the sound manager for [[Nintendo]], wrote themes for ''[[The Legend of Zelda|Zelda]]'' and ''[[Mario (franchise)|Mario]]''. [[Jun Senoue]] composed for ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]''. He also is the main guitarist of [[Crush 40]], which is known for creating the theme songs to ''[[Sonic Adventure]]'', ''[[Sonic Adventure 2]]'', ''[[Sonic Heroes]]'', ''[[Shadow the Hedgehog (video game)|Shadow the Hedgehog]]'', and ''[[Sonic and the Black Knight]]'', as well as other ''Sonic'' games. [[Motoi Sakuraba]] composed the ''[[Tales (video game series)|Tales]]'', ''[[Dark Souls]]'', ''[[Eternal Sonata]]'', ''[[Star Ocean]]'', ''[[Valkyrie Profile]]'', ''[[Golden Sun]]'', and the ''[[Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean|Baten Kaitos]]'' games, as well as numerous [[Mario sports games]]. [[Yuzo Koshiro]] composed electronic music-influenced soundtracks for games such as ''[[The Revenge of Shinobi (1989 video game)|Revenge of Shinobi]]'' and the ''[[Streets of Rage]]'' series.

Pop singers such as [[Hikaru Utada]], [[Nana Mizuki]] and [[BoA]] sometimes sing for games.