Shimbun

The Japanese pianist, Yukio Yokoyama, took up the piano in early childhood, showing an early talent for the instrument and for composition. He played already as a child pieces of his own composition and performed with orchestras both in Japan and abroad. He was introduced to Herbert von Karajan and Mstislav Rostropovich at a young age, who announced that the child should dedicate himself to music. At the age of 12 he started studying piano under Jun Date and composition under Masayuki Nagatomi. In 1984, he won the first prize in the piano division of the All Japan Student Music Concours sponsored by the newspaper Mainichi Shimbun. He entered the high school associated to the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music in 1986, and in the following year went to study at Conservatoire national superieur de musique de Paris with a scholarship from the French Government. There, he studied under Jacques Rouvier, Vlado Perlemuter and others. In 1989 he won prizes at the Busconi International Concours and the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibeaud Concours. In 1990 he graduated from the Paris Conservatoire with grants of Premiere Prix in piano and chamber music. The same year, at the age of 19, he realized the impressive achievement of becoming the youngest-ever Japanese entrant to become the second finalist in the Chopin International Piano Competition, and winning 3rd prize (no first prize was allocated this year) from the Chopin International Piano Competition and also the Sonata prize.

Japan’s Backroom Politics is the translation of a classic study of the rough and tumble of Japanese politics and conservative party factions in the first two decades of postwar Japan.

Born in Tokyo, she received her musical education under the tutelage of Billy Eidi, ultimately graduating from the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo and the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Paris. She has accrued numerous accolades both domestically and internationally, including first prize at the All Japan Piano Audition, the Claude Kahn Competition in France, and the Osaka International Music Competition.