Mitsuharu Fukuyama is a composer and trumpet (flugelhorn & cornett) / melodica player at SEGA. He learned piano as a child and played trumpet in junior high school. He played in a brass band at Akita Prefectural Yuzawa High School and fell in love with jazz at the Tokyo University of Science.

Fukuyama joined SEGA's SOFTWARE R&D DEPT. 3 in 1999 (renamed Hitmaker a year later), making his debut with the CRACKIN'DJ series. This was followed by various arcade games, most notably the DERBY OWNERS CLUB series and TOUCH de ZUNO. He became a recurring guest contributor for the Yakuza / Like a Dragon series, eventually transferring to the console-focused departments where the series was made, resulting in him directing the soundtracks for Yakuza: Dead Souls, BINARY DOMAIN and Yakuza 5, as well as becoming a recurring composer for Phantasy Star Online 2 and the Mario & Sonic series.

Fukuyama's influences in jazz, pop and classical music are extensive. As listed in 2001, in the order in which they influenced him, these include Claude Debussy, Hiro (possibly his co-worker Hiroshi "Hiro" Kawaguchi, whose work on Out Run was influential on Fukuyama), Koichi Sugiyama, Misato Watanabe, TM NETWORK, THE-SQUARE, Alfred Reed, Yumi Tanimura, the brand new heavies, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, SMAP, Michael Brecker and Woody Shaw.