Toshio Kai (#844)

[RBM95]

I think the picture is erroneous, because that person is actually Toshio Furukawa (http://vgmdb.net/artist/5694) and I don't think he has anything to do with Pac-Man music (not to mention Toshio Kai may be the most obscure composer to exist, whithout doing anything in more than 35 years).

[CHz]

Correct, good catch.

[Doommaster1994]

I was told by Fukashi Ohmorita that Toshio Kai, while he was the composer of Pac-Man, was actually a graphic artist. Not sure what other stuff he worked on at Namco though.

[RBM95]

Recently Bandai Namco published a series of interviews with Pac-Man's original development team, and among them is Toshio Kai himself (including some photos).

Here's a blurb about him:

Toshio Kai

Sound Design (Game start music, coffee break cutscene music)

Mr. Kai joined the Nakamura Manufacturing Company in 1970. He worked not only on 30test and other arcade machines, but also produced music for Galaxian and PAC-MAN. Additionally, he worked on developing names for game titles until the mid-80s as well as designing the NAMCO logo.

[CHz]

Kai composing for Galaxian seems like an interesting new revelation. I've only seen Shigeichi Ishimura attached to it before