is a Japanese musician, songwriter and producer who is known for his compositional work and skill at the keyboards. Early life and career Asakura's childhood consisted of piano and electronic organ lessons, though he was expected to follow the family trade of plumbing. He started working with Yamaha keyboards and synthesizers in his early teens. Asakura began his career with a job at Yamaha right after finishing high school. While at Yamaha, Asakura worked on the EOS synthesiser, and was also featured in the instructional video for the SY77. His talent was discovered by Tetsuya Komuro of TM Network and Asakura was pulled from Yamaha to work under Komuro as his protégé. Subsequently, Asakura played the bass synthesizer during TM Network's 1990–91 Rhythm Red tour. In 1992, Asakura met the vocalist Hiroyuki Takami and featured him in some of his solo work. The two eventually formed Access (or "AXS") in 1992, after Asakura broke away from TM Network. He and Takami went on to achieve great success before splitting up in 1995. The breakup of Access left Asakura open to pursue different projects that included composing and producing songs for new artists; one of the most successful acts he created was J-pop idol Takanori Nishikawa under the title of T.M.Revolution (also known as "TMR"). In the middle of 1996, Asakura started a three-man unit titled Iceman which brought Kenichi Ito (guitar) and Michihiro Kuroda (vocals) to the spotlight. After a few years, Iceman ended activity. Other projects During and after his years with Iceman Asakura built his wealth and reputation as a composer taking after his idol and teacher, Tetsuya Komuro. He produced singles and albums for various J-Pop vocalists. He was also the featured music composer for the anime series Gravitation. Examples of Asakura's past projects includes vocalists such as Yosuke Sakanoue, Kinya Kotani, Daichi Kuroda, Akiko Hinagata, Yuki Kimura, FayRay, Takashi Fujii and groups such as, Onapetz, Pool Bit Boys, Lazy Knack, Run&Gun and The Seeker. He also composed songs for artists such as the visual kei rock band Shazna. In 1999, Asakura and Takanori Nishikawa formed their own official two-man unit, The End of Genesis T.M.R. evolution Turbo Type D (or "TMR-e", for short). They produced three singles and one album together, with Asakura performing alongside Nishikawa and appearing in their music videos. The project was officially ended in April 2000 when Nishikawa reverted to his original