JMT Web News

Japan Musical Instruments Association (JMIA)Be kicked off a new project, 2021 Best Music Products and Players, and held award presentation ceremony on Nov. 24 at Yamaha Ginza Store Studio inviting industry press members.

Music store sales staff took initiative of advocating pleasure of music making and increase music players for the first in music products industry history this year. They joined forces from different parts of Japan to set up a working group for the project past spring and set Best Music Products and Players Awards selected by music store sales staff and voted by general music fun. A total of 490 music store sales staff participated in the project and selected the best products and best players during the month from the end of August to September, and 12,958 general music fans voted from the end of September through October.

The Best Music Products awards were set for 4 categories of pianos (including grand and upright pianos, digital pianos, and portable keyboards), guitars (including electric and acoustic guitars, and classical guitars), saxophones and the topic instrument of the year. The Best Players Awards were set for the fastest growing players of piano, guitar, and saxophone. In addition, a Special Award was set for the most dedicated person to demonstrate fun of music making.
The winners received a plaque presented by Takuya Nakata, president of JMIA at the ceremony.

Toshiaki Hirose, project leader and president of Shimamura Music, said, “We are very excited that music stores and their sales staff throughout Japan took part and we, retail members took the leadership. Improving and continuing this project in the coming years, we hope the awards to be established as a prominent goal for music products manufacturers and players.”

JMIA now lists awarded products and players and their pop materials on its website (https://www.zengakkyo.com) to be used free for the members toward the coming business season.

Images:
2021 The Best Products
Grand piano: Yamaha C3X espressivo
Upright piano: Kawai K-400
Digital piano: Kawai CA49
Portable keyboard: Casio CT-S1
Acoustic guitar: C. F. Martin D-28 Standard
Electric guitar: Yamaha PACIFICA 612
Classical guitar: Yamaha CG-TA
Saxophone: Yamaha YAS-62
The most popular instrument: ONETONE OTKL kalimba

2021The Best Players
Hayato Sumino (piano, “Cateen”)
Yucco Miller (saxophone)
Koujun (guitar)
Ryusuke Ohishi (Arabian tambourine, Special Best Player)