Yumi Arai

Asahi Shimbun, Public Domain, https://www.asahi.com/articles/photo/AS20221115001686.html

Japanese Singer & Songwriter · Born 1954 · Pop ·  Jazz · Fusion

Fast Facts

• Yumi Arai is a singer-songwriter from Tokyo, Japan.
• After getting married, Arai changed her name to Matsutoya and is recognizable by both surnames.
• Her fans affectionately refer to her as Yuming.
• Matsutoya has had 21 number-one albums on the Japanese Oricon charts across six decades (MSN, 2009).
• In 2022, Matsutoya released “Call me back”, a single featuring a duet with herself using an AI that could recreate her younger voice (Spice, 2022).
• Under the name Karuho Kureda, Matsutoya has written songs for popular Japanese idols including Seiko Matsuda and Hiroko Yakushimaru.
• Matsutoya writes most of her music herself and she has gone on to influence much of current J-Pop and its subgenres.