is a Japanese musical composer, guitarist and music producer under Sony Music Entertainment Japan. He is a member of the pop rock band Tube.
Biography As a child he was interested in learning piano, however later he was influenced by his father who owned an acoustic guitar. In middle school, he formed the school band Rainbow and was the lead guitarist. In high school he formed amateurs band; Backing M with each of the members coming from different school, Michiya’s role being as the guitarist. In 1984, Michiya took part in the music festival Silc Road held by music agency Being Inc, where he won an award for best guitarist. On the same festival was Nobuteru Maeda, who won the award for best vocalist. With Nobutoru and two more members, Ryoji Matsumoto and Hideyuki Kakuno, they had one year of activity in the amateur band "Pipeline".「BLUE MEMORIES TUBE」（1994）
All the members were gathered together and in 1985 made their major debut with the band Tube under Sony Music Entertainment Japan. As of 2023 Michiya is still an active member. Two years later in 1987, he started his solo career with the release of the instrumental album Drivin'.
In 1992, he started expanding his musical activities by composing and arranging for artists such as Twinzer, Mi-Ke and Zard. Between years 1996 and 1999, he would temporarily resume his solo career and started his producing records for the Japanese singer Kanae. During the same period, he and Nobutoru formed the production project; Pipeline Project, the name being taken from their amateur period time, where they would contribute compositions, lyrics and arrangements as a duo to various Japanese artists.
Michiya was given his own Signature Model Stratocaster from Fender in 2002.
In 2005, he was part of the guitarist session along with Takashi Masuzaki from the fusion band Dimension, and Yoshinobu Ohga from OOM and released together compilation album "Theatre Of Strings" produced and composed by japanese guitarist Tak Matsumoto from the rock band B'z.
Since 2012, the music agency Being has launched once-in-year event called Being Legend: Guitar summit, in which he performs on live venues with juniors such as Akihide from Breakerz, Hiroshi Shibazaki from Wands, Shinji Tagawa from Deen, Takashi Gomi from T-BOLAN and Takashi Masuzaki from Dimension.
His song "Jaguar '08" was named the 31st best guitar instrumental by Young Guitar Magazine in 2019.
In 2020, his instrumental album Continue received the award for Best Instrumental Album of the Year at the 34th Japan Gold Disc Award.
Signature guitars He is not only the first Japanese but the first Asian guitarist to be added to the Fender signature artist club. He is also one of few people to receive multiple Fender signature guitars, having three unique signature designs in the line:
The Michiya Haruhata Stratocaster (released in 2002)
The Michiya Haruhata BWL Stratocaster (released in 2005),
And the Michiya Haruhata III Stratocaster (released in 2022).
Usage in media His song "J'S Theme" became the official theme song of the J.League, Japan's professional football (soccer) league. In 1993 he performed for 60,000 spectators live at the J-league opening ceremony at the national stadium.
His single "Kingdom of the Heavens" was made to be the theme song of the New Japan Pro-Wrestling tournament.
Discography As of 2023, he has released 3 singles, 11 solo albums, 2 compilation albums, 1 EP and 3 digital releases.
Studio albums #Release dateTitlePeak position Code1st1987Drivin' -28DH6232nd1987Smile on Me -32DH52173rd1990Guitar Land23CSCL11084th1991Dream Box27CSCL16585th1992Moon27CSCL16586th1993Real Time35SRCL25657th1995Color of Life -SRCL29438th2000Red Bird42SRCL49249th2016Play the Life9AICL318710th2019Continue13AICL366210th2022Spring Has Come13AICL4233
Compilation albums #Release dateTitlePeak position Code1st2008Best Works 1987–2008: Route 6642AICL1987/82nd2012Find My Place27AICL2492
EP #Release dateTitleCode1st1993J's ThemeSRCL2748
Singles #Release dateTitlePeak position Code1st1992J's Theme36SRDL35632nd1992Best Day of Your Life87SRDL40693rd2013Jaguar'1330AICL2544
Digital release Release dateTitleChart1st2018Re-birth1 (Recochoku)Rock Chart Recochoku）2nd2019Kingdom of the Heavens -
References
External links Official website (powered by Sony Music JP)
Michiya Haruhata – Kingdom of the Heavens interview