Muneo Wakamatsu, Representative Director, S-Pro Entertainment Co., Ltd.

2026.05.14

Trusting your own instincts will pave the way for your future.

■ Profile
Born in 1940 (Showa 15). Music producer. While working at CBS/Sony, he discovered Seiko Matsuda from a single cassette tape. He produced all of her singles and albums until the late 1980s. After serving as president and chairman of Sony Music Artists, he is the representative of S-Pro Records. "The Birth of Seiko Matsuda" is his first book.

"You can tell if a song will sell after hearing just a few bars." These are the words of a music producer who has created numerous hits. Starting his career in sales for a tourism company, he trusted his intuition and jumped into the music industry, discovering many artists. At the heart of it all was the power to confront himself and believe in himself. This article will unravel his journey.

I've always loved music. Even as a university student, I had an intuitive sense of what would sell and what wouldn't. For example, my older brother was a composer, so I would occasionally evaluate his songs. However, my brother would tell me, "There's no way a student could know that." Even so, I remember being surprised when my brother took a song to a famous producer at the time, who gave him the same evaluation as me. That said, I wasn't particularly interested in the music industry at the time. So, after graduating from university, I got a job at a travel company through a senior's introduction. My sales performance was recognized, and I was promoted to site manager after only six months. After about three years, I was transferred to the Tokyo headquarters, where a turning point occurred. At that time, I learned that Sony was just starting up its record label, and my interest in the music industry grew. I failed the first recruitment exam, but I joined another agency to learn management and publicity. Later, I learned that Sony Records was recruiting again, and after many twists and turns, I was finally able to join the company.

■A career that began in sales

After joining Sony Records, I worked as a record salesman in Osaka. There, I achieved the top sales performance nationwide, which became a hot topic within the company. My achievements were recognized, and after just a year and a half, I was promoted to manager of the Hiroshima sales office. The Hiroshima sales office initially performed poorly, but I was able to turn it into the top sales office in the country. After that, I became the manager of the Tokyo First Sales Office, the largest in the country, and then expanded my work to include talent contracts and promotional activities. Furthermore, one day I was suddenly promoted to producer leader. Normally, the position of producer is a highly competitive one, with only those who apply being selected, so being promoted without experience was unusual. Much of the work relied on intuition, and I spent my days learning by trial and error. However, there were difficult times when I didn't get along well with my superiors. At that time, I had a strong sense of crisis that I might be crushed. So, I went directly to the president, prepared to be demoted. As a result, a new department was created, and I became its head.

■Meeting Seiko Matsuda and the path to her debut

Fortunately, around the time our department's sales were on the rise, Sony Records and Seventeen magazine held a joint audition. Thousands of people applied from all over the country, and winners were selected in various locations, but even after watching the final round, I wasn't particularly interested. So, I thought there might be potential among the applicants who didn't participate, and I went to the relevant office and listened to every cassette tape I could find. I felt that I could sense a person's energy by listening to just three or four bars of their singing. What I valued was not their singing ability, but the qualities that lay beneath it. And among them, I encountered someone with a particularly strong voice that left a lasting impression on me.
At that point, I stopped listening to the other tapes and checked with the audition staff, and found out that she was the winner of the Kyushu regional competition but had not participated in the finals due to her parents' opposition. That person was none other than the future Seiko Matsuda. I immediately called her home, but her father was against her entering the entertainment industry. However, she had a strong will, so I made an opportunity to talk to him directly, and in the end, she was able to persuade her father through her feelings, and he said, "I'm entrusting her to you, so please take responsibility for her." However, the road to her debut was not easy. It was difficult to find people who supported her. At this time, I faced the reality that understanding music and being able to recognize the qualities that will make her a success are two different things. Nevertheless, I continued to persuade them persistently, and finally, one agency agreed to take her in.
Furthermore, since she was still in high school, she also faced the challenge of transferring schools. I remember vividly the scene of her crying in a coffee shop in the Shinjuku underground a few days later, when she said goodbye to her father after traveling to Tokyo on a torrential downpour on July 2nd for his business trip. Her father suggested they go back to Kyushu, but she ultimately decided to stay in Tokyo, and I accompanied her to her subsequent high school interviews. Initially, those around her were skeptical about her success. Nevertheless, I was certain she would become successful. At the same time, I was prepared to quit if she didn't see results in three years, and I conveyed this to her. I believe this determination is what ultimately led to her success. This same intuition was also crucial in my subsequent production work with artists like PUFFY.

■Music we want to continue to expand

Currently, while running the Hakone Uenoyu inn in Hakone, he is also working to popularize the song "HAKONE Ekiden Anthem - The Sash of Youth." This song was created based on a poem written by a poet living in Gora, and was completed with the cooperation of the Hakone Tourism Association and the Board of Education. Although it is a very good piece of work, it is difficult to widely distribute it as a CD due to trademark registration issues and other reasons. Therefore, he continues his efforts to spread the song by having many people sing it in various places. His thinking is that if it is difficult to spread it from the top, then it must spread from the bottom. This song is not only about the Hakone Ekiden, but also symbolizes the way of life of students and the younger generation, and he believes that by delivering it as a song rather than through logic, it will reach the hearts of many people. And he hopes that this song will become something that encourages people.

■Message to students

I believe it's important to ask yourself what you truly want to do, what your strengths are, and what your weaknesses are. People tend to deny their weaknesses, but it is precisely because of weaknesses that strengths can flourish. The important thing is to acknowledge those weaknesses. Comparing yourself to others can cause you to lose sight of your own core values. In today's information-saturated world, it's especially important not to be swayed by those around you, but to recognize your own strengths and face them honestly. By cherishing this and moving forward, you can get closer to what you want to do and your goals.

Student Newspaper Online, February 14, 2026, Interview with Sakura Yamashita, 3rd year student at Tsuda University