Yoshi Terashima

Yoshi Terashima (Yoshikazu Terashima) born November 15, 1957, is a Japanese record producer and a leading music industry executive who has spent many years working outside of Japan, mainly in New York and London.

Terashima joined a music company in Tokyo then moved to London in 1986 where he began to manage Melon, signed to Epic UK. In 1988 he established a Tokyo / London based dance label, Major Force and also started Respect Productions Ltd where he managed Gota Yashiki who worked with Soul II Soul, Seal, Tom Jones and Simply Red etc. In the late 80’s to early 90’s, Terashima was known as a heavy user of commercials studios in London which led to the decision to invest in his own private recording studios called Westpoint Studios, used by leading record producers and artists such as Dave Stewart, The Divine Comedy, Spiritualized, Simply Red, Jeff Beck, Tom Jones, Primal Scream and for projects such as the soundtrack of the movie, Romeo and Juliet. He has produced 4 tracks which reached No.1 in the US radio chart and one track was also awarded the best song in the R&R chart in 1998.

Due to family reasons, he returned to Tokyo in January 2001 and began working for BMG Japan as the head of international division. In October 2001 he became the director of the company where he was responsible for breaking new artists such as Dido, Avril Lavigne, Alicia Keys, Maroon 5, Kelly Clarkson and Kasabian. Terashima was under contract to become the President of BMG Japan, however due to changes of reporting structure of the company from New York to Hong Kong, he left the company in July 2006 after serving as Executive Vice President.

In 2007 he became the chairman and consultant for an independent music group called Growing Up Inc, home to the biggest Japanese indie artist, Ellegarden, who are released by Nettwerk Music Group in the US.