Warner Music Japan names Eitaro Shibasaki chief business officer

Warner Music Japan has appointed Eitaro Shibasaki as executive vice-president and chief business officer.

He starts on 1 October and will be based in Tokyo. He will join the company board and report to Takeshi Okada, president and chief executive officer.

The appointment was announced on 11 September in a statement datelined Tokyo, as reported by Music Business Worldwide.

Shibasaki will lead business development and commercial operations. That is the deal-making and sales side of the business. His brief covers company strategy, relationships with outside partners, market share and revenue growth.

Okada took charge of Warner Music Japan himself relatively recently. He was appointed president and chief executive in October 2024 and took up the post that December. Fellow board director Franck Pidou also serves as Warner Music's regional chief financial officer for Asia-Pacific.

Shibasaki arrives with a background in digital music services rather than records. He joined Label Mobile Inc. in May 2008. The company was renamed RecoChoku Co., Ltd. the following year.

From 2015 he served at RecoChoku as executive officer, head of marketing and head of platform business. RecoChoku runs music download and streaming services in Japan.

What makes this stand out is his work with unsigned acts. Shibasaki co-founded the Eggs Project with NTT DOCOMO, Inc. and Tower Records Japan Inc. to support independent artists. RecoChoku and Tower Records then set up Eggs Co., Ltd. in December 2019, with Shibasaki as its president.

Japan matters a great deal to the global record business. Warner Music Group describes it as the world's second largest recorded music market, according to Warner Music Group.

For fans, this is backstage change rather than front-stage news. No new signings or releases were announced with the hire. The job is about how music reaches listeners, and who the label works with to get it there.