It was with surprise and grief that I heard the news that Seiki Kato, President of Korg had passed away on February 21, 2025. Here is the official statement from Korg.
We would like to express our deepest gratitude for the kindness shown to us during his lifetime and to inform you of his passing.
The deceased had long been dedicated to the development of our company, leading us with his outstanding leadership and warm personality.
He was born on March 28, 1957 as the eldest son of the late Tsutomu Kato, founder of KORG. After graduating from the Department of Marine Science and Technology at Tokai University, he joined Keio Giken Kogyo Co., Ltd. (now KORG Co., Ltd.) on January 7, 1980. He was in charge of sales in the domestic sales department, and in 1985, as the head of the product planning department, he was involved in the planning of many innovative products, including the “M1,” which was the pioneer of music workstations.
He began working at KORG USA Inc. in 1988, and was appointed president in October 1989. After working hard to expand sales in the American market, he became vice president of KORG Inc. in 1995, and was appointed president and CEO in October 2003, making significant contributions to the development of the music industry over the years.
The instruments made by the late Mr. Okumura have brought new possibilities for expression to artists around the world and have had a major impact on the history of music. Inheriting his passion and innovative spirit, we will continue to work hard to create attractive products.
We look forward to your continued support.
February 28, 2025 All Employees
of KORG Inc.
Korg
Let me share my personal memories of Seiki.
The photo above that was taken on December 9, 2024 only a few weeks before Seiki’s passing.
Seiki and his father Tsutomu Kato completely changed my life.
I first met Seiki when he was a young man of 28 years old and I was 33. It was on my first trip to the Korg office in Shimotakaido, Tokyo after I had gotten a job as a Korg USA product specialist in 1986.
I was the newest member of the Korg USA team that included Kim Holland, Jack Hoptop, Randy Whitney, and Charlie Bright. Jack had tasked me with working on the DS-8 four operator FM synth before the NAMM show in 1987 while he worked on disks for the Korg DSS-1 sampler.
At the 1987 NAMM show, several Japanese came up and watched me demoing the DS-8 for a few minutes. Then the eldest Japanese gentleman started speaking in Japanese while one of the younger ones translated for him. The first thing that Tsutomu Kato, chairman of Korg said to me (via his translator) was ” You remind of a fishmonger 鮮魚店【せんぎょてん】at Tskuji (the main fish market in Tokyo at the time)”. I wasn’t sure of that was a compliment, but Kato-Kaicho soon made it clear that it was.
A few month later, Korg Inc announced their ideas for an exchange plan between Korg USA and Korg Inc. The idea was that someone from Korg USA would go to Japan for three months, learn how things worked in Japan and then be replaced every three months by someone new from Korg USA.
The Korg USA development and sound design staff was pretty small and it soon became clear that neither Jack, Randy and Charlie were not really excited about suddenly having to move to Japan for three months. So I volunteered and in a few weeks was headed to Japan for what was supposed to be a three month “tour of duty”.
We were right in the middle of the development of the Korg M1 and I reported to two people- Seiki Kato who was the head of product planning and Kim Holland who was VP of marketing at Korg USA. I would work from 8:30 am until about 9 pm (a typical day for a Japanese salaryman in the mid 80s) and then call New York several times a week around 10 PM to give updates on the M1 development. After about 6 weeks in Japan, I started asking who was coming to replace me, but there was pretty much silence on the other end of the line. I was really enjoying living in Japan (even though I lived in the SkyCourt Shimotakaido, a business hotel with a room that was basically just big enough for the bed to sleep in). After it became clear that no one else from Korg USA wanted to live in Japan for three months, I volunteered for another three months.
I had been leaving in Japan for 5 month when Seiki Kato came to me and told me that he was moving to Korg USA and that he wanted me to take his place as head of product planning at Korg Inc. He asked me to discuss this plan with my wife and emphasized that I would need to stay in Japan for at least three years if I took that role.
I came back that next day and that is when Seiki announced a decision that really changed my life.
Seiki had always spoken to me in English because after only 5 month in Japan, my Japanese was not very good. After I had agreed to become a Korg Inc employee and stay in Japan for at least three years. Seiki said to me ” Good, this is the English you will hear at Korg Inc”. Seiki had prepared a memo that stated it was against Korg Inc corporate policy to speak English to me inside of Korg Inc. It was brilliant because Seiki understood that everyone at Korg Inc would use me as a free English teacher and that I would never become fluent in Japanese.
In the short space of about a year, I had gone from junior product specialist at Korg USA to the head of product planning at Korg Inc. I had gone to Japan intending to be there for three short months and ended up staying for 7 years.
I could not have done my job in Japan at all without the support of Itoh-san (and her husband Kosaka-san) , Suzuki-san, Nishida-san, Imaizumi-san and many, many others including 2025 MIDI Association Lifetime Achievement Award winner , Karl Hirano who (like me) worked for both Korg and Yamaha though in reverse order. Karl actually joke with me that he was traded from Yamaha to Korg for a player to be named later and that player was me!
When I saw Seiki and the Korg Inc team in December, we had a chance to share many stories and memories, but I had no idea it would be the last time I would see Seiki.
We have covered his father’s story in this article https://midi.org/tsutomu-katoh-and-korg.
Seiki (like his father) was a unique personality who will be much missed in the musical instrument industry.
Personally, I can only express my sadness with his passing and my sincere thanks to him, his father and all of the people at the Korg family for how they changed my life.