Here's a HUGE multipage article featuring round-table discussion with many prominent Japanese composers, that was hosted by Noisycroak in June '09.

http://www.noisycroak.co.jp/gmcm/jp/

Attending were Hidenori Shoji, Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, Nobuyoshi Sano, Shinji Hosoe, Masato Koda, Yasunori Mitsuda, Takayuki Nakamura, Keisuki Itou, etc..

It'd be a pretty huge job to translate the whole thing, but maybe someone can read and see if there's any highlights or interesting tidbits to share with us.

(did Takayuki Nakamura end up with the little golden cup statue for "MVC" Most Valuable Composer on the 3rd page?)

Here's a generalized sense of the topics, cobbled from the garbage that Google Translate spits out:

Topic 1: Deadlines, Delivery of the songs
Topic 2: Melody/Rhythms, keyboard as the main interface
Topic 3: Motivations while writing a song, Go take a Bath
Topic 4: Sickness affecting your work
Topic 5: The whole game, music saving
Topic 6: Budget Gaps, eastern compared to western
Topic 7: Troubling issues like money or promotions
Topic 8: Watching Movies
Topic 9: Dead projects
Topic 10: Good Feelings, Negative Feelings
Topic 11: Wonderful Gifts
Topic 12: 100 Million
Topic 13: Women, Huge Knockers
Topic 14: Nudity
Topic 15: Flat-rate Benefits
Topic 16: Entertainers
Topic 17: Beards and Style
Topic 18: Industry Conditions, Knowledge of Law, Freelance Suffering
Topic 19: Taxi Fare
Topic 20: Closing, MVC Trophy Awarded

Ooh, nice assortment of composers. I want a translation of the beard discussion. :P

God bless you, Google Translate.

OSV has an English transcript in the works.  Taking awhile, but it'll be ready soon.

Chris Ling has completed the English Transcript of this event, and it's now posted up at OSV!!

http://www.originalsoundversion.com/?p=4061

This is very informative and very funny as well, so MEGA THANKS to Chris Ling for his time and effort put into making the English Transcript available to us.