Ongakukan


Ongakukan Co., Ltd. is a Japanese company whose main business is music production and the planning, development, and production of commercial simulators. Its head office is located in Saiwai-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture.
WWW ongakukan.co.jp𝕏 Ongakukan_info

Overview

Minoru Mukaiya, keyboardist of the fusion band Casiopea, founded the company in 1985 as a company that rented out recording equipment to professional recording studios. In 1993, they produced the CD-ROM software "Touch the Music by Casiopea", which combined video and music, and then moved into the computer software field. In August 1995, they released the game software[Train Simulator (Ongakukan)|Train Simulator (Ongakukan)|Train Simulator] for personal computers, which was based on Mukaiya's childhood dream of driving a train, and this became the core of their business. The series has a total of 31 titles, including PC and home console versions.
From October 1, 2005, they took over the operation of the railway fan site "Railfan" from Tokyu Corporation.
Train Simulator is not limited to the field of consumer games, and in 2006 they started producing commercial simulators. They received an order from Tokyu Corporation and Tokyu Technosystem to develop a simulator to be used in actual crew training. The simulator can also simulate emergencies, such as a person jumping onto the tracks in the event of a fatal accident.
In the same year they moved to the PlayStation 3 platform and released the video game Railfan. The name was taken from the company's website "Railfan", and the title was changed from the previous Train Simulator, but the series ended with two titles, including Railfan Taiwan High Speed Rail released in 2007. After that, the company shifted to producing commercial simulators for railway companies and museums.
In 2007 they produced a simulator for the Japanese National Railways D51 steam locomotive for the Railway Museum. It took about three years to develop this world's first full-scale steam locomotive simulator. It also reproduces the shaking caused by the shaking device, and in addition to driving by a locomotive driver, you can also experience coal being thrown and water being fed by a fireman or an assistant engineer.
Since then they have supplied simulators for display at the Train and Bus Museum, the Railway Museum, the Railway Museum, Kidzania Koshien, Tobu Museum, Kyushu Railway Memorial Museum, Kuzuha Mall SANZEN-HIROBA, Misaki Park Wakuwaku Train Land, and East Japan Railway Company E5 Series Shinkansen simulators, and have also developed simulators for the Malaysian Railway Company and Kyushu Railway Company for crew training.
After leaving Casiopea in 2012, Mukaiya became the head of Ongakukan.
On January 21, 2013, the company moved its headquarters from Kamiuma, Setagaya, Tokyo, to Higashi-Gotanda, Shinagawa.
In 2016 the company came up with the idea of a lightweight platform door, with movable parts made of pipes and staggered doors when stored to make the door pocket more compact. It was put to practical use through joint development with Nippon Signal.
In 2017 the company moved its headquarters to the TOC Building in Nishi-Gotanda, Shinagawa Ward.
In November 2017 a lightweight platform door was trial-installed at Kyudai-Gakkentoshi Station on the Chikuhi Line of Kyushu Railway Company.
In September 2022 the company announced the release of JR East Train Simulator, a consumer version of the JR East commercial simulator. For the time being, it is scheduled to be distributed only on the Steam distribution service, and the target hardware will be PC only. In the early access version, users can experience the Keihin Tohoku Line and Hachiko Line.
On March 20, 2023, the company moved its headquarters to Saiwai-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture.

Works

Games

Peripherals

  • USB serial conversion cable

Music CD

  • Keihan Railway Departure Melody Collection
  • Umisachi/Yamasachi BGM Collection
  • Sakura – Kyushu Shinkansen Full Line Opening Commemorative BGM
  • Unofficial Departure Melody Tokyu Line Edition
  • Miracle of Mukaiya Club
  • Let's Go on the A-Train
  • Niconico Live Recording 2013
  • Keihan Railway Departure Melody COLLECTION 2013
  • Tokyo Metro Tozai Line Departure Melody Collection

Commercial simulator