Born in Koriyama, Japan, in 1929, he is a self-taught composer. He first became interested in music while a pre-medical student at Keio University in Tokyo. In 1952, having met Toru Takemitsu and the musicologist Kuniharu Akiyama, he turned to music full-time and joined a young artists’ group, the Experimental Workshop. Since then, he has been actively engaged in a wide range of musical composition, including orchestral, choral and chamber music, incidental music for the theatre and intermedia, electronic and computer music.
Joji Yuasa has received a number of scholarships including those from the Japan Society Fellowship (1968–69), the Berlin Artist Prog-ramme daad (1976–77), the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music in Sydney (1980), the University of Toronto (1981) and ircam (1987). He worked as composer-in-residence at the Center for Music Experiment ucsd (1976). He has won commissions from such institutions as the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, Saarland Radio Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, nhk Symphony Orchestra, Canada Council, Suntory Music Foundation, ircam and the National Endowment for the Arts of the United States.
As a guest composer and lecturer, he has contributed to the Festival of the Arts of This Century in Hawaii (1970), New Music Concerts in Toronto (1980), the Asian Composers League in Hong Kong (1981),
a concert tour for Contemporary Music Network by British Arts Council (1981), the Asia Pacific Festival in New Zealand (1984), the Composers’ Workshop in Amsterdam (1984, 1987), the Darmstadt Summer Courses (1988), Lerchenborg Musikdage (1986, 1988), Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo (1990), and Music of Japan Today: Tradition and Innovation (Hamilton College, ny – 1992).
From 1981 to 1994 Yuasa was actively engaged in music research and education at the University of California, San Diego (currently a professor emeritus). He has also been a guest professor at Tokyo College of Music since 1981 and a professor for the postgraduate course of the College of Arts at Nihon University since 1993.
His works, including film and television scores, have won numerous prizes including the Special Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival (1061), the Prix Italia (1966, 1967), the San Marco Golden Lion (1967), the Otaka Prize (for Chronoplastic for orchestra, 1973, Revealed Time for viola and orchestra, 1988, and for Violin Concerto, 1996), the Grand Prix of the Japan Arts Festival (for Chronoplastic for orchestra, 1973 and A Perspective for orchestra 1983), the Hida-Furukawa Music Award Grand Prix and the Kyoto Music Award Grand Prix (for Piano Concertino, 1994), the Suntory Music Prize (1996) and the Japan Arts Academy Award (1999).

Selected works (since 1970): Projection for string quartet (1970), Chronoplastic for orchestra (1972), Performing Poem ‘Calling Together’ for solo voice (1973), Projection on Basho’s Haiku for mixed choir and vibraphones (1974), Not I, but the wind for alto saxophone (1976), Mai-Bataraki from Ritual for Delphi for shakuhachi and percussion (1979), Projection Onomatopoetic for mixed choir (1979), Requiem for orchestra (1980), Clarinet Solitude for solo clarinet (1980), Scenes from Basho for orchestra (1980), Ishibutai Ko for ryuteki, shakuhachi, koto and small ensemble (1981), A Perspective for orchestra (1983), Towards ‘The Midnight Sun’ for tape (1984), Cosmos Haptic II for piano (1986), Revealed Time for viola and orchestra (1986), Nine Levels by Ze-Ami for small ensemble and computer (1988), To the Genesis for shô solo (1988), Scenes from Basho II for orchestra (1989), Hommage ą Sibelius for orchestra (1991), Piano Concertino for piano and chamber orchestra (1994), Responsorium for orchestra (1995), Viola Locus for solo viola (1995), Projection II for string quartet (1996), Violin Concerto (1996), Cosmic Solitude for baritone, mixed choir and orchestra (1997), Solitude in Memoriam T.T. for violin, cello and piano (1997), Cosmos Haptic IV for cello and piano (1997), In Memory of Toru Takemitsu for violin and orchestra (1997).