Fun Friday 30: Interview with Timothy Reid
Learn Japanese Pod
Alex Brooke
4.8 • 917 Ratings
🗓️ 28 June 2025
⏱️ 82 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Podcast Guest: Timothy Reid – From English Teacher to Award-Winning Musician and Game Industry Pro in Japan
This week on the podcast, I’m thrilled to welcome Timothy Reid, a multi-talented artist and creator whose journey to success in Japan is nothing short of inspiring.
Originally from North Yorkshire in the UK, Timothy moved to Japan in 2011 after graduating from the University of Leeds. Like many foreigners, he started out teaching English just to get by — but everything changed in 2014 when he won a national guitar contest. That moment launched him straight into the Japanese music industry.
Since then, he’s done it all: from touring and recording as a professional guitarist, to demoing gear in-store, teaching at music schools, and more recently, breaking into Japan’s video game industry, contributing to both big-name AAA titles and indie games.
In this episode, we talk about learning Japanese, breaking into the music and gaming industries, and what it really takes to build a life and career in Japan. If you’re interested in living in Japan, pursuing a creative career here, or just want to hear an honest, fascinating story about surviving and thriving abroad, you won’t want to miss this conversation.
If you’ve ever dreamed of building a successful creative career in Japan, this is an unmissable episode packed with insight, inspiration, and hard-won lessons.
Click on the links below for Timothy’s home page and social media account:
For more Japanese language learning podcasts and interviews with people doing cool stuff in Japan, visit: Learn Japanese Pod
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone and welcome to Learn Japanese Pod. You are listening to the Fun Friday edition, |
| 0:11.3 | where we temporarily put away our Japanese textbooks and talk to cool people doing cool things in Japan. |
| 0:19.3 | And this week's guest is no exception. I am super excited to |
| 0:23.9 | welcome Timothy Reed to the show. Originally from North Yorkshire in the UK, Timothy is an award |
| 0:31.3 | winning musician who moved to Japan back in 2011 after graduating from the University of Leeds. |
| 0:37.6 | And he started out like many foreigners, teaching English to get by. |
| 0:42.8 | But everything changed in 2014 when he won a national guitar contest, which is pretty impressive. |
| 0:49.5 | And that moment really launched him headfirst into the Japanese music scene. |
| 0:55.4 | Since then, he's worn many hats from studio musician to touring artist, install guitar demonstrator, |
| 1:04.3 | teaching at various schools, and more recently, Timothy's been diving into the video game industry, working on a big mix of big title games and indie games. |
| 1:16.0 | And it's been quite the journey for him. |
| 1:18.7 | And I'm sure anyone interested in what it takes to succeed in the music industry in Japan and basically making a life in Japan, I'm sure you're going to |
| 1:30.2 | enjoy this story. So, Timothy, welcome to the show. |
| 1:34.6 | Hi, Alex. Thanks for having me. |
| 1:36.7 | It's great to have you on the show. It's been absolutely ages since I saw you in person, |
| 1:43.4 | so it's really nice to hook up again and say hello. |
| 1:46.3 | How have you been recently? |
| 1:47.9 | Yeah, it's great to hear from you. |
| 1:49.4 | I'm doing good, thanks. |
| 1:50.6 | As you mentioned in my fantastic introduction, thanks very much. |
| 1:54.2 | I really appreciate that. |
| 1:56.3 | Yeah, it's been busy, as it always is. |
... |
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