Sadao Yokota, president of Dynasty Japan Corporation since 1983, and the founder of Marching in Okayama, one of Japan’s major long-running drum corps contests. is generally considered the “Godfather of Drum Corps” in that country. Since the early 1980s, he has worked tirelessly to stimulate interest to help create a drum and bugle corps culture in Japan by organizing clinics featuring well-known North American drum corps experts. He has been president of the International Marching Institute since 1994 and was general coordinator of the Marching Okayama Drum and Bugle Corps Championship from 1993 to 2014. He served as judge administrator for the Okayama Top State Drum and Bugle Corps Championship for more than 10 years. For the Marching in Okinawa Marching Contest, he has judged general effect music and general effect visual captions while also serving as judge administrator. He also served as contest advisor and took responsibility for activity management and the adjudication system for Drum Corps Japan Association. Noting the entertainment value of the Disney World Future Corps, a small unit with music and visual impact, he organized a visit by Japanese marching instructors and band directors to Disney World. He then helped arrange financing along with the City of Okayama and Disney World Enterprises for a 1997 visit to Japan by Future Corps, the group’s first overseas tour, that has inspired Japanese units to create more entertaining shows with high general effect. He was named a Disney Future Corps honorary member in 1997. In 1983 he began organizing Drum Corps International (DCI) observation tours to the United States for Japanese drum corps instructors and administrators, providing brass, percussion, visual and guard clinics as well as exposure to American drum corps in rehearsals. At the same time, he facilitated drum corps tours across the Pacific Ocean in the other direction, arranging tours to Japan by such American drum corps as Concord Blue Devils, who have made three visits, Disney Future Corps, Primary Colors, Micro Magic of Orlando. This exposure to top American drum corps entertainment expanded the popularity of the activity across the entire country among both fans and performers, and provided superior educational opportunities for Japanese drum corps members and staff. To establish the importance of color guard visual pageantry in Japan, Sadao Yokota introduced Winter Guard International (WGI) activity to the country by inviting five-year consecutive WGI champion San Jose Raiders to Japan in 1992. In 2010 he coordinated the initial visits to China of the Yokohama Scouts Junior Drum and Bugle Corps and AIMACHI at the Shanghai World Expo, at the International Shanghai Spring Music Festival. He introduced contemporary drum corps in Shanghai and promoted corps style marching to school bands. Chinese band instrument manufacturers have since shown increasing interest in drum corps activities.
