Located on a hillside suburb northeast of Hiroshima, Japan, this public Junior High was established in 1977 to serve more than 700 students. Founding principal, the late Sinichi Yanagihara, devoted to band as well as general music education, provided for a fine facility and instruments. The first director, Hidetoshi Saito, began the school's remarkable performance record in 1978, and the philosophy of excellence continued with second director Suichi Tsukamoto. In 1993, Yuzuru Kohata inherited this renowned concert band and added marching to its activities, creating the rare situation of a junior high program having national ranking in both concert and marching contests.

    Since 1978, the band has earned 21 consecutive "Gold" (superior) ratings at State Contest, 10 Gold and 9 Silver ratings at Chugoku Division (regional-only several bands per state invited annually) Contest, and in All Japan Band Contest (by limited selection from regional contests), for the past five years, 1 Gold, 3 Silver and 1 Bronze ratings.

    In Marching, for the past 6 years, the band earned 5 Gold and 1 Silver ratings at State, 5 Gold ratings at Chugoku Division, and 2 Gold Ratings for the past 2 years at the AJBC (national) Marching Festival. Also, the band actively supports district, state, regional and national Ensemble Contest evaluations.
Yasunishi JHS Band has been invited to perform for numerous events like the 12th Asia Athletic Festival, the 51st National Athletic Meet Opening Ceremony, the 32nd All Japan Physical Disabilities Sports Festival, and has served as Clinic Band for the Chugoku and Shikoku Division Regional Conferences.
In Hiroshima, the band annually attends the Asaminami Music Festival, the Flower Festival Parade, the Chibikko (kids) marathon opening ceremony, the Yasunishi Pigeon Concert and the Hiroshima Junior High School Summer Band Festival.

    At Yasunishi Junior High, as in most of Japan, all students take general music from first to ninth grades. Band "clubs" must meet in the afternoon during the optional activity portion of the day. Students selecting baseball or other sports have a difficult time being devoted to band. ALL students at Yasunishi read music at difficulty level 2 or 3, so novice band students can instead focus on tone production and technique through an inspiring system of peer teaching and rapid learning. New students enter the program at its existing level of performance; section leader tutoring replaces "beginning" band