The Nihon Opera Kyokai started in 1958. It was the first group to specialize in Japanese opera and it is now the only one. In the 1960s there was another group called Sosaku Opera Kyokai which was run by a mezzo called Yoshiko Sato, a famous Carmen, but that group disappeared. It has been a permanent company since 1980 when it was taken under the umbrella of the Japan Opera Foundation. We usually do two productions a year.
Membership is increasingly exclusive.
Singers now have to pay to become members so they don't want to belong to lots of different groups. Western operahouses operate a 'closed' system. A group of artists belong to a house. In Japan we have an 'open' system. A producer brings a cast together for a given production.