Eikichi Iwai

On 11 November 2026 Chirinuruwowaka announced on its official website and social media that Iwai had died suddenly, saying the members and staff found the news hard to accept and were enveloped in deep sorrow. The band cancelled all dates of its planned tour Doudou Meguri 2026 -Public-.

The same day the Final Fantasy XIV development and operations team and the members and staff of THE PRIMALS published a joint statement. They recalled that he had just given an overwhelming performance at the Japan Fan Festival in Tokyo on 1 November and said the sudden news had left them shocked and deeply saddened. He was 57. The exact date and the cause of death were not announced. Players of the game held virtual vigils in his memory.

Eikichi Iwai (Iwai Eikichi) was born on 9 May 1969 and came from Fukuoka Prefecture in southern Japan. Little has been published about his childhood. He began his professional career young: by the age of 22 he had a major label record deal as a member of a band from Kitakyushu.

Iwai made his major label debut in 1991 as bassist of Z-BACK, a Kitakyushu band, on For Life Records. From 1995 he became an in-demand session bassist, playing on recordings and live dates for Ringo Sheena, Sneoheair, YUI, ACIDMAN and Todd Rundgren, among others. In 1999 he played in Tensai Preparat, the band Ringo Sheena formed for her campus tour, and in 2001 he joined SPARKY, a project led by Takahiro Matsumoto, playing bass, theremin and noise.

In 2005 he formed Chirinuruwowaka with Yu (Yumi Nakashima), singer and guitarist of GO!GO!7188. The band remained his main creative home for two decades, and through it he contributed arrangement and production work, including music for the Atelier game series and other games.

In 2014 he became bassist of THE PRIMALS, the official rock band of the online role-playing game Final Fantasy XIV, led by the game's sound director and composer Masayoshi Soken. The line-up also included vocalist Michael-Christopher Koji Fox, guitarist GUNN and drummer Tetsuya Tachibana. The band released its first album, THE PRIMALS, on 16 May 2018 and toured Japan, and played the game's Fan Festivals around the world, turning boss battle themes into full rock shows for crowds of players.

Iwai kept his private life out of the public eye, and details of his family have not been published. He was known to fans through his work with Chirinuruwowaka and THE PRIMALS and through his own social media accounts.

Iwai's career bridged mainstream Japanese rock, session work for leading artists and the world of game music. As bassist of THE PRIMALS he helped turn the soundtrack of Final Fantasy XIV into a live rock experience that reached audiences far beyond Japan, and his last stage appearance, at the Tokyo Fan Festival, came only ten days before his death was announced.