PTNA plays an important role to encourage Japanese works to be played, and produced.

In PTNA Piano Competition, all participants are required to prepare pieces of four periods, Baroque, Classic, Roman, Modern, and one Japanese piece is assigned at each grade, as a part of the repertoires of Modern period. Thus, participants get familiar with Japanese music from their early stage. This year, the statistics shows Japanese pieces are frequently selected, especially in the lower grades between grade A1(under 8) to C(under 12).

This regulation started in 1977 when the competition was inaugurated, and Japanese works had been comissioned every year since then. After comissioning was replaced to public audition in 1987, the number of application has steadily increased and in 2008 it reached 213 (listen). Those application are examined twice at the New Composition Selection Committee, chaired by Prof.Hideo Arashino. Among those selected, some were published from Kawai (publishing department) and played occasionally even after the competition. 

Apart from the competition, exposure of Japanese pieces are increasing.

Musse, the on-demand publishing service selling variety of Classical pieces and Japanese compositions, has just started to sell works of Sonoo Terauchi. Among them, a collection of works titled "IKARUGA" is captivating (listen), which seems to be inspired by the old temples and statues in Nara, the place where the ancient capital 'Ikaruga' was established almost 1,500 years ago.

Besides those composers, there are people who aims at discovering Japanese-written pieces and introducing them. Eiko Sudo, a musicologist and pianist, introduces variety of pieces in her series of article "Piano Pieces Made In Japan". Last year she made further study in Boston and New York as a researcher, and there she performed some Japanese contemporary music. Back in Japan, recently she broadens her repertoire to the music for children, such as Takekuni Hirayoshi (listen), Toru Takemitsu "Piano Pieces for Children <Bleeze><Cloud>" (listen) etc.

Pianists of next generation also takes interest in bringing music of their homeland to abroad. Natsumi Kuboyama (17) who received a prize of encouragement at the Yasuko Fukuda audition 2009, was invited to play in New York last May. She played two pieces "The Ball is Tomorrow"(Tomohiro Moriyama), and "Prelude"(Kunihiro Nakamura) along with Bach and Chopin, at Fabbri Concert Series and a concert for Live Music by Living Composers. The interpretation was well received by the American audience.