Naoto Nakamura (中村 直人, Nakamura Naoto), better known by his stage name Naoto Inti Raymi (ナオト・インティライミ, Naoto Intiraymi), is a Japanese singer-songwriter and composer. He was born in Mie Prefecture in Japan and later grew up in Chiba Prefecture. For two years from 2001, he used his given name Naoto as his stage name. In 2001, while he was still attending Chuo University, Naoto debuted into the major music scene with his single "Growing up!!" released by Sony Music Records. Then he kept releasing the total three singles and one album before graduating from his university in 2002.
After the graduation, he went on to "the trip around the world through 28 countries", which took 515 days over two years from 2003 to 2004. Upon his return home, he began his professional music career with his new stage name, Naoto Inti Raymi meaning "the festival of the sun" in Quechuan language. Inti means the sun, while Raymi means festival.
In 2001, From Universal Sigma, he released "Carnival?", the first single with a major label as Naoto Inti Raymi. The following hit singles "TAKARAMONO – KONO KOEGA NAKUNARUMADE – “ in 2010 and “IMANO KIMIWO WASURENAI" in 2011 both were downloaded more than one million times at multiple music download sites.
In 2012, he was invited to perform at the most prestigious music TV show in Japan, KOUHAKU UTA GASSEN. After that, he continued releasing singles and albums while he toured around the nation for concerts. In 2015, his one-man show at KYOCERA DOME OSAKA successfully drew 40,000 audience to celebrate his 5th anniversary year of his career with a major record label.
Not only as a singer-songwriter, his wide range of musical talents is also allowing himself to actively write songs for the other artists. Besides in the music industry, he began his career in acting as well when he appeared in the 2015 movie "KAMISAMA WA BALINI IRU". Then he played the lead role of the musical "DNA-SHARAKU" in 2016 and appeared in the TV drama series "KOUNODORI" in 2017.
His perspective on music and life itself evolves from his "journey", which he still continues. So far, he has visited as many as 65 countries. This "journey" has given him inspiration and is expected to provide him with opportunities to succeed worldwide such as in Asia, North and South Americas and Europe.
Currently he is working on making music in other languages than his mother tongue of Japanese to make his dream come true, which is going on to a world tour.
"Inti Raymi" is Quechuan (Incan language) for "festival of the sun."[1]
