In 1985, while in high school, vocalist and songwriter Hiroshi Kyono and guitarist Minoru Kojima formed the punk band Berrie.

One year later, the duo were joined by bassist Takeshi Ueda and drummer "Seto", at which point the quartet began performing at concerts and entering Battle of the Bands competitions.

Their popularity in the Japanese underground music scene steadily grew and in 1990 this success earned them a place as the opening act for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

In April 1990, Berrie changed its name to The Mad Capsule Market's, purportedly a term for distributors of Betaphenethylamine, a fictional drug from the cyberpunk novel Neuromancer.

In October, they released their debut album, Humanity, which also featured a number of Berrie songs and retained their punk sound.

After the album's release, original guitarist Minoru Kojima left the band, and was replaced by former roadie Ai Ishigaki.

Later that year, the band released The Mad Capsule Market's, a greatest hits compilation containing re-recorded songs from their career up to that point.

It was released worldwide in 2001, driven by the hugely popular single "Pulse", which featured on the video game Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3.

The Mad Capsule Markets' tenth album, 010, was released in 2001 and demonstrated all the styles that they had explored previously, with a stronger emphasis on electronica.

On April 5 the band announced that they were taking an 'extended break' from making music under the Mad Capsule Markets' name and instead work on separate projects.