[2] After graduating from Keio University, and already a successful composer of TV and advertising jingles, he moved for one year to the UK in 1971, which brought him in to contact with British folk and psychedelic rock.
Inspired in particular by The Beatles, Tyrannosaurus Rex and Syd Barrett, he dubbed himself "Justin Heathcliff" (picked for its English-sounding quality) and issued his lone eponymous album.
[citation needed] Wishing to explore the expanding world of dance and electronica music, Kitajima began his collaboration with instrumentalist/composer/producer Chris Mancinelli.
During the early 1990s the production team initiated a partnership by producing and arranging the albums of many artists in the Asian markets for Warner Bros, Sony Music, Toshiba-EMI, and Pony Canyon Records.
[citation needed] Kitajima began to receive even wider interest in the West when the track "You Know What I Mean" was featured on the Asian volume of the Love, Peace & Poetry compilation series in 1999, and has since been reissued on CD.