He is best known as the guitarist and main composer of the rock duo B'z, the best-selling music act in their native Japan by certifications.

[2] He reportedly bought his first electric guitar at age 15, a Japanese Gibson Les Paul, after hearing Deep Purple's guitarist Ritchie Blackmore play "Smoke on the Water on the live album Made in Japan.

[1] Matsumoto has said over the years that he has many favorite artists, from whom he has drawn much inspiration, from hard rock, particularly Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith and Van Halen, and Michael Schenker.

Matsumoto attended jazz school,[4] but when he started working as a session musician and supporting tours like TM Network, his musicianship was cemented.

Matsumoto continued his session work throughout the early and mid-1980s with acts such as Mari Hamada until deciding to jump on the emerging solo instrumental trend catching on in Japan at that time.

Matsumoto has ongoing friendships with musicians such as Barry Sparks, Marty Friedman, Billy Sheehan, Eddie Van Halen, Eric Martin, Jack Blades, Joe Perry, Pat Torpey, Steven Tyler, and Steve Vai, with whom Matsumoto and Inaba recorded the song "Asian Sky" from the 1999 album, The Ultra Zone.

[5] In 2004, he formed the "Tak Matsumoto Group" (TMG) with Eric Martin on vocal, Jack Blades on bass, and various guest drummers, namely Brian Tichy and Cindy Blackman, forging ahead with his own brand of musical genius.

Matsumoto energetically kept working; on July 18, 19 and 20, he had a collaboration concert with Tokyo Symphony Orchestra at Suntory Hall.

He recorded again at a studio with songs played with an orchestra in July and released it as the first House of Strings CD with the same title on the album.

[8] Together they embarked on a nationwide tour to support the album, with Matsumoto saying that he "felt a little nervous playing 'Room 335' with Mr. Larry Carlton every night".

[2] In 2016, Matsumoto released a three-track EP called Enigma, followed in 2017 by a collaboration album between himself and Hawaiian artist Daniel Ho, Electric Island, Acoustic Sea.

[12] Matsumoto, through his B'z fame, is credited for the "resurrection and reinvention of the Japanese guitar hero", alongside, and in comparison to, X Japan guitarist hide, as a model of guitarist more interested in technique, technology, and equipment, popularizing the electric guitar as a mass media product in Japan.

[15] In April 2022, the Japanese government awarded Matsumoto the Medal with Dark Blue Ribbon for his charitable contributions.