As a composer and producer, Tetsuya Komuro was an undisputed sensation on the Japanese and Asian music scenes from the late 1980s to the 1990s.

Thus news of his Tuesday arrest for fraud surprised people across Japan as well as in many other parts of Asia, including Hong Kong and Shanghai.

"His music was really easy to sing along to," said 33-year-old Kyoto resident Tsuyoshi Miike, who was around 20 years old when Komuro's works dominated the scene.