Shinji Orito

is a Japanese musical composer originally from Hyōgo, Japan working for the visual novel brand Key under VisualArt's. Before forming Key, Orito worked for another software company named Leaf where he contributed to four games. After leaving Leaf, Orito transferred to another company named Tactics where he had a hand in the creation of three games for that company: Dōsei, Moon, and One: Kagayaku Kisetsu e. After forming Key, Orito has put much work into such famous titles as Kanon, Air and Clannad. Orito has been influenced by the famous Japanese composers Joe Hisaishi and Yuzo Koshiro.

Career After graduating from high school, Orito worked at a bank, but due to a recession in the economy, the bank fell to restructuring, and Orito quit soon after. Orito found new work at a video game studio TGL composing music, but when a friend from high school, Naoya Shimokawa (now the president of Aquaplus) invited him to work for the visual novel studio Leaf, he accepted.

Starting in 1995, Orito composed music for three of Leaf's games: DR2 Night Janki, Filsnown: Hikari to Koku, and Shizuku (precursor of To Heart).

During his time at Key, Orito has provided outsourced musical composition for three games by three separate companies under VisualArt's. The first was for Sense Off by Otherwise, followed by Shoya Kinjō by Giant Panda, and finally Realize by Playm. Orito composed the music for Key's game Rewrite (2011) and its fan disc Rewrite Harvest festa! (2012). Orito released his album Circle of Fifth in October 2012. In 2016, Orito composed music for Key's game Harmonia.

Orito's musical roots are in producing dōjin music as a hobby. He used to visit a music BBS called Unison-BBS and named his dōjin circle Unison Label after the website, which has since gone offline. Many people were involved with the circle, which focused on a musical style similar to that featured in bishōjo games. The group was active between 1994 and 2000. During the time he worked with Tactics and later Otherwise, Orito was also a member of a professional group of composers known as the Unison Sound Team, in which he was known as either or .