Japanese folk/rock.  I grew up listening to him as my parents liked the singer.  He's been active since 1970 and is considered to be a one of the most important figure in Japanese folk/rock scene, both as a singer-songwriter and a business man.  The album itself is fairly recent (2003, IIRC) and was a bit of a return to form for him after few mediocre releases.  One of his biggest influences was Bob Dylan and his early albums (early 70's) show that the most.