Orchestra Nipponica was established in September 2002, as an orchestra to succeed to the aspirations of late Yasushi Akutagawa, who is not only one of the most famous composers in Japan, but who also has left outstanding achievements in the music culture in modern Japan through various music and social activities.

In addition to actively performing orchestral works of Japanese composers and introducing lost or long-forgotten works of both Japanese and foreign composers, another key activity of Orchestra Nipponica has been to promote international exchange at the grass roots level by widely interacting in various countries (mainly in Asia) and in various areas (not only through performances, but also through commissioning of new compositions).

The orchestra's inaugural concert held in February 2003 (series of 2 concerts at Kioi Hall in Tokyo) received a huge response, and the concerts' live CD recordings also gathered much public attention. Since then, during 10 years of activities, Orchestra Nipponica has established a track record of achievements, including making revival performances of approximately 90 musical works which had been either lost or long-forgotten after their first performance, performing 20 works where individual instrument musical scores were newly prepared, performing 7 newly commissioned composition works, making 10 CD recordings, as well as attending 3 international music festivals (in China Vietnam and Philippine).

Through its activities of making revival performances of long-lost or forgotten works or reprinted works, the orchestra has created opportunities to rediscover and reassess music pieces comprising the history of Japanese compositions, through its efforts of reproducing, editing, and producing long-lost full music scores and individual instrument music scores for orchestral performance.

The orchestra is also endeavoring to spread such works by reorganizing music scores to be used for future re-performance. Indeed, many of the works performed by Orchestra Nipponica have been re-performed later by either or both professional and amateur orchestras. Many of the works have also been recorded on CD by major labels including Naxos Japan.

The live CD recording of Orchestra Nipponica's concert held 2011 was introduced in music record columns of nationwide newspapers in Japan (Asahi Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun), as well as being introduced and receiving high commendation in prominent Japanese music magazines ("Mostly Classic" etc.).