Who composed the music for Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away?

Joe Hisaishi composed the music for Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away.

Hisaishi created the film’s orchestral score for Hayao Miyazaki’s 2001 fantasy. The music follows Chihiro’s movement from fear and confusion toward courage, using recurring themes, delicate piano writing, and expansive orchestral passages. The soundtrack is closely associated with the film’s emotional atmosphere.

Hisaishi and Miyazaki have collaborated on many Studio Ghibli productions, beginning with Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind in 1984. Their partnership became one of the best-known director-composer relationships in animation. Hisaishi’s work for Spirited Away helped give the film a distinctive musical identity beyond its visual world.

The end-credit song, “Always with Me,” was written and performed by Yumi Kimura, while Hisaishi composed the instrumental score. That distinction can cause confusion: the answer to this question is the composer of the film’s score, not the singer of its ending theme.