Isao Matsushita (November 23, 1951 – September 16, 2018) was a Japanese contemporary music composer.

Isao Matsushita was born in Tokyo, Japan. He studied composition under Hiroaki Minami and Toshiro Mayuzumi at the Tokyo University of the Arts and its graduate school.

In 1979, he received a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) scholarship to study at the Berlin University of the Arts under Yun Isang.

In 1985, he won the first prize at the International Composition Competition in Mönchengladbach, Germany. In 1986, he was awarded the Irino Prize.

From 1988 to 2003, he was a part-time lecturer at the Department of Composition, Faculty of Music, Tokyo National University of the Arts; from 1991 to 1999, he was an assistant professor at Shobi Gakuen Junior College, Department of Music; from 1999 to 2003, he was a professor at the Faculty of Information Arts, Shobi Gakuen University. He also served as the chairman of the “Asian Music Festival 2003 in Tokyo” in 2003 and the president of the Asian Composers League from 1999 to 2004.

He has also served as Vice President (Research) and Professor of the Center for Performing Arts at Tokyo University of the Arts, President of the Japan Council of Composers, and Representative of Ensemble Dongfeng. In 2005, he was selected as a juror for the Gaudeamus Music Prize. During his time as an adjunct faculty member at the Tokyo University of the Arts, he nurtured such composers as Motoharu Kawashima, Fumio Tamura, and Kumiko Omura. He died of acute aortic dissection on September 16, 2018.