arashi

Musical career

Arashi covers a wide range of music, including R&B, hip hop and various forms of pop music. Aside from being a popular idol group in Japan, the group is widely known across Asia and to J-pop fans all over the world.

Johnny's & Associates (or Johnny's) announced the group's debut on September 15, 1999 through a press conference aboard a cruise ship off the coast of Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. Arashi, the Japanese word for storm, was chosen by Johnny's to represent the group's thrust of "creating a storm in the entertainment world." Arashi is currently the only debuted group in Johnny's that is written entirely in Kanji. Their debut single, "A・RA・SHI", became the theme song for the 8th World Cup of Volleyball hosted by Japan in 1999. They gained widespread exposure when they sang their debut single at the cup's opening on November 2, 1999. At the debut event a day later, an estimated 80,000 fans showed up at the Yoyogi National Hippodrome to see the group's live performance.^[1] The single went on to become a major hit, selling almost a million copies. From March 25 to April 30, 2001, the group embarked on their first nationwide tour, the "Arashi Spring Concert 2001". The tour took place in Sendai, Osaka, Nagoya, Hokkaido, Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Kanazawa, Toyama and Tokyo with an unprecedented 26 performances. March 2002 saw the group's return to Hawaiʻi, with a series of fan tours, as a part of Johnny's "Stand Up Hawaiʻi!" Campaign.^[1]

By 2006, the group's singles and albums were being released outside Japan. Their album, Arashic, was released not only in Japan, but in Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand as well. On July 31, 2006, the group embarked on their Jet Storm Tour, which aimed to promote the album. The one-day tour covered Taiwan, Thailand and South Korea, countries which later became part of their Asia tour (The Thailand concert, Thai-J Pop Concert, was cancelled due to a military coup). The concert in Korea was decided due to the fact that about 1,500 Korean fans gathered at the Incheon International Airport during the group's Jet Storm press conference.^[2] The concert, held on November 12, 2006, made Arashi the first group from Johnny's Entertainment to perform an individual concert in South Korea.^[3] The group proved popular to Korean fans when concert tickets were sold out in an hour, as some 150,000 people rushed to book tickets online.^[4] Aside from their concert performances, the group represented Japan in the 2006 Asia Song Festival, also held in South Korea.^[2]

To date, Arashi has released nine albums and twenty singles. On February 21, 2007, the group released "Love so sweet", the popular theme song for the TV Drama Hana Yori Dango 2 which peaked at the number one spot on Oricon's daily and weekly charts. Their nineteenth single, "We Can Make It!", released on May 2, 2007, also charted number one on Oricon's daily and weekly charts, before falling out of the Top 10 in its second week, only to return back to the Top 10 on its third week. On April 2007, the group performed in one of their largest concerts to date. Arashi Around Asia was held in the Kyocera Dome in Osaka, and at the Tokyo Dome, with a combined total capacity of 100,000 people, and had an attendance of over 200,000.^[1] Arashi's new album released in July of the same year, Time also debuted at the number one spot on Oricon's charts, selling 191,000 copies in its first week.

The group's latest single is "Happiness", which was used as the theme song for the TBS drama "Yamada Taro Monogatari," starring Arashi members Ninomiya Kazunari and Sakurai Sho. This latest single is Arashi's 9th straight number one release and its 17th number one overall.^[5]

Group members

Arashi is composed of

• Masaki Aiba (相葉雅紀, Masaki Aiba^?)
• Kazunari Ninomiya (二宮和也, Kazunari Ninomiya^?)
• Jun Matsumoto (松本潤, Jun Matsumoto^?)
• Satoshi Ohno (大野智, Satoshi Ohno^?)
• Sho Sakurai (櫻井翔, Sho Sakurai^?)

Masaki Aiba is the tallest member of the group, with a distinctive breathy voice. He was once hospitalized after fainting due to the collapse of one of his lungs and was forced to stop playing the saxophone due to the operation he had to undergo. Aiba works with various wild animals as a co-host of the TV show "Tensai! Shimura Doubutsuen". He also excels in sports, especially basketball. He has been known to have considerably short attention span and often jumps between topics during talks and interviews, thus earning himself his reputation as the endearing, flaky member of Arashi. Aiba also has troubles with Japanese, particularly in reading kanji. He can be seen making various reading mistakes in talk shows and live performances. During the earlier years following Arashi's debut, Aiba's leadership appointed by Johnny's was undecided.

Kazunari Ninomiya is the first member of the group to crossover to Hollywood, as he starred in Clint Eastwood's critically acclaimed Japanese language film, Letters from Iwo Jima. Along with bandmate Jun Matsumoto, he is one of Japan's leading young actors and have been said to be able to "act with his eyes". Ninomiya stated that he is left-handed but has been forced to write with his right hand by his parents when he was a child. He plays the guitar, a little piano, composes songs and write lyrics. However, he is usually seen with a game console in hand instead and had publicly admitted that he is an otaku. During Arashi's early years, Johnny's appointed Ninomiya as the "Performance Leader".

Jun Matsumoto is the youngest member of Arashi. Matsumoto is known for his starring roles in dramas such as Bambino!, Hana Yori Dango, Hana Yori Dango 2, Kimi wa Petto, and Gokusen. He is the first Japanese male to grace the cover of Marie Claire Japan. Ohno has labeled him the "concert master" because of his take-charge attitude and attention to detail during their live performances. During the years after their debut, he was appointed by the Johnny's as the "Comedy Leader". By now he has more or less lose the comedic image and has even gained the nickname Do-S from the other members (S standing for 'Sadist'). Jun is one of the three idols who are considered elites in the Johnny's because he was called to join the company by Johnny Kitagawa himself, without having to go through auditions.

Satoshi Ohno, the oldest member of Arashi, is the reluctant "leader" of the group after winning against Sho Sakurai in a round of rock-paper-scissors with the other members on a Japanese variety show. The exact same pattern of him unwillingly 'winning' against Sho has been seen repeating many times ever since. Being the leader and oldest member of the group, Ohno usually sings the lead vocals. Although he has stated that he wanted to avoid becoming the leader the most, Arashi members have once stated in an interview that Ohno is a new-age idol, who leads his group by not leading at all. Aside from leading the vocal work, he is known to be the best dancer in Arashi. He choreographs several of their dance moves, which the other members sometimes find quite hard to follow. Back when Arashi first debuted and before he was elected leader, Ohno was told by Johnny's to be the "Dance Leader". He is also one half of the Arashi skit duo Ohmiya SK, partnering Kazunari Ninomiya. Out of all the members, he has appeared in the fewest dramas, preferring to do stage plays or focus on his art. He performed his first solo concert on January 29, 2006.

Sho Sakurai sings most of the rap parts (he is known to fans as "Sakurap"), the lyrics of which he also writes. Sho was the first in the group to perform in a solo concert, The Show on January 14, 2006. He is currently a Monday co-host of NTV's News Zero, on which he became the first idol to host an election special.^[1] Sho is arguably the best-educated member of the group, having graduated from Keio University, the Japanese equivalent of an Ivy League school. During the early years after Arashi's debut, Sho was appointed by the Johnny's to be the "Study Leader". Although he lost in a round of rock-paper-scissors, hence excusing him from being the group's leader, the other four of Arashi have made many remarks that Sho is the one who possesses leadership qualities.

Aside from their music careers, Arashi members have also appeared in movies, specials, commercials, stage plays, and various television dramas. Currently, they are also the hosts of the variety programs, "Mago Mago Arashi" and "Arashi no Shukudai-kun".

Discography

Please see talk page before editing.

Studio albums

Compilation albums

Singles