Arashi 嵐

In this article, I will be introducing a boys band, probably the most famous, popular and yes, the most mainstream band in Japan at the moment. They are called Arashi (嵐), meaning storm in Japanese. I am quite a fun of them myself, so I might end up talking a lot about them.

Official off shot from their recent tour, "Are you happy?" From left, Masaki, Satoshi, Jun, Kazunari, Sho

Arashi consists of 5 members, Satoshi, Sho, Masaki, Kazunari and Jun. The members are all unique, and there are lots to talk about all of them, but I am planning to focus on them individually in a different article, just because I know it’s gonna be too long otherwise.

So, to begin with, their brief history.

In 1999, they hold a press conference in Hawaii, confirming their debut. They had all belonged to the agency called “Johnny’s & Associates”, famous for having a lot of handsome and popular boys belonging to it. Out of many boys who belonged to Johnny’s they were chosen to be Arashi, initially a unit to support the Japanese team in the Volleyball Word Cup. Although they were quite popular right after their debut, and they kept releasing songs, I have to say, it was clear they were not managing to be the popular band for a long time.

Arashi at their debut press conference in Hawaii

But things start to be different around 2005-2006. At the end of 2005, “Boys over Flowers” (花より男子) a TV series that turned out to be extremely popular, was released. Jun was acting the male main character, “Domyoji”, a role quite unique but seemed to fit him really well. He had already been in a few successful TV series, but “Boys over Flowers” was on a completely different level. People suddenly started to notice him, and Arashi, as they sang the theme song of the series. In 2006, they have their first Asia tour, and finds out there are loads of fans abroad. Kazunari gets casted in “Letters from Iwo Jima”, a famous Hollywood movie about Japan during WWII, and Sho becomes a presenter in a news show called “News Zero”. As all the members start to work in different fields, get fans from different generation, gender or of different interest, they gradually started to be talked about more and more. The TV shows they host also start to have more and more people watch, and the place they hold lives become bigger and bigger.

In 2009, for the first time they sing at “Kohaku”, a TV show that’s held on the last day of the year every year and remark the singers and bands who were successful that year. At this point, they started to be referred as the Nation’s idols (国民的アイドル), and it becomes difficult to find anyone in Japan who has never heard of them. (And this includes little kids to elderlies, which is what’s so interesting about Arashi)

In 2014, their 15^th anniversary year, they have a live in Hawaii, as they were invited from its government. Lots of funs went all the way from Japan just to see them, having an extreme positive impact on Hawaii’s economy.

Arashi trying to imitate pictures from their debut conference 15 years before (see above)

When I started writing this article, I was planning to write about their BRIEF history, popular songs, why people like them so much and so much more, but it took me so long just to discuss about their history. I probably have to write a few more articles than this, probably in the next few weeks. So keep looking out ;)