Arashi

For other uses, see Arashi (disambiguation).

Arashi
嵐
Arashi in November 2019 From left to right: Ninomiya, Aiba, Matsumoto, Ohno, Sakurai
Arashi in November 2019
From left to right: Ninomiya, Aiba, Matsumoto, Ohno, Sakurai
Background information
OriginTokyo, Japan
Genres
Years active1999–present (currently on hiatus)
Labels
MembersSatoshi Ohno
Sho Sakurai
Masaki Aiba
Kazunari Ninomiya
Jun Matsumoto
Websitewww.j-storm.co.jp/arashi
Johnny's net

Arashi (嵐, lit. "Storm") is a Japanese boy band consisting of five members formed under the Johnny & Associates talent agency. The members are Satoshi Ohno, Sho Sakurai, Masaki Aiba, Kazunari Ninomiya, and Jun Matsumoto. Arashi officially formed on September 15, 1999, in Honolulu, Hawaii, and made their debut CD on November 3, 1999. The group was initially signed to Pony Canyon and released one studio album and six singles—beginning with their 1999 eponymous debut single before moving to the Johnny's subsidiary label J Storm in 2001, which was initially set up for their succeeding releases.[2] While their debut single sold close to a million copies, the group took a mixture of pop and alternate/contemporary approach to its music which attracted core followers, but subsequently faced commercially slow sales.

With the release of their eighteenth single "Love So Sweet", Arashi began to gain commercial success as it was used as the opening theme song for the high-rating drama Hana Yori Dango 2 whose protagonist is played by Matsumoto, making it one of the top five best-selling singles of 2007 in Japan and the group's first single to exceed 400,000 copies sold overall in nearly seven years.[3][4] For the next two years, Arashi gained a number of achievements and records as they became the first artist to place the top two rankings on the Oricon singles yearly chart for two consecutive years with their singles "Truth / Kaze no Mukō e" and "One Love" in 2008 and "Believe / Kumorinochi, Kaisei" and "Ashita no Kioku / Crazy Moon (Kimi wa Muteki)" in 2009, simultaneously topped the 2009 Oricon singles, album and music DVD yearly charts, and became the third artist in Oricon history to monopolize the top three best-selling singles of the year.[5][6][7] In 2010, all six of Arashi's singles ranked within the top ten of the Oricon singles yearly chart, and their million-selling studio album Boku no Miteiru Fūkei was named the best-selling album of the year in Japan.[8][9] As of October 2020, the group had sold over 58.8 million copies of albums, singles and videos and became the best selling boy band in Asia.[10] Since then, Arashi has continued to release chart-topping singles and albums, perform in sold-out concert tours, host a number of variety shows, and remain an influential figure in Japanese media.

On January 27, 2019, Arashi announced that group activities would be suspended as of December 31, 2020.[11]

  1. ^ "Japanese teen pop Top Artists". last.fm. Retrieved December 26, 2012.
  2. ^ a b "Arashi Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved May 17, 2009.
  3. ^ "Hana Yori Dango 2 ratings". Artv. Archived from the original on February 1, 2010. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
  4. ^ "Oricon Music" 年間シングルランキング. Oricon (in Japanese). December 18, 2007.
  5. ^ (年間ランキング) 嵐、19年ぶりのシングル1位、2位独占 [(Yearly Ranking) Arashi reach 1st and 2nd spots for the first time in 19 years]. Oricon (in Japanese). December 11, 2008.
  6. ^ "Arashi sweeps 2009 sales rankings". Tokyograph. December 18, 2009. Retrieved December 18, 2009.
  7. ^ "嵐、史上初の"CD、DVD4 冠"達成～シングルTOP3独占は光GENJI以来21年ぶり" [Arashi is the first ever "CD, DVD 4-category champions". Monopolizing the Top 3 spots of the singles charts for the first time since Hikaru Genji 21 years ago]. Oricon (in Japanese). December 18, 2009. Archived from the original on December 19, 2009. Retrieved December 18, 2009.
  8. ^ "Oricon 2010 Rankings (Singles): AKB48, Arashi control Top 10". Tokyograph. December 20, 2010. Retrieved December 21, 2010.
  9. ^ "Oricon 2010 Rankings (Albums): Arashi, Ikimono Gakari". Tokyograph. December 20, 2010. Retrieved December 21, 2010.
  10. ^ "Total number of albums and singles sold by Arashi reaches 30 million copies". Tokyo Hive. 6Theory Media, LLC. May 20, 2015. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
  11. ^ "嵐、2020年をもってグループ活動休止 ファンクラブサイトで電撃発表（スポーツ報知）". Yahoo! News (in Japanese). Archived from the original on January 27, 2019. Retrieved January 27, 2019.