Arashi (嵐; lit. "Storm") is a Japanese boy band officially formed on September 15, 1999, in Honolulu, Hawaii, and debuted on November 3, 1999, under Johnny & Associates. The group consists of five members: Satoshi Ohno, Sho Sakurai, Masaki Aiba, Kazunari Ninomiya, and Jun Matsumoto. Initially signed to Pony Canyon, where they released one studio album and six singles, beginning with their 1999 eponymous debut single, they were moved in 2001 to the Johnny's subsidiary label J Storm, which was set up for their succeeding releases.
Their eighteenth single "Love So Sweet", theme song for Matsumoto's drama Hana Yori Dango 2, was one of the top five best-selling singles of 2007 in Japan, and their first single to exceed 400,000 copies sold overall in nearly seven years. In the following two years, Arashi became the first artist to place the top two rankings on the Oricon singles yearly chart 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. They simultaneously topped the 2009 Oricon singles, album and music DVD yearly charts, becoming the third artist in Oricon history to monopolize the top three best-selling singles of the year.
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. As of October 2020, the group had sold over 58.8 million copies of albums, singles and videos, becoming the best selling boy band in Asia. Since then, Arashi continued to release chart-topping singles and albums, performed in sold-out concert tours, host a number of variety shows, and remained an influential figure in Japanese media.
On January 27, 2019, Arashi announced that group activities would be suspended as of December 31, 2020.
On November 22, 2025, Arashi announced for their fan club the dates and form of their last concert tour. Starting on March 13, 2026 and ending on May 31, the group is to perform in a 5-dome concert tour.
On January 26, 2026, the group announced the release of a new single, Five, on March 4 in digital form and on March 31 on CD as a fan club exclusive. This would be their first recording after a 5-year hiatus. The digital single topped the "iTunes Music Single Top 100" chart the day of release. It was revealed that it had broken two records in the Oricon ranking chart, positioning in the top spot for the "Oricon Daily Streaming Ranking", with over 3.2 million streams in less than a day, surpassing their own song "Whenever You Call" (984,512 times, as of September 19, 2020) and in the "Oricon Daily Digital Single (Single) Ranking", with over 74,000 downloads, over their song "A-RA-SHI: Reborn" (55,583 downloads, as of December 20, 2019). The combined total of streams has made "Five" the all-time highest ranked in Oricon history.
-Wikipedia
On May 6, 2025 the group announced that they will end activities following a final tour in the spring of 2026.
On May 31, 2026, they held their final concert "ARASHI LIVE TOUR 2026「We are ARASHI」" in Tokyo Dome and ended their 26-and-a-half-year career.
Members:
Satoshi Ohno
Sho Sakurai
Masaki Aiba
Kazunari Ninomiya
Jun Matsumoto
Name Origin:
The group name Arashi (嵐) means storm, meaning let's bring a storm to the world. Also Japanese It also includes the meaning of reaching the top.
From: Tokyo, Japan
Genre(s):
J-pop,
rock,
R&B,
hip hop
Instrument(s):
Vocals
Active From: 1999-2026