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.