Long-Running National Idol Group Arashi to End Activities Next Year... An Era of J-Pop Comes to a Close [Japan Insider]

Debuted in 1999, Active for 26 Years... Visited Korea in the 2000s
Cheer Songs for Entrance Exams, Popular Wedding Music... Nationwide Recognition
Group Activities to End After Next Year's Tour

The original Japanese idol group Arashi has announced that they will end their activities next year, marking 26 years since their debut. I was personally shocked by the news, as I used to listen to their songs and collect magazines about them during my school days. I'm sure many others share similar memories from that time. Many people in Korea also feel regret, as Arashi was a gateway to Japanese culture for many here. Today, I would like to talk about the Japanese group Arashi.

Arashi is a five-member male group launched by Johnny's, Japan's largest entertainment company (now Starto Entertainment). The group consists of leader Satoshi Ohno, Sho Sakurai, Kazunari Ninomiya, Masaki Aiba, and Jun Matsumoto. The name "Arashi" means "storm" in Japanese, chosen by the company's president at the time who wished to create a storm around the world. Thanks to the agency's ambitions, Arashi held a lavish debut press conference in Hawaii in September 1999 and released their debut single "A.RA.SHI" in November of the same year. The response was enthusiastic from the start: the single sold 557,000 copies in its first week and immediately topped the Oricon weekly chart.

Japanese five-member group Arashi. Arashi Instagram.

They continued to set records, with singles like "Happiness" released in 2007 and "Truth" in 2008 both achieving the No. 1 spot on Oricon's annual single ranking. Over the 26 years since their debut, Arashi has released 54 singles and 18 albums, selling a total of 43,438,000 albums during that period. Some of their songs have remained consistently popular, such as "Sakura Sake," which means "Let the Cherry Blossoms Bloom" and is known as a representative cheer song for Japan's university entrance exams. In the past, when university acceptance results were announced in Japan, people living in rural areas had to wait a long time to receive the results by mail, so they would ask someone else to check for them. If the messenger brought news of acceptance to Waseda University, they would say, "The cherry blossoms have bloomed," and if not, "The cherry blossoms have fallen." This tradition led to the phrase "the cherry blossoms have bloomed" becoming an idiom for university acceptance. Another famous song, "One Love," with lyrics promising to love for a hundred years, is often used as background music at weddings in Japan.

Arashi visiting Korea for a special press conference with three countries in 2006. Asia Economy DB.

Arashi fever was not limited to Japan; they were also central to the J-pop boom in Korea during the 2000s and 2010s. The members became well-known in Korea through appearances in dramas and movies. Jun Matsumoto, for example, acted in "Boys Over Flowers," "You're My Pet," and "Heartbroken Chocolatier," and at one point, his image was a popular background on schoolgirls' phones. Riding this wave of popularity, Arashi visited Korea several times, participating in the Asia Song Festival in 2006 and even holding solo concerts. If I had known they would end their activities, I would have made every effort to attend back then.

The members have also been active individually. Jun Matsumoto and Kazunari Ninomiya have pursued successful acting careers. Kazunari Ninomiya recently visited Korea for a fan meeting to celebrate the broadcast of the medical drama "Black Pean." Sho Sakurai, a graduate of Keio University, has worked as an anchor for the Japanese news program "News Zero."

However, as time passed and the members' individual schedules became busier, it became difficult for the group to continue activities together. In 2020, they announced a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the members began to get married one after another. Ultimately, they announced that the group would end its activities after a concert tour in 2026.

Arashi 30th single 'Monster' jacket photo. Asia Economy DB.

Japanese media have interpreted Arashi's disbandment as a sign of a generational shift in J-pop. The variety show "VS Arashi," which Arashi had hosted, was handed over to their juniors from the same agency but was eventually canceled in 2023 due to low ratings. In addition, the agency suffered a major blow after the sexual misconduct scandal involving the late former president Johnny Kitagawa, and Arashi was criticized for their lukewarm response to the incident.

Although there have been scandals and various incidents over the past 26 years, people seem genuinely surprised that they will no longer see the five members perform together. The final tour, scheduled for spring 2026, will be the first Arashi concert since the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of this, fans in Japan are already making pilgrimages to significant sites. Unlike in Korea, where tickets are secured by clicking as soon as sales open, Arashi concert tickets are allocated through a lottery system for paid fan club members, who can select up to three preferred dates. Attendance is entirely up to luck.

As a result, fans are already flocking to "Ono Shrine" in Ritto City, Shiga Prefecture. The shrine shares the exact same kanji characters as leader Satoshi Ohno's name, and the head priest's name is Satoshi Oomiya, which combines the surnames of members Ohno and Ninomiya. For this reason, fans consider it a sacred place and believe, perhaps superstitiously, that visiting will increase their chances of winning concert tickets. The ema (wooden plaques for wishes) at the shrine are filled with messages from fans hoping to win tickets to the final concert, and the shrine is already crowded with fans making these wishes.

The news of Arashi's disbandment is drawing attention perhaps because it feels like the end of an era. During my school days, screenshots from the drama "You're My Pet" were always on phone backgrounds or Cyworld profiles, and boys would try singing X Japan songs at karaoke. The happy memories of enjoying Japanese songs by artists like Ayumi Hamasaki and BoA during those days are now becoming nostalgic. As time passes, everything changes, and I wonder if I just took it for granted that the things I loved would never change.