Tomoya Nagase

As an artist

He was inspired by bands Hikaru Genji and SMAP to answer a recruiting call of Johnny & Associates and was accepted. In 1992, he played several stage plays (Playzone and Mask) together with other Tokio members. He first played tambourine during Tokio's early performances as SMAP's background dancers. Just prior to Tokio's debut, the band's rhythm guitarist, Hiromu Kojima, left the band and was replaced by Tomoya Nagase.

In 1997, Nagase collaborated with American R&B group 3T to record the Japanese version of Eternal Flame, which was used as the theme song for the Japanese drama D×D, in which he starred. The single was released under the artist name "Tomoya with 3T" and reached #12 on the Oricon charts. Nagase lists Guns N' Roses as his favorite band.

As an actor

Nagase has had parts in over 40 dramas. His first lead role was in Hakusen Nagashi (1996). More lead roles followed including Ikebukuro West Gate Park, Mukodono!, and Tiger & Dragon. Mukodono! was his first comedic role. In My Boss My Hero he had another comedic role. He received an "Ishihara Yuijiro Award" in 2002 as "The Best Newcomer" for his role in the movie Seoul.

Endorsements

Nagase has endorsed many various brands with the band Tokio and by himself. He is currently a brand ambassador for Fujicolor and Lotte Toppo. With Tokio, he has endorsed among others Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Eneos, a brand for Nippon Oil. As an actor, he has also endorsed UFO Nissin noodles, Lotte Coolish drinks, Subaru, Morinaga, Suntory Dry beer, Mazda, All Nippon Airways, NTT docomo, Hitachi Wooo, and Uniqlo.

Personal life

Nagase dated J-Pop singer and former actress Ayumi Hamasaki from the beginning of both of their acting careers.[5] In 2001, they publicly announced their relationship. In 2007, the media circulated rumors that the couple were about to get married; however, on July 13 of that year, Ayumi Hamasaki announced that they had broken up. Though Hamasaki did not explain the reason for the split, she stated that they had parted amicably and the two remained friends.

Saki Aibu

Saki Aibu (相武紗季 Aibu Saki?, born on June 20, 1985 in Takarazuka, Hyōgo prefecture) is an actress in Japan. She is part of the Box Corporation.

Height: 165 cm

Star sign: Gemini

Blood type: O

Talent agency: Box Corporation

Drama

Buzzer Beat (2009) as Natsuki Nanami

Zettai Kareshi SP(Absolute Boyfriend) (2008) as Izawa Riiko

Tenchijin (2009) as Hanahime

Attention Please SP (2008) as Yayoi Wakamura

Zettai Kareshi(Absolute Boyfriend) (2008) as Izawa Riiko

Utahime (2007) as Kishida Suzu/Matsunaka Ruriko

Ushi ni Negai wo: Love & Farm (2007) as Ayaka Fujii

Attention Please SP (2007) as Yayoi Wakamura

Karei-naru Ichizoku (2007) as Tsugiko Manpyo

Happy! 2 (2006) as Miyuki Umino

Regatta (2006) as Misao Odagiri

Attention Please (2006) as Yayoi Wakamura

Happy! (2006) as Miyuki Umino

Donmai (2005) as Yu Satomi

Ganbatte Ikimasshoi (2005) as Rie Yano

Gekidan Engimono Automatic (2004) as Sakurai

Itoshi Kimi e (2004)

Lion Sensei (2003)

Water Boys (2003) as Atsumi Hayakawa

[edit]Movies

Mail de Todoita Monogatari (2005)

Beat Kids (2005)

Shortcakes (2005)

[edit]References

"相武紗季 プロフィール" (in Japanese). Retrieved 2008-02-29.

"Yahoo! JAPAN - 相武紗季のプロフィール" (in Japanese). Retrieved 2008-02-29.

Mika Nakashima

Born and raised in Kyūshū, Mika was the youngest of three children. From a young age, she wanted to become a singer, and decided not to attend high school or college.

At the age of 17, she was chosen from 3,000 girls to be the heroine of the Fall 2001 Fuji TV drama Kizudarake no Love Song (傷だらけのラブソング Tainted Love Song?). In November, she made her debut with Sony Music Associated Records with the single "Stars," which was also the theme song of the drama. The single would go on to become her best-selling single. Her second single "Crescent Moon", an 80s themed song, was limited to 100,000 copies. It sold out the first day of its release. In March 2002 she released her third single, "One Survive," and her first video collection, "Film Lotus". This was followed in May by her 4th single, "Helpless Rain", and in August, by her 5th single "Will", which went on to rack up sales of over 140,000. Both were top ten hits and sold around 100,000 copies, proving Nakashima's rising star appeal.

Nakashima's first album, True, released in August 2002, was a number 1 hit on the Oricon charts. The album boasted a mature mixture of jazz and adult contemporary pop. In 3 weeks, True sold a million copies, and has sold nearly 1,174,000 copies to date. Then, as a commemoration of one year since her debut, Nakashima released a Premium EP: Resistance, which hit the charts' number 1 spot for two weeks in a row. On December 18, a documentary video, Kiseki: The Document of a Star, was released. In 2002, the singer received the "New Artist of the Year" award at the Japan Gold Disc Awards and "Best New Artist of the Year" at the All Japan Request Awards 2002. She also won the "New Artist of the Year" award from the 44th Japan Record Awards.

Nakashima's second album, Love, which was released in November 2003, sold nearly 1.45 million copies, surpassing that of her debut. The Japan Composers Association awarded Love the Best Album Award. After releasing a second mini-album, Oborozukiyo: Inori, in September 2004, Nakashima topped the Oricon Album Chart again with Music in March 2005, as well as with her first greatest hits album Best in December of that year. Best is the third album by Nakashima to have sold a million copies or more, but like her second album, Best also outsold True in sales - by nearly 30,000 copies.

Her most popular songs include "Stars", Gundam Seed's ending song "Find the Way", "Sakurairo Mau Koro", and "Yuki no Hana", which was covered by South Korean male singer Park Hyo Shin and this covered song was inserted in the popular Korean drama I'm Sorry, I Love You. Another Korean version was sung by female singer Seo Young Eun. It was also one of the most popular karaoke songs in Japan in 2004. The song was first covered by Singapore singer Joi Chua in 2005 by the same title "Sorry I Love You". It was also covered by Mainland Chinese singer Han Xue on August 2004 in Mandarin; and by Hong Kong singer Vincy Chan in 2006, in Cantonese. English version of Hana no Yuki was covered by Eric Martin (Mr.Big's vocalist) and featured in his solo album Mr.Vocalist 2008 which was produced and released in Japan. Another covered version was released on June 2006, sung by Japanese male singer Hideaki Tokunaga. "Find the Way" was covered by Korean singer Bada (former member of kpop legend SES). In 2004 she sang the ending theme of the anime series based on the manga Hi no Tori as aired on NHK.

Tsubasa Imai

TSUBASA PROFILE

Imai Tsubasa is a 28 year old male Japanese artist who is part of a two-man J-POP unit called Tackey & Tsubasa. Both Tsubasa and Tackey are best friends and entertainers from the idol talent agency Johnny & Associates. They both CD debuted on Sept. 11, 2002 with the album Hatachi (which means 20-years old in english). Since their debut, they have racked up 5 #1 singles on Japan’s Oricon charts and toured across Japan several times. Tsubasa has also had national solo tours in 2005, 2006, 2009, and starting in 2007, is lead in a dance musical named after him called World’s Wing Tsubasa Premium.
Tsubasa usually only releases unit CDs with his partner Tackey, but on February 24, 2010, he released his very first solo single “Backborn” which came in at #2 for its opening week.

Tsubasa first joined Johnny & Associates on April 23, 1995 at the young age of 13. As a Johnny’s Junior for 8 years, he has acted and appeared in dramas like Summer Snow,Neverland, Saigo no Bengonin, and most recently NHK’s 80th anniversary drama special Haru to Natsu in which he had to learn Portuguese for his role. He has also been a regular on variety shows like 8 Ji Da J, Music Jump and has performed many times on popular music shows like Music Station and Pop Jam. He and his partner Takki have also performed concerts together in Thailand and Taiwan all prior to even releasing a single CD.

The fundamentals of a Johnny’s Junior is to backdance for the other debuted artists within the agency, and Tsubasa has done his fair share of backdancing for groups from Shonentai all the way up to V6 and Kinki Kids. All of this stage experience pre-CD debut has helped solidify his professionalism and skills, and has caught the attention of media and fans alike to his sharp, sexy, and elegant dancing; a style that is all his own. And because of his excellent dancing skills and finesse, he was cast in the popular musicalMillenium Shock in 2000, and labeled one of Johnny’s all-time “Four Great Dancing Kings”. In 2004, Tsubasa also performed at Taiwan’s biggest music awards show, theGolden Melody Awards. He has also been to New York City numerous times to take more dance and vocal lessons to improve his skills. In 2008 he went to Seville, Spain to study Flamenco with the renowned maestro Manuel Betanzos. [ NOTE: Tsubasa is currently learning Spanish, English, a little Portuguese, and has a Hawaii driver's license. ]And in December 2010, he made his flamenco debut at a bar in Hinojares, Spain, while participating in a 5-day homestay program there for NHK TV.

Starting in end of 2008, Tsubasa decided to embrace the other important part of his roots besides dancing–ROCK. In 2009, Tsubasa became a guest member of J Rock Family, which is a group of 9 artists in the Johnnys company who like singing and performing rock songs live¹. His solo tour in 2009, called the Dance & Rock Tour, featured him dancing in the first half, and singing all live in the second half. He then concluded 2009 with another dance-rock tour, this time performing in all livehouse venues.

Besides dance and vocals, he has also been frequently praised by the media and his peers for his keen sense of fashion and for his excellent style. He designs and does a lot of the styling for the clothes he wears during his concerts, and also coordinates a lot of his own outfits as well as for his own backdancers.

Tsubasa’s talents are plentiful as he is not only musical, but artistic and creative as well. He believes that “Simple is Best” and this philosophy can be seen in most of his clothing and performances where he likes to stay away from flashy and elaborate compositions, and instead deliver performances that are simple, real, raw, and from the heart. Personality-wise, he is also very shy and polite, and extremely naive and pure for someone who’s already been in the entertainment industry for such a long time. And while he prefers to do things in his own pace rather than rush to be at the top of the class immediately, he is like the tortoise in the race: slow at the beginning, but in a few years, as he matures and grows taking in everything that he learns, he will be one to watch as he crosses the finish line.

Yuu Shirota

Yuu Shirota

Japanese Name: 城田優

Name Analysis: ‘you’ (yuu) means ‘gentleness’, ’superiority’ or ‘actor’. =P ’shiro’ means ‘castle’, and ‘ta’ means ricefield.

Occupation: Actor and Singer

Romanization: Shirota Yuu

Date of Birth: December 26, 1985

Blood Type: O

Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan

Height: 185 cm

Weight: 74 kgs

Three Size: 89-73-94 (35″-29″-37″)

Shoe Size: 29 cm

Hobbies: Song Writing, Song Composition, Karaoke, Watching funny TV shows

Special Skills: Spanish, Piano, Saxophone, Guitar

Favorite Sports: Soccer
Favorite Number to See Performed: “Onna no Ronsou”
Favorite Food: Chocolate, rice cookies
Place He’d Like to Go on Vacation: America

Shirota Yuu was born on December 26th in Tokyo, Japan, to a Japanese father and Spanish mother. He lived in Barcelona, Spain, until he was two before moving back to Japan to start school.

He is a Japanese actor and singer, probably most notable for his roles as Tezuka Kunimitsu in The Prince of Tennis Musicals, The Prince of Tennis Live-Action Movie, and as Tuxedo Kamen in the Sailor Moon Musicals. He is also part of Watanabe Entertainment’s D-BOYS, a young men’s stage acting troupe.

He’s also released an Idol DVD called With U.

Filmography
2005 - Hice Cool as Makoto
2006 - Pink no Idenshi Nakajo TV drama Appears in Episode 12
2006 - Kami wa Saikoro wo Furanai N/A TV drama Appears in Episode 7
2006 - The Prince of Tennis as Tezuka Kunimitsu
2006 - June Bride as Natsumi
2006 - The Hit Parade as Mickey Curtis
2007 - Heat Island as Aki