Hiroshima

Coca-Cola West Hiroshima Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Hiroshima, Japan. It is currently used mostly for football matches and was the home... stadium of Sanfrecce Hiroshima until 1995. The stadium holds 13,800 people.
more

Mana is a Japanese musician and fashion designer, best known for his role as leader and guitarist of the visual kei band Malice Mizer. His clothing... label, Moi-même-Moitié, helped popularize Japan's Gothic Lolita fashion movement. Mana is currently working on his solo project Moi dix Mois. Mana was born on March 19 in Hiroshima. At an early age, he was introduced to classical music by his parents, who were both music teachers. Mana started making music when he was in high school, inspired by Mötley Crüe. His first known band was the punk group Girl'e, active around 1989–1990, which under the name Serina he played guitar for. He then played bass for Matenrou , active 1990–1992. After leaving Matenrou in April 1992, Mana and guitarist Közi founded Malice Mizer in August. Mana was the band's lead guitarist, chief songwriter, choreographer and overall artistic director. He also founded his own indie music label, Midi:Nette, on which most of Malice Mizer's work was released. After Malice Mizer went on an indefinite hiatus in 2001, Mana founded his solo project, Moi dix Mois.
more

Yoshiko Masumoto , better known by her stage name of Miina Tominaga is a Japanese seiyū and tarento from Nishi-ku, Hiroshima. She is currently... attached to Mint Avenue. Tominaga is best known for her roles in Sazae-san , Persia, the Magic Fairy , Mobile Police Patlabor , Maison Ikkoku , Rurōni Kenshin Meiji Kenkaku Romantan , Hell Teacher Nūbē and Bikkuriman 2000 . Tominaga married seiyū Kazuki Yao on June 29, 1990, though they later divorced. On On August 2001 she married Yoshimoto Kogyo tarento Shōichirō Masumoto and gave birth to a daughter on January 2002.
more

Tamio Okuda is a singer, songwriter, and producer. He started his career in 1986 as a member of the band Unicorn. After Unicorn broke up, Okuda... moved on to a solo career in 1994 with the single "Ai no Tame ni." He has written and composed many songs for various artists, particularly Puffy. He is signed to Sony Music Japan. He was ranked number 25 in a list of Japan's top 100 musicians, provided by HMV Japan in 2003. His band Unicorn was also ranked at number 61. Unicorn reunited in 2009.
more

Takuro Yoshida is a Japanese male singer-songwriter. He was born on April 5, 1946 in Okuchi, Kagoshima and raised in Hiroshima. He made his debut... with the single "Imeji no Uta / Maku II" on June 1, 1970. His 1972 recording of "Tabi no Yado" sold over one million copies by September that year, and was awarded a gold disc. Yoshida is an influential musician, whose songs have been featured as television themes , as well as being covered by popular artists like Hirakawachi 1-chome .
more

Eikichi Yazawa is an influential Japanese singer-songwriter, and important figure in Japanese popular music. Yoko Yazawa of The Generous is his... daughter. Yazawa formed the band Carol in 1972, a rockabilly group which became a legend in Japanese music. After the band broke up in 1975, Yazawa flew to the U.S. to start his solo career. His first solo album, I Love You, OK, was recorded at the A&M Studio in Los Angeles and produced by Tom Mack. In 1977, he was the Japanese first solo rock artist to perform at the Budokan hall in Tokyo, to a full crowd of over 13,000 people. He now holds the record of most performances at the Budokan hall, having performed there over 100 times . 1978 was a greatly successful year for Yazawa. His fourth studio album, Gold Rush, went to #1 in the charts. He also held a hugely successful performance at the Korakuen baseball stadium for over 40,000 people. In 1980, Yazawa signed a contract with the Warner Pioneer record company and moved to the West Coast of the United States.
more

Kōji Kikkawa is a Japanese musician. His most recent album is 2009's Double-Edged Sword. Kōji was supposed to represent Japan in water... polo in the coming Olympics but chose to be a singer. His music career began on February 1, 1984 with "Monica" and he won 8 music awards in the same year. After taking a short break in 1988, he came back as a lead singer in the band Complex with Tomoyasu Hotei and "Be My Baby" was released. Complex remained as one of the most popular bands in Japan until 1990. After "Complex", Kōji released series of hit singles such as "Setsunasa O Korosenai", "Kiss Ni Utarete Nemuritai" and "Boy's Life". Kōji completed a "20th Anniversary Tour" at Budokan on February 1, 2005. His latest single is "One World," and is the theme for the 2006 motion picture Kamen Rider Kabuto: God Speed Love. More recently, he had teamed up with popular Japanese DJ TWINS to release a single "Juicy Jungle". Also, DJ TWINS had released an album with remixes of several of Kōji's previous hits.
more

Mana is a Japanese musician and fashion designer, best known for his role as leader and guitarist of the visual kei band Malice Mizer. His clothing... label, Moi-même-Moitié, helped popularize Japan's Gothic Lolita fashion movement. Mana is currently working on his solo project Moi dix Mois. Mana was born on March 19 in Hiroshima. At an early age, he was introduced to classical music by his parents, who were both music teachers. Mana started making music when he was in high school, inspired by Mötley Crüe. His first known band was the punk group Girl'e, active around 1989–1990, which under the name Serina he played guitar for. He then played bass for Matenrou , active 1990–1992. After leaving Matenrou in April 1992, Mana and guitarist Közi founded Malice Mizer in August. Mana was the band's lead guitarist, chief songwriter, choreographer and overall artistic director. He also founded his own indie music label, Midi:Nette, on which most of Malice Mizer's work was released. After Malice Mizer went on an indefinite hiatus in 2001, Mana founded his solo project, Moi dix Mois.
more

Haruka Ayase , born in Hiroshima Prefecture, on March 24, 1985, is a Japanese actress and is also a model. In 1999, she successfully passed a Horipro... audition. She first achieved widespread recognition for her starring roles in the short film Justice; in 2004 she rose to stardom as Aki in the TV series Crying Out Love, In the Center of the World. On March 24, 2006 she released her first single, titled "Period" , the lyrics of which were written by Kaori Mochida from Every Little Thing and Takeshi Kobayashi. Kobayashi, the producer of the single, also composed and arranged the music. She has also released two photo books: Birth in 2001 and Heroine in 2004. Ayase excels in many sports. As a junior high school student she took part in a Chūgoku region Ekiden tournament. When she was a high school student in Hiroshima, she moved to Tokyo and entered Horikoshi High School. In 2003 she entered Teikyo University Junior College in 2003, and later dropped out.
more

Kumi Tanioka is a Japanese video game music composer and musician. She is most known for composing the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles series. Kumi... Tanioka was born in Hiroshima, Japan. She studied music and composition while in school and enjoyed listening to video game music as her younger brother was a game player. Among the composers she grew familiar with were Square employees Hitoshi Sakimoto, Nobuo Uematsu and Kenji Ito. Her favorite classical composers at the time were Piotr Paleczny and Hiromi Uehara. Tanioka attended Kobe University, where she studied music and joined a choir. Although she had planned on performing music as a career, during college she became more interested in composing than performance, and in video game composition because of her childhood experiences. After graduating, she joined Square as a composer in 1998. Her first score was the soundtrack to 1998's The Fallen Angels, which she composed with Masaki Izutani. That same year, she composed her first soundtrack to a game in the Chocobo series, Chocobo's Dungeon 2, with Yasuhiro Kawakami, Tsuyoshi Sekito and Kenji Ito.
more

Eiji Oue is a Japanese conductor. Oue began his conducting studies with Hideo Saito of the Toho Gakuen School of Music. In 1978, Seiji Ozawa invited... him to spend the summer studying at the Tanglewood Music Center. While there, he met Leonard Bernstein, who became a mentor. Oue won the Tanglewood Koussevitzky Prize in 1980. He also studied under Bernstein as a conducting fellow at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. Oue was music director of the Erie Philharmonic from 1990 to 1995. He has also served as associate conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. From 1995 to 2002, he was music director of the Minnesota Orchestra. During his Minnesota tenure, the orchestra saw its attendance decline from 84% to 69% in capacity. Oue served as Music Director of the Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming from 1997 to 2003. Following a tour in 1997 with the NDR Philharmonie Hannover, Oue was subsequently appointed its principal conductor in September 1998. In 2003, he was appointed principal conductor of the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra. Oue made his debut at the Bayreuth Festival in 2005 conducting Tristan und Isolde.
more

Hideki Saijō , born April 13, 1955 in Hiroshima is a Japanese singer and television celebrity most famous for singing the Japanese version of... the Village People's hit song Y.M.C.A., called Young Man. Although the original version was camp, Saijō's version was intended to seriously inspire "young men". Saijō's career spans over three decades. Saijo has endured the ups and downs of the fickle Japanese music buying public and has steadily remained in the public eye. He gained popularity again in the 1990s in the cartoon Chibi Maruko-chan and by releasing a cover version of the Enrique Iglesias song Bailamos. He also sang the Theme song and became the character in The Emperor's New Groove and also performed Turn A Turn, the first opening theme song for ∀ Gundam. In 2003, around the time that his 85th single was to be released, he suffered a mild stroke while performing overseas in Korea. With rehabilitation, hard work and dedication, in 2006, he released his 86th single, "Meguriai". Lyrics were set to André Gagnon's "Comme au Premier Jour".
more

Taeko Nakanishi is a Japanese voice actor who works for Aoni Production. She is best known as the voices of the various Panther Claw villiains in... Cutie Honey, and Makaiju in the first arc of the Sailor Moon R series. She also voiced Chris MacNeil in the original Japanese dub of The Exorcist.
more