a-nation
A-Nation (stylized as a-nation) is the name of an annual series of summer concerts that are held in various cities in Japan. Organized by Avex Group, Japan's biggest independent record label, this series features the most successful artists signed onto Avex Trax or other labels of the group (although some artists from other Japanese labels also participate here). A-Nation began in 2002 and is held each weekend during August of each year. Top Avex artists such as Ayumi Hamasaki, Kumi Koda, AAA, Ai Otsuka, BoA, Do As Infinity, TVXQ, Super Junior, Hitomi and SHINee perform at A-Nation every year.
Sonar Pocket (ソナーポケット), also known as SonaPoke (ソナポケ), is a Japanese pop group that consists of three members from the city of Nagoya. They debuted under Universal Music Japan in 2008 with the single "Promise" and two year later they transferred label to Tokuma Japan Communications, releasing their seventh single "Never Give Up!".
In April 2005, the band was formed with the name "e Sonar Pocket" in Nagoya by Eyeron . Seven months after that, DJ's matty who changed from a bass player to a truck maker joined and the activity as Sonar Pocket started full-scale.
The origin of "Sonar Pocket" is named from the desire to deliver songs close to the heart that can be carried and carried in "pocket" at any time.
After the energetic live activity in local Nagoya from the beginning of formation, in 2008, major single "Promise" was debuted.
In 2010, "Your Song" was selected as Takeda Pharmaceutical "Alinamin" CM song, widening the awareness in the tearoom. The 2nd album "Sonarpoke ism 2 - Your song" marked the 10th place on the Oricon weekly chart.
9 consecutive songs achieved 1st place in download chart at Recochoku. On the 3rd album "Sonarpoke ism 3 - 365th with you" was the second place on the Oricon weekly chart.
The first Martial Arts Center One Man Live that was held in 2012, became a premier live of ticket quick completion. After that, the first live DVD "Sonarpoke ism SPECIAL - Natsu no Tachi in Nippon Budokan" recorded 3rd place of the Oricon Weekly Chart DVD comprehensive first appearance. In 2012 "oricon Sound Blowin '10th Anniversary Supported by NTT West", Sonar Pocket sang "Your songs" at about 2,200 people for 3 minutes and was certified as Guinness World Record.
In February 2015, their 5th album "Sonarpoke ism 5 - Reason for smiling." ranked 5th place on the Oricon Weekly Chart. And on their own largest tour, they have 48 performances nationwide at 41 venues and a national tour with 80,000 total mobilizers succeeded to pay. In their 6th album "Sonarpoke ism 6 - Songs awaited with love ~" , it ranked the 5th place on Oricon weekly chart.
In 2016, Sonar Pocket organized the National Hall & Arena Tour "Sonapoke Iris JAPAN TOUR ~ 7th Anniversary Special ~" and decorated the tour finals at Saitama Super Arena Concert 2DAYS.
Since the year 2017 Sonar Pocket chapter 2 was raised, a national tour "Sonar Pocket JAPAN TOUR 2017 ~ Reload ~" was held and mobilized about 50,000 people. In the same year, three new releases of 25th single "One Lifetime Moment", 26th Single "Tearless Male and Female Story", 27th Single "Tearful Snow" were released.
In 2018, to mark the tenth anniversary of major debut, they announced the holding of a national tour "Sonar Pocket 10th Anniversary Tour flower" from October.
SKE48 (S.K.E. Forty-eight) are a Japanese idol girl group produced by Yasushi Akimoto. The group performs at SKE48 Theater on 2F of Sunshine Sakae, a shopping center in Sakae, Nagoya. Avex Group is its current official label. SKE48 was founded based on the concept of "idols you can meet". The group's chief producer Yasushi Akimoto once said that his aim was to create an idol group that is unlike any other ordinary idol groups (who only give occasional concerts and mostly seen on TV).
SKE48 would perform in its own theater regularly, and fans would always be able to watch the girls performing live. The SKE48 Theater is in the Sunshine Sakae of Nagoya, Aichi. Members of this group are dispatched into three groups, chronologically named "Team S", "Team KII" and "Team E". Kenkyūsei (trainees) is the group of members training to be promoted into one of these teams.
Yasushi Akimoto was offered the chance to start a production in Nagoya along with the renewal of the Sunshine Sakae 2F, when he was thinking of expanding his "48 project" nationwide. He had offers from outside Japan, but he decided to use Nagoya as the place to move on with the project. The name "SKE" comes from "Sakae" in the Naka district in Nagoya. Akimoto said that selected members from AKB48 and SKE48 may release a single together. They released their first single in 2009.
In AKB48's single "Ōgoe Diamond", Jurina Matsui became the center and the first and only member of SKE48 to be featured on a single cover and in the song itself. Including Matsui, some members of SKE48 have appeared in the PV, marking the first collaboration made by the two groups so far.
On May 28, 2011, Avex picked up SKE48 and were to release their debut single under the label called “Pareo wa Emerald” on July 27, 2011.
On August 25, it was announced that SKE48 member Yui Matsushita would leave the group at the end of September 2011 due to ankle injuries.
On August 7, 2012, SKE48 member and captain of Team S, Hirata Rikako announced her graduation to pursue a career as a reporter.
On the first day of the Tokyo Dome Concert held on August 24, 2012, it was announced that Rie Kitahara of AKB48, Team K would hold a concurrent position in SKE48. Anna Ishida of Team KII would hold a concurrent position in AKB48, Team B.
On November 1, it was announced that Kumi Yagami, one of the group's first generation members, would graduate but the date was not announced.
On December 9, SKE48CAFE&SHOP with AKB48 was opened to the building 5F with a theater. There is a cooking menu that the members of SKE48 devised.
On January 15, 2013, it was announced that eight members, three from Team S, two each from Team KII and E, and one kenkyusei, would graduate from the group, along with Yagami (whose graduation was already announced in November 2012) sometime in the spring 2013.
On April 13, it was announced that teams were to be reorganized and nine kenkyusei members would be promoted to full members. Yuka Nakanishi became the captain of SKE48 as well as leader of Team S, and Rena Matsui was promoted to leader of Team E. Rie Kitahara, who was in both SKE48 and AKB48, was removed from SKE48's lineup during the final concert of "AKB48 Group Rinji Soukai" concert series at the Nippon Budokan on 28 April, with her final theater performance as a SKE48 member on May 9.
On February 24, 2014 it was announced that Rena Matsui would hold a concurrent position with Nogizaka46 after teams were reorganized and kenkyusei members were promoted to full members. Concurrent member with SKE48 and AKB48 Mina Ōba was fully transferred to SKE48 Team KII and other members from AKB48, NMB48, and HKT48 were permanently transferred or given concurrent positions in SKE48. Former Team K member Miyazawa Sae was transferred from SNH48 and appointed the new leader of Team S.
On March 15, 2015, the members who passed the seventh generation audition were revealed.
On June 6, 2015, SKE48 became the first sister group to have more members rank in the annual Single Senbatsu Sousenkyo than AKB48. In 2015, SKE48 released two singles. A third release was published under the label "Love Crescendo" and was promoted as SKE48's first sub project.
Da-ice (stylized as Da-iCE), is a 5-member Japanese male vocal and dance group signed to Universal Music Japan's Universal Sigma label. They are managed by Avex Management Inc. The group, consisting of 2 vocalists with a four-octave vocal range and 3 dancers, was formed in 2011.
They made their major debut in 2014. From May to September 2012, Da-iCE performed as the opening act for their agency mates AAA in "AAA Tour 2012 -777- Triple Seven". This significantly widened their exposure to the public, and by the end of the tour their Twitter followers had grown from about 2,000 to over 10,000. On 12 December 2012, the group released their self-titled debut indie mini-album. It ranked 1st on the Recochoku ringtone daily chart, and reached a peak of number 15 on the Oricon Daily Albums Chart.
SOLIDEMO is a vocal group consisting of eight male members whose heights are all over 180cm. SOLIDEMO means SOLID = Too Cool and EMO = Abbreviation for emotional, adding these two will make "Solid and Emotional guys".
After making a debut, they have been acting actively abroad. In May, they performed in "Thailand Comic Con 2014" as a "representative of Japanese handsome boy", which was their first live concert.
In June, they performed the live concert in nakata.net café" in San Paulo, Brazil, while FIFA World Cup Brazil was held, and succeeded in it.
In Japan, both the 2nd single album "Heroine" and 3rd single album "Rafflesia" released were used in theme song and opening song of "First Class" series, which is Fuji TV drama where Erika Sawajiri is a heroin.
These activities are evaluated and awarded in December 2014 "Rookie award" of Japan Record Award.
Winner (Hangul: 위너) is a South Korean boy group formed in 2013 by YG Entertainment and debuted in 2014. It currently consists of four members, Jinwoo, Seunghoon, Mino and Seungyoon. Originally a five-piece, Taehyun later departed from the group in November 2016.
After several delays, the group made their Korean debut at the YG Family Concert on August 15, 2014. Their broadcast debut was on Inkigayo on August 17. On September 10, the group debuted in Japan. They won a number of awards for Best New Artist in 2014, including at the Mnet Asian Music Awards, the Melon Music Awards, and the Golden Disc Awards.
In 2010, the group's leader Kang Seung-yoon was a contestant on the singing contest Superstar K2, reaching the final four. The following year, he signed with YG Entertainment and made his acting debut in the sitcom High Kick: Revenge of the Short Legged. In 2013, he debuted as a solo artist and released multiple tracks, including "It Rains".
FREAK is a chorus group of four Japanese men, formed in December, 2012 and based in Fukuoka prefecture. This group belongs to Avex Entertainment.
In December 2013, the 1st Single "Movin 'On" was released with 2 songs.In July 2014, they released the 1st Mini Album "NO TURNING BACK" with 7 songs. The lead track "Movin 'On" is responsible for producing by Masaya Wada. In March 2017, their first acoustic live "FREAK White Day Premium Acoustic Live 2017" was held sucessfully and drew a lot of attention from audiences.
Lol is a singing and dancing group under Avex Trax. They debuted on August 12, 2015, with the song "fire!". They were formed on September 2014 by Avex Trax.
Their name comes from the slang word "lol" meaning to "laugh out loud", thus producing their concept of wanting to be a group that makes people smile and can impress people as well. Their song "Heartbeat" was used as the opening song for the anime "Tribe Cool Crew". Their fan name is "lol family".
Faky is a four-person Japanese girl group that debuted in 2013 under Avex's Rhythm Zone record label. The band name was created by combining the two words "fantastic" and "tokyo", and also stands for Five Ass Kicking Youngsters. Their first music video, Better Without You, was released on March 29, 2013. Their first album was released through iTunes on May 28, 2014.
In October 2015, the group returned from being on hiatus for more than year. During this time, Akina joined the group while Diane and Tina left. Three singles were released with an EP the following year entitled "Candy."
In 2016 they joined to the supergroup from avex "FAMM’IN", along with the duo FEMM and the singer/songwriter Yup’in. Their first physical album "Unwrapped" was released on 14 June 2017.
MAGIC PRINCE is a rising idol group from Watanabe Entertainment comprised of five young boys that was born and grew up in Tokai Region in Japan. The five of them was chosen from “NAGOYA BOYS” audition back then in March 2015, winning against 2000 competitors. They major debuted in December 2015 with their first single “Zettai Aishiteru”.
The group consists of five boys that is assigned with different color that matched their image. All five of them has very different characteristics from each other, so their interaction is really unique.
The Kyoto star (Nine Stars) is a 4-man male idol group in Japan. It was formed on May 20, 2017 by an audition organized by Watanabe Entertainment as a group based in the Kyushu district. Members: Yamaguchi Tsuya, Mizuki Ooike, Masaki Nakamura, Yusuke Yabusu.
All four people are about 20 years old. Mr. Yamaguchi received the Grand Prize at a contest of Fukuoka University in 2016, Mr. Yabu is a winner of a semi-Grand Prix and good at calligraphy and archery, Mr. Yamaguchi is a rigid and a Japanese drum enthusiast.
Sonar Pocket, also known as SonaPoke, is a Japanese pop group that consists of three members from the city of Nagoya. They debuted under Universal Music Japan in 2008 with the single "Promise" and two years later they transferred label to Tokuma Japan Communications, releasing their seventh single "Never Give Up!". In 2017 they transferred label to Warner Music Japan.
Sonar Pocket was originally formed as a duo in April 2005 consisting of ko-dai and eyeron. matty joined the group in January 2006 to officially form Sonar Pocket. In September 2008, they made their debut under Universal Music with the single Promise. In September 2010, they released their first single under Tokuma Japan Communications with the single Never Give Up! which was used as the theme song for the anime Digimon Xros Wars. On August 2012, they held their first concert at the Nippon Budokan entitled Sonapokeizm Special - Natsu no Jin - in Nippon Budokan.
Music festival