J-pop Idols Arashi Returns in November

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Japanese idol group Arashi returns to Seoul for a series of concerts in November as part of its Asian tour.

One of the most popular J-pop groups in Korea, Arashi will hold concerts Nov. 1-2 at the Olympic Fencing Stadium, Olympic Park, southern Seoul.

The "Arashi Around Asia" tour kicked off Sept. 5 with the group's first outdoor concert at the National Stadium, Tokyo. Arashi will perform in Taipei, Taiwan Oct. 11-12, and Shanghai, China Nov. 15.

Arashi first performed in Korea in September 2006, as Japan's representative to the 2006 Asia Song Festival in Gwangju. The group returned in November of the same year for four sold-out concerts at Olympic Hall.

Arashi, one of the idol groups under Johnny's Entertainment, was formed in 1999. Arashi, which means storm in Japanese, is composed of Masaki Aiba, Jun Matsumoto, Kazunari Ninomiya, Satoshi Ohno and Sho Sakurai.

This year, Arashi completed their first "dome" tour, holding concerts at dome stadiums in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka and Sapporo. The "Arashi Marks 2008 Dream-A-live" reportedly attracted a total audience of 440,000.

Arashi released their eighth studio album "Dream-A-Live," which debuted at number one on the Oricon charts. Also this year, the group released three single albums, "Step and Go," "One Love" and "Truth/ Kaze no Mukou e," as well as a concert DVD "Summer Tour 2007 ― Final Time."

The group's members are also hosts of weekly television shows such as "VS Arashi" and "Arashi's Secret." Aside from their activities as a group, members also appear individually in dramas, movies and television shows.

Matsumoto gained fans around Asia for his role as Tsukasa Domyouji in "Boys Over Flowers," a drama adaptation of the Japanese comic of the same name. He starred in films such as "Tokyo Tower" and the remake of Akira Kurosawa's "Hidden Fortress."

Ninomiya, also an actor, received critical acclaim for his role in Clint Eastwood's Oscar-nominated film "Letters From Iwo Jima." He has appeared in several Japanese dramas such as "Dear Father," and played an autistic marathon runner in the Japanese TV movie "Marathon," based on the hit Korean film of the same name.

Sakurai, a graduate of Keio University, is also a news anchor on NTV's News Zero. He played the lead role in the film "Honey & Clover," and will star in the live action film version of the anime series "Yatterman."

Ohno recently appeared in the Japanese remake of the Korean drama "The Devil," while Aiba is a co-host of the show "Tensai! Shimura Doubutsuen."

source: asianbite
credits: koreatimes, asianfanatics