We are ARASHI: 27 Years with the Storm, and What Comes Next [Part 2]

For anyone who knows the "years when they didn't sell" described in Part 1, the eleven years told here are nothing short of a miracle. A group that once gave tickets away free would go on to top the annual sales rankings nine times, fill the National Stadium six years in a row and host NHK's Kohaku Uta Gassen again and again.

But Part 2 is not simply a success story. Every summit casts a shadow. At the end of an eleven-year golden age, what waited was a quiet confession on a summer night.

"Hana Yori Dango" Changed Their Fate

In October 2005, Jun Matsumoto played Tsukasa Domyoji in the TBS drama "Hana Yori Dango." The live-action adaptation of a landmark girls' manga stirred both hope and anxiety among fans of the original. Matsumoto brought the arrogant yet pure-hearted heir to life.

The first series averaged 19.8% ratings, with 22.4% for the finale. The theme song "WISH" sold 309,000 copies, and Arashi's slumping single sales turned sharply toward recovery.

Sho Sakurai has named this turning point clearly. On the January 24, 2019 episode of "Sakurai Ariyoshi THE Yakai," he said: "There was a clear turning point for Arashi. It was when MatsuJun was in 'Hana Yori Dango.'"

The January 2007 sequel, "Hana Yori Dango 2 (Returns)," was a big hit, averaging 21.6% with 27.6% for the finale. Its theme song "Love so sweet" sold 457,000 copies. The song has remained a wedding staple ever since and passed 200 million cumulative streams in June 2025. More than 20 years after their debut, "Love so sweet" is still the soundtrack to people's lives.

The Ripple Effect: Five Talents, One Arashi

The impact of "Hana Yori Dango" didn't stop with Matsumoto. The drama's success drew attention to Arashi as a whole, and waiting there were four members who had already been building strength in their own fields.

In October 2006, Sho Sakurai became the Monday anchor of Nippon TV's "NEWS ZERO," beginning an unprecedented career as both idol and newscaster. The same year, Kazunari Ninomiya appeared in Clint Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima," becoming the first Johnny's talent in a film nominated for Best Picture at the 79th Academy Awards. Masaki Aiba had been steadily building goodwill as a regular on "Tensai! Shimura Dobutsuen" since 2004.

Artist, anchor, actor, variety star. Each of the five made a mark in a different field, and all of it flowed back into "Arashi." This cycle of group management is a model Arashi established in the history of Japanese idols.

The Days They Dominated the Annual Charts

In 2008, Arashi shifted into a whole new gear.

"truth/Kaze no Mukou e" sold 726,000 copies and "One Love" 564,000, taking first and second place in Oricon's annual sales ranking.

2009 was even more remarkable, with three singles occupying the annual top three. The best-of album "5×10 All the BEST! 1999-2009" sold about 1.96 million copies. They made their first Kohaku appearance and won Oricon's annual Artist Total Sales award for the first time.

The numbers piled up like an avalanche. Their run of consecutive No. 1 singles reached 47, from "PIKA★★NCHI DOUBLE" in 2004 to "Kite" in 2020 (their 54 total No. 1 singles are an all-time record). They topped the annual artist sales ranking nine times, the most of any artist. Total CD sales reached 43.438 million (third all-time among male groups), and video sales 16.839 million (first all-time among all artists).

The words "we want to be at the top," once laughed at by staff, were proven again and again in numbers.

The National Stadium, a Stage That Belonged to Arashi

On September 5 and 6, 2008, Arashi held concerts at the National Stadium for the first time.

They returned every year through 2013, six years in a row, and their 15 shows there are the most by any artist. In 2010 they drew an estimated 280,000 people over four days. The National Stadium came to be called "Arashi's sacred ground," and whenever another artist took that stage, Arashi's name always came up.

Their dome tours, visiting the five major domes almost every year, kept pushing up their scale. Fan club membership surged in this period, later reaching about 3 million.

Kings of Television: Two Flagship Shows and the Kohaku Stage

Their two flagship shows, "VS Arashi" (Fuji TV, April 2008 to December 2020, 12 years and 8 months) and "Arashi ni Shiyagare" (Nippon TV, April 2010 to December 2020, 10 years and 9 months), both became long-running fixtures of more than ten years. The final episode of "Arashi ni Shiyagare" drew an 18.3% household rating and reached about 40.13 million viewers. The variety skills honed in their late-night years proved they worked in prime time too.

Their involvement with NHK's Kohaku Uta Gassen went far beyond "appearing." After their debut on the show in 2009, they appeared 12 years in a row through 2020. They hosted the White Team as a group for five consecutive years from 2010 to 2014, the first group hosts in the show's history. Aiba (2016), Ninomiya (2017) and Sakurai (2018-2019) also hosted individually, making nine Kohaku hosting stints involving Arashi members. They also closed the show as the final act three times, in 2016, 2018 and 2019.

What the Numbers Don't Say

On New Year's Eve, much of Japan saw out the year watching Arashi. That meant more than "being popular": Arashi had become part of Japan's year-end ritual itself.

Satoshi Ohno's Art: An Artist Beyond the Idol Frame

In 2008, Ohno held his first solo exhibition, "FREESTYLE," at Omotesando Hills; numbered tickets ran out on the first day. Oil paintings, drawings, figures: his work across media broke the assumption that it was just an idol's hobby. He also exhibited in Shanghai in 2015, and his three exhibitions through the 2020 show at Roppongi Hills drew about 120,000 people in total. He painted the jacket art for Arashi's single "Kite" and choreographed their concerts.

Art may have been the place that connected his idol self and his true self. Even so, his conflict about continuing to stand in the spotlight deepened year by year.

5×20: The Start of the Biggest Tour in History

One number symbolizes Arashi's career: 2,375,000.

"ARASHI Anniversary Tour 5×20," which began in November 2018, was a 50-show tour of the five major domes designed so that every fan club member could attend at least one show. The best-of album "5×20 All the BEST!! 1999-2019" sold about 2.18 million copies, the first double million for a Johnny's act, and was named IFPI's "Global Album of 2019," the best-selling album in the world that year.

A culmination of 20 years. The greatest possible thank-you to fans. At this point, fans did not yet know the other truth hidden behind that glittering banner: that the tour was a final gift from "five who had decided on an ending."

That story is told in Part 3.

A Shadow at the Summit: June 16, 2017

In 2017, Arashi stood at the summit of Japanese entertainment. Total CD sales had passed 40 million, fan club membership kept swelling, and their throne in television was unshakable. Every number said, "Arashi is forever."

But somewhere the numbers couldn't reach, a change was taking place.

June 16, 2017. "Arashi no Waku Waku Gakko" was due to be held at Kyocera Dome Osaka the next day, and the members had arrived early. That night, Satoshi Ohno sent a group message to the other four.

"There's something I want to talk about."

"After work, I want us to gather in my room. There's something I want to talk about."

The four gathered in Ohno's room in an Osaka hotel. The man who had twice told Johnny Kitagawa he wanted to quit before debuting, and who had kept his phone off for two weeks right after it, was about to break 18 years of silence.

Arashi's clock quietly began to point in a different direction.

Continued in Part 3, "The Five's Answer, Decided by the Five: 2017-2020.12.31"

Who is an artist or group that defined an era in your country?