We are ARASHI: 27 Years with the Storm, and What Comes Next [Part 3]

In 2017, Arashi reigned at the summit of Japanese entertainment. Their run of consecutive No. 1 singles kept growing, they had become a fixture of the Kohaku Uta Gassen and the face of New Year's Eve, and five-dome tours were an annual event. Their fan club had passed 2 million members, and their popularity seemed to be accelerating rather than fading.

But behind that glittering stage, a storm was quietly taking shape.

June 16, 2017: A Hotel Room in Osaka

It all began with a group message from Satoshi Ohno.

"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."

It was the night of June 16, 2017. The event "Arashi no Waku Waku Gakko" was to start the next day at Kyocera Dome Osaka, and the five had arrived early. The four gathered in Ohno's room.

Ohno began: "I want to end my activities with Arashi at the end of 2020. With Arashi's 20th anniversary and 2020 as a milestone, maybe we could fold Arashi for a while and each of the five could go his own way. And, selfish as it is, I want to try living freely for once, without being tied to anything."

In 2022, on TBS's "Kinsuma," Jun Matsumoto revealed Ohno's words that night more specifically: "At first, Ohno talked about 'leaving, wanting to leave' and 'wanting to quit working altogether.'" In other words, Ohno's original intention was not a hiatus. It was leaving the group, and retiring. That was his resolve.

The man who had twice said he wanted to quit before the 1999 debut, and who kept his phone off for two weeks right after it, was once again saying "I want to quit" 18 years later. The seed planted in Part 1 had blossomed here.

The four reacted differently.

Sho Sakurai immediately understood his role: "I thought it would be difficult to decide Arashi's future based on one person's wishes, and at the same time, we couldn't bind someone's life with the wishes of the others. We had to find a landing point everyone could accept. In that moment, I thought that would be my role."

Only Jun Matsumoto says he "wasn't surprised." "I had talked before about closing the group while it was still in good shape." Ohno was not the only one thinking about an ending while at the top.

Masaki Aiba "was so surprised I fell over." Kazunari Ninomiya, whose birthday was the next day, recalls, "I thought it was going to be a celebration."

Afterward, Ohno met each member individually to hear their true feelings. The five talked it over again and again, reported to their agency in February 2018 and made their final decision in June that year. It took about a year to reach the conclusion: "Not a breakup, not a departure, but an indefinite hiatus."

Sakurai says: "Having gone through that period, our bond is the strongest it has ever been."

January 27, 2019: The Sunday That Shook Japan

Sunday, January 27, 2019. At 5 p.m., a video of the five was posted on the fan club site.

"We, Arashi, will suspend our activities as a group as of December 31, 2020."

From 8 p.m. that day, a press conference lasting about an hour and 20 minutes was held at Johnny & Associates in Minato, Tokyo. The five appeared not in dark suits but in natural-colored jackets, out of consideration so that fans wouldn't take it too gravely.

Jun Matsumoto said, "What I feel most strongly is that each of the five of us loves Arashi."

Masaki Aiba asked: "We started these 20 years at our debut saying 'we want to stir up a storm around the world,' but I don't think we've actually done it yet, so when the leader is facing the same direction again, we can stir it up, right?" When Ohno replied, "Shall we stir it up?", Aiba smiled: "Right (laughs). When he's facing that way, that is. Someday."

Kazunari Ninomiya spoke quietly but firmly: "It's a happiness and a joy that the five of us can work together right up to the very end of 2020, so I want to make memories for even one second longer."

A reporter asked, "Isn't this irresponsible?" Sho Sakurai answered firmly: "Our sincerity is that we set a period of almost two years to convey our gratitude. That is our sincerity. We'd like you to judge by that attitude and those actions whether it is irresponsible."

Right after the announcement, Twitter's worldwide trends were filled with Arashi-related topics: No. 1 "hiatus," No. 2 "Johnny's," No. 3 "SMAP." On China's Weibo, posts topped one million. The next day, "#OhnoKunNoNatsuyasumi" (Ohno's summer vacation) became Japan's top trend, proof that fans met Ohno's decision with warmth rather than anger. A rush of people joined the fan club, and membership reached a peak of more than 3 million.

A Tour Held Knowing the End: The Truth About 5×20

The full story of "ARASHI Anniversary Tour 5×20" (November 2018 to December 2019), mentioned in Part 2, must be told here.

It was the largest concert tour in Japanese music history: 50 shows in the five major domes, drawing a total of 2,375,000 people. Designed so that every fan club member could attend at least one show, it was both a "tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary" and, in truth, "a final tour to convey gratitude."

When the tour began in November 2018, the members had already decided on the ending. But fans had not yet been told. Only the five knew the resolve behind their smiles.

After the hiatus announcement on January 27, 2019, the meaning of the tour changed completely, from "celebration" to "farewell." Competition for tickets grew even fiercer, and the weight of a single ticket became incomparably heavier than before.

The final show was at Tokyo Dome on Christmas Day, December 25, 2019. It was broadcast to 617 screens in 329 theaters nationwide, the largest live-viewing event in music history. The film of the tour, "ARASHI Anniversary Tour 5×20 FILM 'Record of Memories'," grossed ¥4.55 billion, the highest ever for a live film by a Japanese artist.

The best-of album released that year, "5×20 All the BEST!! 1999-2019," sold more than 2 million copies, the first double million for a Johnny's act. It won IFPI's "Global Album of 2019" (the best-selling album in the world that year) and was recognized by Guinness World Records the following year.

The best-selling album in the world was the greatest-hits collection of a group facing farewell. The numbers speak eloquently of how much feeling went into it.

Many fans say that during the tour, Satoshi Ohno's expression on stage sometimes changed. Behind his usual easygoing smile was a look of savoring something, of tenderness. He may have been trying to burn into his eyes a view he might never see again. It was the quiet intensity only someone who knows the end can have.

The "Last Year" Taken by COVID-19

2020 was supposed to be the culmination of Arashi's thanks to their fans.

"Arafes 2020" was scheduled for May 15 and 16 at the new National Stadium. A US show at The Forum in Los Angeles was to be the place to fulfill their debut wish to "stir up a storm around the world."

COVID-19 took it all away.

After being postponed, Arafes was streamed on November 3 (the anniversary of their debut) in two parts, pre-recorded at the new National Stadium without an audience, and was watched by an estimated 5 million people. The Los Angeles show was cancelled. Every concert in 2020 was held without an audience.

In their final year before the hiatus, they had no chance at all to meet fans face to face.

This left a deep wound in the five. And that very wound would become the direct motive for the final tour held five years later, in 2026.

At the 62nd Japan Record Awards in 2020, Arashi received a "Special Honor Award" created for them, given to "those who have won broad public support through many years of activity and made a great contribution to the development of music culture." It was their last television performance on TBS before the hiatus.

December 31, 2020: The Night the Storm Passed

New Year's Eve. At 8 p.m., the audience-free live stream "This is Arashi LIVE 2020.12.31" began from Tokyo Dome.

Only the five's voices echoed through a dome of 55,000 empty seats. Every one of those seats should have held a fan's face and feelings.

At 9:30 p.m., the stream paused. The five appeared on the 71st NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen via a broadcast from the concert venue, juggling a live stream and Kohaku at the same time in an unprecedented format.

During "Kite" on Kohaku, the members took turns delivering messages.

Jun Matsumoto's words brought tears across Japan: "In a little over two hours, the new year will begin and our storm, Arashi, will pause for a while. After the storm has passed, may a beautiful sky with a rainbow spread before all of you."

After Kohaku, the five returned to the live stream. In his final words, Matsumoto said: "Johnny-san, thank you for letting me into Johnny's when I was 13." "Being with these five, with these four, is the biggest dream that came true." His voice was trembling.

The date changed. January 1, 2021. The storm had passed.

The new year came. Jun Matsumoto once spoke of an "unwritten rule": "We made sure the four of us were never seen together in public," to avoid giving fans half-hearted expectations. Satoshi Ohno vanished to a remote island in Okinawa, and the remaining four each set off on their own paths.

When would the stopped clock start again? Would it start at all?

Continued in Part 4, "The Stopped Clock Starts Again: 2021-2025, Five Years of Silence and Resolve"

Has a national group's hiatus ever been treated as a major national event in your country?

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