💌 What does an artist owe their fans? For Number_i — the J-pop trio that headlined 88rising's Coachella stage, signed with Hollywood powerhouse WME, and just hit No.1 on Japan's biggest chart — the answer arrives this summer in the form of their first-ever fan meeting. Three former King & Prince members. Two cities. Five shows. A fanbase called "iLYs." Here's the story of how Japan's most ambitious globe-trotting trio still treats their home audience like family.

Number_i's First Fan Meeting: A Love Letter to "iLYs"

On May 8, 2026, Number_i announced something their fanbase has been waiting two years for: the group's first-ever fan meeting. The dates run across two of Japan's biggest entertainment cities.

The Osaka leg lands on July 21 and 22 at Osaka-jo Hall — a 16,000-capacity venue that sits inside the grounds of Osaka Castle, one of Japan's most iconic historical landmarks. The Tokyo leg follows from August 25 to 27 at TOYOTA ARENA TOKYO, a brand-new 10,000-seat multipurpose venue that only opened in October 2025 on the waterfront in Tokyo's Odaiba district.

In Japan, a "fan meeting" — usually shortened to "fan-mi" (ファンミ) — is a distinct format from a concert. It's closer in spirit to a Korean-style fan event: shorter songs, more talking, games, audience interaction, and a sense that the artists and fans are sharing a room rather than separated by a stage. For a group that has spent the past two years on massive arena tours and overseas festival stages, this represents a deliberate shift back to intimacy.

The trio's fans even have an official name: iLYs (pronounced "I-lies"), unveiled by the group in June 2024. The name is built from "I Love You's" — a literal embedding of affection into the fandom identity.

Who Are Number_i? Background for First-Time Readers

For readers outside Japan, here's the short version: Number_i is the most-watched J-pop group of the moment, and one of the most unusual.

The three members — Sho Hirano, Yuta Jinguji, and Yuta Kishi — were previously members of King & Prince, a chart-topping six-member idol group under the legendary Japanese talent agency once known as Johnny & Associates (now called STARTO Entertainment after a major restructuring in 2023). In 2023, the three left the agency together and joined TOBE, a newer agency founded by Hideaki Takizawa, himself a former Johnny's superstar who had risen to executive ranks within the old company before stepping down to start fresh.

Number_i officially debuted in January 2024. Their debut single "GOAT," a hip-hop-leaning track that consciously broke from the bright, polished idol-pop template the members had been known for, instantly went viral. They have since topped Japan's Billboard JAPAN Hot 100 multiple times, headlined 25 shows across Japan's biggest arenas drawing roughly 300,000 fans in their 2025 "No.II" tour, and become Japan's most consequential test case for whether a male-idol-rooted group can pivot toward a global hip-hop/R&B audience.

The Global Push: From Coachella to WME

The fan meeting announcement lands at a peculiar moment in Number_i's trajectory — because while domestic Japanese fans are getting their most intimate experience yet, the group has spent the past two years stacking up firsts on the international stage.

In April 2024, just three months after debuting, Number_i performed at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California, joining the 88rising "Futures" stage — the Asian-music-focused showcase that has helped launch Joji, Rich Brian, and NIKI to American audiences. They were one of the very first J-pop boy groups to perform at Coachella in any capacity. In June 2025, they returned to California for HEAD IN THE CLOUDS Los Angeles, the flagship 88rising festival held at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. In April 2025 they joined 88rising and Hong Kong-Korean superstar Jackson Wang on the remix "GBAD" — a song that consciously positioned Number_i as part of the pan-Asian creative network 88rising has been building.

Then in February 2026 came the headline news: Number_i signed with WME (William Morris Endeavor), one of the world's largest talent agencies, whose music roster includes Bruno Mars, Billie Eilish, and dozens of other arena-scale artists. WME now handles Number_i's worldwide agency business, while TOBE retains management at home. It is one of the largest deals any Japanese music act has ever struck with a Hollywood agency.

Against this backdrop — a group clearly aiming at global scale — the announcement of an intimate fan meeting in Japan reads less like a step backward and more like a statement: no matter how big the international stages get, the iLYs come first.

Love Made Tangible: 3XL, Spotify Pop-Ups, and DAiLY Playlists

If the fan meeting feels like a love letter, recent months have been littered with smaller ones.

On April 27, 2026, Number_i released their 3rd single "3XL", a love song produced by member Sho Hirano himself. The title plays on "3 × Love" — a love from three people, sized "3XL" for "extra-extra-extra large." The track topped the Billboard JAPAN Hot 100 in both February (when it was first released digitally) and again in May during the physical single release week, a chart pattern that suggests strong, sustained fan investment rather than a one-week spike.

During Japan's "Golden Week" holidays in early May, Number_i teamed up with Spotify on a pop-up experience called "3XL i-Charger Station" at MIYASHITA PARK in Shibuya. The pop-up recreated the world of the "3XL" music video as a physical space, with the group's music playing through the area, digital signage takeovers across Shibuya streets, and a free-to-join stamp rally inviting fans to visit multiple locations. The point wasn't just to promote the single — it was to give fans something to physically walk through and carry home as a memory tied to the song.

Going back a few months further, in January 2026 Number_i released three free playlist albums — "DAiLY&SUN," "DAiLY&LOVE," and "DAiLY&CHILL" — built around the concept "Number_i in your daily life." The word "DAiLY" is a deliberate fusion of "day" and "iLYs." Each playlist soundtracks a different time of day (morning, afternoon, evening), with the members themselves participating as voice navigators between tracks. The idea: their music shouldn't only live in concert halls. It should fit into the bus ride to work and the wind-down before sleep.

Seen together, this is a pattern. Number_i keeps inventing new shapes for the same gesture: hand-delivered affection to the fans who built their career.

Tickets and Venues: What Fans Need to Know

Both venues are highly accessible, even for fans traveling from overseas.

Osaka-jo Hall (July 21–22) sits inside Osaka Castle Park, a short walk from Osakajokoen Station on the JR Osaka Loop Line — roughly a 15-minute ride from Osaka Station, central Osaka's main hub. The hall is one of Japan's most storied concert venues, having hosted everyone from Whitney Houston to Mariah Carey to virtually every major J-pop and J-rock act of the past 40 years. Capacity sits at roughly 16,000.

TOYOTA ARENA TOKYO (August 25–27) is Tokyo's newest large-scale venue, having only opened in October 2025 on the site of the former MEGA WEB and Palette Town complex in the Odaiba waterfront district. Reachable in 4 minutes on foot from Aomi Station on the Yurikamome line, or 5 minutes from Tokyo Teleport Station on the Rinkai line, the arena holds approximately 8,000 for concerts and was built with state-of-the-art LED screens, ribbon vision, and acoustic design.

Official ticket information will be announced via the Number_i Fan Club "TOBE FAMILY" and the Number_i official website. For Japanese arena shows, tickets are typically distributed through a lottery system rather than first-come-first-served, with fan club members getting priority access. Prices for J-pop arena fan meetings typically range from ¥9,000 to ¥13,000 (roughly $57–$83 USD at current exchange rates), though Number_i has not yet confirmed final pricing.

Overseas fans should also note: many Japanese concert venues require ID-matched ticket entry for in-demand shows, which can complicate resale. Watching the official channels closely is essential.

So How About in Your Country?

In Japan, the fan-artist relationship has its own grammar. Fan clubs are major institutions. Fan names like "iLYs" aren't marketing afterthoughts — they're built into how fans introduce themselves to each other. Fan meetings, separate from concerts, are treated as a distinct art form. And artists like Number_i invest serious money and creative attention into building physical experiences (the Spotify pop-up, the DAiLY playlists, the fan meeting format itself) that say, in many small ways: we see you, and we are making this for you.

But all of that is still mostly happening on Japanese soil. The Coachella stages and the WME deal have built a global awareness of Number_i — but the question remains whether the group will ever bring this kind of fan-first, intimacy-driven event format to fans outside Japan.

Do you live somewhere Number_i has performed, or somewhere you're still waiting for them to visit? How does fandom culture look in your country — do you have your own equivalent of "iLYs"? Let us know in the comments.

References