KAT-TUN

KAT-TUN is a Japanese pop group from Johnny & Associates. The group consists of six members: Kamenashi Kazuya, Akanishi Jin, Taguchi Junnosuke, Tanaka Koki, Ueda Tatsuya and Nakamaru Yuichi. The name of the group was formed using the initials of each member’s surname.

KAT-TUN has performed in several musicals such as SHOCK, which was lead by Domoto Koichi of Kinki Kids. In 2004, they were the back ups for Hideaki Takizawa of Tackey and Tsubasa when he performed DREAM BOY. Kamenashi Kazuya got the leading role for DREAM BOY in 2005 and in the same year, they performed together with NEWS in SUMMARY.

Despite having formed in 2001, they made their official debut on March 22, 2006 with the release of debut single Real Face, album Best of KAT-TUN and DVD Real Face Film. The release of single, album and DVD was a great success. The group broke several records such as ranking #1 on the Singles, Album and DVD sales on the Oricon charts. Their debut single and DVD sales were the highest in the Japanese music history and sales for Real Face reached one million copies within the span of two months.
SIGNAL, their second single, was released four months later on July 19. The single was ranked #1 on the Oricon charts and more than half a million copies were sold. KAT-TUN did another musical for DREAM BOYS 2006 together with Kanjani8 where Kamenashi Kazuya and Akanishi Jin were in the leading roles. The group was enjoying their success when on October that year, it was announced that one of the members, Akanishi Jin, would go on hiatus to study in the US. On December 7, they proceed to release the group’s third single, Bokura no Machi de, without Jin who was one of their lead vocalists. And again, it topped the Oricon charts making it their third #1 single.

KAT-TUN’s popularity spread not only in Japan itself but they have large fan base in Europe and North America and especially in other Asian countries. Besides singing and dancing in the band, each of the members is busy with other things such as acting in various doramas as well.

KAT-TUN is a J-pop group from Johnny & Associates, made up of six young Japanese men.
The group's name is an acronym formed by the members' name initials (Kamenashi, Akanishi, Taguchi, Tanaka, Ueda, Nakamaru).
The name "KAT-TUN" can also be linked to the English word "cartoon" (= manga).

Like most of Johnny's other groups, KAT-TUN not only sings and dances, but the members also act and star in commercials. They are one of the most popular talent idol groups in Japan at the moment, and have released a debut CD ("Best of KAT-TUN"), single ("Real Face") and DVD ("Real Face Film"), setting records in album sales (they topped all three charts in Japan).

KAT-TUN is not only famous in Japan, but also in other parts of Asia and they are known to J-pop enthusiasts in Europe and the USA,
thanks to technology (particularly the Internet, there are various websites, fanlistings and forums dedicated to KAT-TUN - like this one, lol!).

Despite the fact that a professional debut was missing from their career, KAT-TUN's popularity was huge. Their first concert tickets were immediately sold out and they continued to hold concerts every year. Before they debuted, the media attention on them was equal to a senior Johnny's group, which was practically unheard of.

Their concerts:

Since getting the opportunity to perform their own concert for the first time 2002, KAT-TUN regularly holds concerts during almost every season of the year in Japan. This helped them gain more popularity with the fans. It was considered remarkable for a Johnny's group which had not yet officially debuted to be able to hold its own concerts. Their first major concert was called LIVE KAIZOKUBAN, held in early 2005, which was followed by their debut concert tour called REAL FACE CONCERT TOUR in spring 2006.

- Okyakusama wa Kamisama - Concert 55mannin Ai no Request ni Kotaete [2002]
- Kotoshi Ah! Taihen Thank U Natsu [2003]
- KAT-TUN no Odaiba de SHOW [2003]
- Johnny's Countdown 2003-2004
- SUMMARY of Johnny's World [2004]
- KAT-TUN Live Kaizokuban [2004]
- Johnny's Big Surprise! Countdown 2004-2005
- Spring '05 LOOKING KAT-TUN [2005]
- Looking '05 KAT-TUN [2005]
- Johnny's Countdown 2005-2006
- KAT-TUN Special Tokyodome Concert Debut "Real Face" [2006]
- Spring Tour '06 Live of KAT-TUN "Real Face" [2006]
- Johnny's Countdown 2006-2007
- Cartoon KAT-TUN II You Concert Tour [2007]
- KAT-TUN III - Queen of Pirates [2008]

Butai (theatre/musicals):

- Endless SHOCK (with Domoto Koichi) [2002]
- DreamBoy (with Takizawa Hideaki) [2004]
- DreamBoy (with Kanjani8) [2004]
- Hey! Say! Dream Boy (Kamenashi replaced Tackey; with Kanjani8) [2005]
- DREAMBOYS 2006 [2006]
- DreamBoys [2007 & 2008]

Musicals
KAT-TUN has appeared in numerous musicals. The most famous one is perhaps SHOCK (lead star Koichi Domoto). In 2004, they backed up Hideaki Takizawa in his first solo musical, DREAM BOY. The musical's lead was given to Kamenashi Kazuya in 2005, as Takizawa was busy shooting the Taiga drama Yoshitsune. SUMMARY is yet another musical in which KAT-TUN performed with other groups including NewS.
KAT-TUN's latest musical was called "DREAM BOYS 2006" which was co-starred by Kanjani8 (関ジャニ∞). Kamenashi played the lead role in Dream Boy 2006, with major supporting roles by Shibutani Subaru, Nikishido Ryo and Akanishi Jin.

TV Shows they appeared in:

- Pop Jam
- Hadaka ni Shounen
- Yoru mo Hippare!
- Shounen Club (+ Shounen Club Premium)
- Minna no Terebi
- KAT-TUN x3
- KAT-TUN Da!
- Utawara HOT Hit 10
- Utawara
- Cartoon KAT-TUN (their own TV Show)

TV Shows
In 2005, KAT-TUN became a regular participant in the variety show Utawara HOT Hit 10 formerly known as Minna no Terebi, with another Johnny's member, Jun Matsumoto from ARASHI. They also host the Shōnen Club on NHK. Other TV shows they have appeared on include Yoru mo Hippare and Hadaka no Shōnen.

Radios
· KAT-TUN Style
Host: Koki Tanaka and Junnosuke Taguchi
· R-One KAT-TUN
Wednesday 24:00 - 24:30
Tatsuya Ueda and Yuichi Nakamaru

KAT-TUN regularly stars in TV commercials of two brands, Crunky (chocolate wafer/cookie snack) and +X (flavored chewing gum) by Lotte.
Kamenashi and Akanishi also starred in the Nintendo commercial for "Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix," a game based loosely on the hit arcade series, created for the Nintendo GameCube game console, as well as an Oronamin C commercial with Ueto Aya and various DoCoMo cellphone ads.
KAT-TUN has also appeared in commercials for a line of lipgloss and contact solutions by Rohto.
Akanishi and Tanaka starred in commercials for Rohto "OXY".
Kamenashi starred in a commercial for Rohto "Zi".
Latest DoCoMo 9 Series CM with new single 'Signal'.
Ueda starred the commercial for Rohto Fruits.
Junnosuke starred in the commercial for Colo Galita
Junnosuke and Nakamaru starred in the Sky Perfect TV commercial

Not your regular Johnny's group

If you think that KAT-TUN sounds anything like V6, Arashi or NEWS, then I guess you are wrong. I was quite surprise when I first listened to their debut single, Real Face, and album, Best of KAT-TUN. None of the songs sounded like a boy band song. Most of their songs are pop-rock. Vocals wise, it was not a surprise that Akanishi Jin always got the harder parts as his vocal range is much wider than the rest of the other members, but, it was still average. If you are a first time listener to KAT-TUN, then I would recommend you to listen to their chart topper singles: Real Face, SIGNAL and Bokura no Machi de. All of the three songs are my favourites from them so far. Songs like She Said and Wilds of My Heart are some of the catchy ones from their album. If you prefer ballads, then I would recommend you to try out Le Ciel and I’ll Be With You. All of them are good actors (except for Ueda who hasn’t acted in a single drama) especially Kamenashi Kazuya. Anyways, if you love boy bands from Johnny’s then you’ll definitely love KAT-TUN.

Gave up on the idea of making a debut
Although KAT-TUN has been around for 5 years, watching 3 other groups Takki & Tsubasa, NEWS and Kanjani 8 make their debut one after another was painful for the members. At one time, they toyed with the idea of leaving the agency and work elsewhere. Some of them even felt that as long as they stayed on, the debut wasn't that important after all since they had lost hope in this possibility. However, Johnny-san told them suddenly in 2003 that the coming year would be important for them and the debut finally materialised 3 years later.

Shuuji to Akira's debut
At the time when the CD release of Shuuji to Akira was decided, KAT-TUN had to contend with two different types of feelings. They had just released a DVD and were feeling more positive about the future but the debut of Shuuji to Akira dashed their hopes of a CD debut. This led the members to wonder why the agency did this and Kamenashi even called Johnny-san personally to protest against this decision since he wanted KAT-TUN to release a CD first. However, Johnny-san said that his decision was final and he has separate plans for KAT-TUN. He ordered Kamenashi to follow the work arrangements instead of complaining.

Quarrels between the members
When KAT-TUN was initially formed, they had numerous quarrels and even fights among themselves about work issues or even trivial matters. During the time when they were having a 2-month run for a stage play, the 6 people were stuck in a small resting room which led to more intense quarrels. In particular, Akanishi and Taguchi got into arguments most often. Taguchi was said to be especially aggressive when he was playing games and would scream at people to die.

Quarrel which almost led to their disband
The furore arose because Nakamaru made a mistake on stage and the other members scolded Ueda for following Nakamaru's wrong move. Later, Kamenashi entered the backstage dressing room and joined the others in scolding him. That led to Ueda punching him and Kamenashi wanted out of the group. Kamenashi even went to look for Johnny-san personally for this. On the following day, Johnny-san complimented Kamenashi for having the guts to pick a fight which somehow made the latter cool down without KAT-TUN having to disband.

Problems with their seniors
When KAT-TUN was still doing back-up dances for their seniorss, it was normal for them to try showing their cool sides on screen to gain more attention. However, KAT-TUN was scolded by the seniors for various reasons e.g. they did not dance well and they were not synchronised at all. They were told to retreat to the back of the stage which made them feel worse.

KAT-TUN also mentioned during the programme that among their seniors, Takizawa Hideaki is the one who understands them most and would constantly praise and encourage them. Besides that, TOKIO also spoke good things of KAT-TUN during their concerts.

Although KAT-TUN did not mention which senior/group treated them badly, the only groups which they did back-up dancing for were KinKi Kids, V6, Arashi and Takki & Tsubasa. There were rumours of KAT-TUN fans disrupting order during Arashi and V6 concerts which may have led to problems.