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J-pop boy band Arashi to hold final concert tour before disbanding in 2026
The Straits Times
|May 08, 2025
Fans of popular Japanese boy band Arashi have been hit with bittersweet news from their idols.
The quintet — comprising Satoshi Ohno, Sho Sakurai, Masaki Aiba, Kazunari Ninomiya and Jun Matsumoto — have been on an indefinite hiatus since end-2020, after leader Ohno expressed his desire to take a break from the entertainment industry.
On May 6, the five members appeared together in one frame for the first time since 2020 in a video message uploaded to Arashi's official online fan club.
In it, they announced that they will be reviving their activities as a group and will kick off a concert tour in the spring of 2026, which in Japan generally refers to the months between March and May. And following the end of the tour, Arashi will disband in May 2026.
The announcement was also posted to their social media accounts on the same day, complete with an English translation.
The fan club video marked the first time that Ohno, 44, has made an official on-screen appearance since his hiatus. The rest of the members have continued to be active in show business as solo artistes.
Arashi announced their indefinite hiatus in 2019, and were going to go on tour in 2020. But their plans were thwarted by the Covid-19 pandemic, which halted live entertainment activities that year.
This story is from the May 08, 2025 edition of The Straits Times.
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