Arashi member Kazunari Ninomiya (26) caused an accident while driving on Friday afternoon, hitting a 36-year-old woman on a bicycle and causing minor injuries. The same day, Arashi revealed that they will release a new album and launch a tour later this year.
At about half past noon on Friday, Ninomiya was driving in Tokyo’s Meguro ward. As he approached an intersection with no traffic lights, a woman riding a bicycle came from the side, and Ninomiya’s car bumped the side of her bicycle. Although Ninomiya was unharmed, the woman suffered an injury in her left leg that will take about a week to fully heal.
Johnny’s Jimusho stated that Ninomiya had the day off, though he was driving on his way to a work-related meeting.
Police are currently investigating the matter. Meanwhile, Johnny’s has reminded its other artists to drive carefully. Because of this accident and Jun Matsumoto’s accident in February, the agency has decided to prohibit all five Arashi members from driving until the end of this year. This is apparently the first time that the company has enforced a driving ban for all members of a specific group.
The accident happened the same day that the group announced a new album, its first in over two years. Titled “Boku no Miteiru Fuukei,” the album is scheduled for an August 4 release. It will at least include their four latest singles, ten new songs, and five solo songs.
In addition to the album, Arashi will go on tour from August 21 until January of next year. Like their tour last year, they plan to perform at the National Stadium and the five major Domes. During that tour, they became the first artist to play three consecutive days at the National Stadium. This time, their shows at the stadium won’t be consecutive, but they will be the first to hold 4 concerts there in the same tour.
Arashi’s 30th single, “Monster,” set a new record on the sales charts this week. At 543,000 copies sold, it barely surpassed their previous single “Troublemaker” (542,000 copies) to achieve the highest opening-week sales so far this year. It is Arashi’s second consecutive single to break the half-million mark in the first week.
Kana Nishino’s latest single earned her the #2 spot with 39,000 in sales, while Korean group FTIsland ranked 4th. TETSUYA also made the top ten at the #8 spot.
With no major album releases this week, #1 was claimed by the EXIT TUNES album “Vocalogenesis” with virtual idol Hatsune Miku, which sold 23,000 copies. No other new release broke the top ten, except for the latest character album by “Prince of Tennis” character Kuranosuke Shiraishi at #6.
Arashi (嵐)’s new released live DVD “ARASHI Anniversary Tour 5×10″ has sold 477,000 copies in the first week and ranked the 1st on Oricon DVD weekly chart of April 19. It is the highest initial first week sales in history, comparing to the 428,000 of last time. And Arashi’s total music DVDs have sold out 2,732,000, which makes them the highest selling artist for Music DVD.
“Kaibutsu-kun”, the new coming drama casting Satoshi Ohno (大野智), the leader of Arashi, will have a two-week special program with the TV show “Arashi ni Shagare”, which is an impromptu show of Arashi members to be started from April 24. After the first shooting, Ohno said: “Though we were trying to feel out, time passed in a flash.” “I learned a lot from it!” said Kazunari Ninomiya (二宮和也), “We have learned some special skills you can learn from no where else.” commented Sho Sakurai (櫻井翔). And Masaki Aiba (相葉雅紀) seemed to be very emotional: “We have prepared for this for such a long time and now I just feel very touched.” and Jun Matsumoto (松本潤) said: “It’s very interesting to learn the power from our guests.”
Congratulations to the dorky five!! They really are working hard and this is the nth time a record has been broken. This only shows how much fans love them, so proud of them. I truly hope that their sales keeps growing stronger and stronger. Wishing them the best in all, as well as, good health!!
I knew it, this was bound to happen someday. Arashi is THE best, so happy of their achievements! Doesn’t this make you proud to be a fan?!
Arashi (嵐) have been appointed as the Japanese Tourism Promotion Representative volunteer (観光立国ナビゲーター) of Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. On the press conference on April 8, Sho Sakurai (櫻井翔), Masaki Aiba (相葉雅紀) and Jun Matsumoto (松本潤) made their appearance and announced: “We are waiting for your coming in Japan.” with Sakurai I n English, Aiba in Chinese and Matsumoto in Korean. Both Sakurai and Aiba made impressive announcement, but Matsumoto was the only one tongue-tied. “I screwed up at the most important situation. I have to practice more!” said Matsumoto.
Sakurai showed his confidence: “I am honored to be chosen as ‘Face of Japan’. When I was told about this, I was totally surprised. I will work hard for this important duty!” and Aiba said: “I want to impress all the tourists who come to Japan with Japanese wonderful culture and tradition.”
In 2009, there were 6,790,000 visitors come to Japan. And Japan Tourism Agency has targeted 15,000,000 visitors by 2013 and 30,000,000 in the future. Arashi, as the Japanese Tourism Promotion Representative Navigator, are having various promotion activities in China and other East Asia countries with the new catch-phrase “Japan. Endless Discovery.”
When they were asked which feature of Japan you want to express, Sakurai answered: “Drift ices can be found in Hokkaido at the north, and coral and beautiful ocean can be seen in Okinawa at the south. With spring, summer, autumn and winter, I want to let everybody knows the rich nature of Japan.” Aiba said: “Fashion and Anime are properties of Japan as well, and they are what I would like to show.” Matsumoto: “I have traveled in Japan twice by now in this year, and found that the food cultures differ from place to place. I will try to impress people with different culture of different places of Japan.”
The new TV commercial of Arashi is prepared, for their future activities in Asia. As the “Face of Japan”, will Arashi add more splendors to Japan’s charm?
MatsuJun, Aiba and Sho-chan had attended the press conference, here is NewsZero’s coverage:
I wasn’t uncertain of Jun-kun’s Korean, however, I did flair at Sho-kun’s English and Aiba’s Mandarin; both were understood very clearly. It probably would have been more hilarious if our Birdman-san used his Engrish (doubt the tourism bureau will let him though ), but Newscaster-chan was certainly cute. Might I say that the boys quite smexy in their suits?!
I wonder why the PR was only to East Asia, Japan appeals to the Americas and Europe too ne!
Arashi (嵐) member Sho Sakurai (櫻井翔) attended the TV variety show “Oshareism(おしゃれイズム)” the other day and talked about episodes with other group members.
According to Sakurai, he received a mail from Satoshi Ohno (大野智) when he did the coverage of the Vancouver Olympics. However besides the message “do your best”, Ohno also attached a picture of Maruyama (KANJANI∞) in swimming trunks. In addition, after the news program ZERO, Ohno also sent an Email to say “It was a good face!” On the other hand, on Sakurai’s birthday, he received a decorated mail saying “Happy birthday!” from Jun Matsumoto (松本潤). However, he also received the complaint from KANJANI∞’s Yokoyama about that Sakurai gave the wrong size sneakers to him as the present. There were a lot of interesting anecdotes revealed on the program.
Regarding to Arashi themselves, the drama “Kaibutsu Kun/怪物くん (lit. Little monster)” cast Satoshi Ohno will be on air from April 17, as well as the new variety show “Arashi ni Shagare(嵐にしやがれ)” with all five member will start from April 24. Moreover, their “Doyou no Arashi, Haru no Nitere×Arashi Daisakusen (土曜の嵐 春の日テレ×アラシ大作戦, lit. Arashi of Saturday, Nippon TV in Spring×Arashi special action)” will hold the largest scale special program ever. Therefore, Arashi is going to take over Nippon Television for two weeks, with 65-hour-long performance on all 43 different TV programs.
The most noteworthy program will be “Doyou no Arashi, Night 1, Kaibutsu Kun Opening SP” on April 17. In the special project “Arashi den~Konya shika Mirarenai Arashi ga Wakarisugiru VTR Ikkyo Houshutsu SP (嵐伝~今夜しか見られない嵐がわかりすぎるVTR一挙放出SP~ lit. The legend of Arashi~VTR to know more about Arashi only for tonight, release at a stroke SP)”, an introduction of members’ real faces will look back on the trace of Arashi since their debut. With the drama of their Johnny’s Jr. time, each member will reveal their old videos such as “The turning point of the life” with nostalgia. “Through the program, you will further your understanding to all five of us.” said Matsumoto. The new single “Monster”, the theme song of “Kaibutsu Kun” to be released on May 19, will premiere on TV. After that, “Doyou no Arashi, Night 2, Arashi ni Shagare Opening SP” will feature a extended episode of the new improvisation program.
Last September, Arashi had a special campaign project “Arashi CHALLENGE WEEK” which had 50-hours length in the same TV station. As to this unprecedented large-scale planning, Kazunari Ninomiya (二宮和也) said: “I thought it was the only chance we had last time, it was so great that we had one more shot!” Check out the “now” of Arashi in these two weeks!
Woot, another challenge week and it will be over 65+ hours this time! Looks like Jun-kun and Oh-chan will be appearing on Tensai Shimura Doubutsuen that makes me CHO excited!!! JE is sure working our boys to the bone, I really hope that they get enough rest. Arashi has been appearing on sooo variety shows along with their individual work, this is going to be extremely tiring for them. Nevertheless, I look forward to it!
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They really are working hard and this is the nth time a record has been broken. This only shows how much fans love them, so proud of them. I truly hope that their sales keeps growing stronger and stronger. Wishing them the best in all, as well as, good health!! 
), but Newscaster-chan was certainly cute. Might I say that the boys quite smexy in their suits?! .gif)
Heya, I am Fiona or Fiona-chan, a 26-ish Chinese-American gal who loves dramas & movies, video games, manga & anime, music, writing, history, all things geek and Japanese. My true indulgences include chocolate, cheesecake, Häagen-Dazs ice cream and Arashi (fangirling since 2008).