JE Anniversaries

Feb 23th ♥ 亀梨和也 (Kamenashi Kazuya)

Kamenashi joined the agency in November 1998. As a Junior, he became a member of KAT-TUN in 2001. In 2005 he released a single ”青春アミーゴ“ alongside YamaPi, for the dorama “Nobuta wo Produce” under their character’s names. In 2006, he finally got to debut officially with his bandmates, releasing the single “Real Face”. He is the “KA” of KAT-TUN and his color is pink. He is also one of the few artists to have million-selling certified singles that went on to be the best-selling singles of the year for two consecutive years to his name.

Kazuko-chan is a character created by him, this girl likes to play the hearts of every junior she finds on her way. When he is not playing a girl, he has time for his other passion, baseball. His given name comes from a character from the manga, Touch, written by a Japanese manga artist, Mitsuru Adachi. He, an avid baseball fan and player like the character he was named after, once represented his country in the junior world league as shortstop though he had to give up the sport professionally due to lack of spare time after he was accepted into Johnny’s Entertainment despite having the support of Johnny Kitagawa, to pursue both careers. Kamenashi was as a junior captain for four consecutive years of the J2000 Team for Johnny’s Baseball Tournament from 1999 to 2004. He won three consecutive years the title “The World’s No1 Artist Baseball Player” organized by the WBC (2005-2006-2007) and was finalist two times (2004 & 2008). Kazu threw the first pitch at the Pacific League opening ceremony for the 2009 baseball season at a match in Chiba City featuring the Chiba Lotte Marines against the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawkson July 19, 2009.

Kamenashi made his acting debut in October 1999 in the fifth season of 3 nen B gumi Kinpachi Sensei as Akihiko Fugakawa. He also began appearing on stage in supporting roles of musicals, Show Geki Shock, Shock is Real Shock, Dream Boy and Dream Boys from 2001 to 2004. In late 2004, he took over the lead role in Dream Boys from Hideaki Takizawa and played the lead character in later seasons of the musical in January 2006, September 2007, March 2008, September 2009 and October 2009. This year, he has won his 3rd Television Drama Award, and his 2nd for Best Actor for his leading role in the dorama 「妖怪人間べム」(Yokai Ningen Bem).

Kazu also has a career in modeling, he walked the runway in 2008 for Hermès’ men’s autumn/winter 2008 collection in Tokyo. In 2010, Kamenashi won the annual Best Jeanist award with more than 29,000 votes in the men’s category. This is his fifth consecutive win and is thus promoted into the hall of fame, making him Eternal Best Jeanist and ineligible for future runs.

Happy 26th Birthday! お誕生日おめでとう！