Both natives of Hirosaki, Wajima and Suzuki first became acquainted with one another while attending a concert in a local music salon. They eventually became close friends when in 1981, they both entered Hirosaki High School. Their friendship would further develop through frequent exchanges of music-records. It was around this time that Suzuki first exposed Wajima to the music of Kiss. Wajima himself was listening to the music of The Beatles, King Crimson, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin at the time, while Suzuki favored Kiss, Saxon and Judas Priest. Suzuki was impressed by Wajima's talent for songwriting and wrote a song called "Demon", while Wajima wrote a song called "Tetsugōshi Mokushi-roku", which was not received well by the music salon but which Suzuki liked nonetheless. Two years later, Wajima and Suzuki joined Shine Shine Dan, a band formed by members of the salon, with whom they played hard rock songs at music festivals. In 1985, after entering different universities, they formed a hard rock band, whose name was changed to Ningen'isu in 1987, the year when drummer Noriyoshi Kamidate joined the band. They first gained public attention in 1989 through a performance of their song Injū on the Japanese Television program "Ikasu Band Tengoku", a newly enitiated TV-band-contest that first aired on TBS Television during the same year. Their uniquely heavy sound, technical skill, and lyrics full of literary references took the judges by surprise.
1990 – 2004
In 1990, they released their first album "Ningen Isu", followed two years later by "Ōgon no Yoake", after which Kamidate left the band. They kept heavy sound and lyrics full of literature. Drummer Masuhiro Goto would support the recording of their fourth album "Rashōmon" in 1993. In 1995 and 1996, Iwao Tsuchiya served as the band's drummer but was replaced by Goto as a permanent member until his leaving in 2003. In 2004, the current drummer Nobu Nakajima joined. Wajima, Suzuki, and Nakajima once lived in a neighborhood in the district Koenji, Tokyo, which is famous for its subculture, music and free atmosphere.
2004 – 2020
Ningen Isu has seen a significant increase in popularity in recent years. They spent years being little known outside Japan; the sales of their CDs didn't go well, but they gradually gained popularity. The band played at the Ozzfest 2013, hosted by Ozzy Osbourne, which they as Black Sabbath fans felt honored by. And after that, they have got more and more fans. In 2019, their record "Shin Seinen" reached rank 14 in the Oriconmusic charts, their highest chart position of so far. Published on May 14, 2019, their song "Heartless Scat" on YouTube reached 1.5 million views on July 3, 2019. "Heartless Scat" has since achieved 5.2 million views, as of April 30, 2020. The band performed as their first world tour in Berlin, Bochum, and London in February 2020.
Ningen Isu was strongly influenced by Black Sabbath. Other influences include UFO, Led Zeppelin, Kiss, Budgie, King Crimson, and similar artists. The play style of Wajima's guitar is influenced by guitarists such as Robert Fripp, Tony Iommi, Jimmy Page, Ace Frehley, Michael Schenker, and also the sound ofTsugaru-jamisen. Suzuki loves Kiss and paints his face white and moves like Gene Simmons. Suzuki has a high opinion of Nakajima's eight beat.
His costume has motifs of literary master of Meiji era. He loves the Beatles, blues and Japanese old-style pop song. So the sound he makes is melodious. He often uses the original effectors which he makes by himself. One of them called "Shocker" make fuzzy unique and mysterious sound. He sometimes uses theremin, which adds cosmic mood. He loves Rakugo and made a song "Shinagawa Shinju". He also loves camping.
He paints his face white and dresses like a Buddhist monk. Wears "Fundoshi" for the first time in the band, old Japanese underwear under the Kimono. In the band's early days, Suzuki often wore clothes like Nezumi-otoko, a rat man, which made them impressive. He sometimes opens events called "Nazareth" in which he plays DJ. He loves Neputa festival held in Hirosaki.
He wears Koikuchi shirt and sunglasses and looks like a Japanese gangster. He sometimes uses "Dora". His powerful character and play make him called "Aniki", which means big brother. He is a big fan of Hideshi Hino and composed a song "Jigoku Kozo". He collects a lot of things, for example sneakers, dam cards, comics and so on.
