Satoshi Ohno


Satoshi Ohno is a Japanese idol, singer, actor, radio host, dancer and choreographer. He is the lead vocalist and leader of the boy band Arashi, hence his nickname Leader.
Ohno began his career in the entertainment industry when he joined the Japanese talent agency Johnny & Associates in 1994 at the age of 13. He started an acting career in 1997 when he was cast to be part of the stage play Kyo to Kyo. In 2008, Ohno became the first and the only artist from Johnny's to hold his own art exhibition, titled "Freestyle", and also received his first starring role in a Japanese television drama, Maō, for which he earned a handful of Best Actor awards. Since then, he has continued to star in numerous dramas and movies, receiving a number of awards and nominations for his roles. For his work as an artist, a singer, and an actor in Kaibutsu-kun the Movie, Ohno became one of the recipients of GQ Japan's Men of the Year Award in 2011.

Early life

Ohno was born in Mitaka, Tokyo as the youngest child of his family. He has one older sister. During middle school, his mother sent in his application to Johnny & Associates without his knowledge. An invitation to audition was sent back to Ohno, and he subsequently became a trainee in October 1994. To focus on the stage play Kyo to Kyo, which ran from 1997 to 1998 during his trainee days, he withdrew from high school and moved to Kyoto.

Music career

Before his music debut with Arashi, Ohno wanted to resign from Johnny & Associates. However, then-president Johnny Kitagawa asked him to help out with a song recording and to pack up for a trip to Hawaii, which turned out to be the place where the press conference announcing the formation of Arashi was held. With Ohno at the age of at the time, Arashi was officially formed on September 15, 1999 and made their CD debut on November 3, 1999. Since much of his trainee days were spent in Kyoto, he was the least known member during Arashi's early days.
Ohno is the lead vocalist of Arashi. Although his music career is primarily with Arashi, he had a solo concert called 3104 in 2006 and in 2009, became the first and only member in Arashi to release a solo single. It was a soundtrack for his drama Uta no Onii-san titled "Believe/Kumorinochi, Kaisei by Yano Kenta starring Satoshi Ohno. Ohno also provided the vocals to the insert song "Yukai Tsukai Kaibutsu-kun", which was released as a single on July 7, 2010 for the drama Kaibutsu-kun and sold around 59,000 copies on the first day.

Choreography

Ohno began his work as a choreographer in 2004 for his solo "Top Secret" during Arashi's 2004 Iza, Now Tour and in 2006, began to work as a choreographer for the group. Since then, he has choreographed numerous solo and group dances. While Ohno mainly contributes to performances during Arashi's concerts, he choreographed the dance for Arashi's "Zero-G" and "Tsunagu" music videos and the interlude for their "Kokoro no Sora" music video. Ohno also did part of the choreography for the chorus of "GUTS!" and the choreography for "Bittersweet".
YearTitle
2004"Top Secret"
2006"Rain"
2007"Song For Me"
2008"Take Me Faraway"
2010"Shizuka na Yoru ni"
2011"Hung up on"
2012"two"
2013"Hit the floor"
2014"Imaging Crazy"
2015"Akatsuki"
2016"Bad boy"

YearTitle
2006"Ready to Fly"
2006"Carnival Night Part 2"
2007"Everybody Zenshin"
2007"WAVE"
2011"negai"
2012"Tokei Jikake no Umbrella"
2012"Up to You"
2012"Cosmos"
2012"Super Fresh"
2012"Tsuite Oide"
2013"Sayonara no Ato de"
2014"Bittersweet"
2014"GUTS!"
2014"Zero-G"
2014"TRAP"
2015"Kokoro no Sora"
2015"Masquerade"
2016"TWO TO TANGO"
2017"Tsunagu"
2017"Yoru no Kage"

Acting career

Stage

In 1997, Ohno was a cast member of Kyo to Kyo with Musical Academy leader Shingo Machida and continued to act in other stage productions such as Koichi Dōmoto's Mask and Shōnentai's Playzone after Kyo to Kyo was over. Since then, he has done a number of stage plays such as True West with Masahiro Matsuoka and West Side Story with bandmates Sho Sakurai and Jun Matsumoto.
The Pū series that Ohno starred in spanned from 2003 to 2008, consisting of Sengokupū, Bakumatsu Banpū, Tensei Kunpū, and Amatsukaze. In Tensei Kunpū, Ohno portrayed a man named Kaoru Kazamine who was accidentally sent back to the Edo period of Japan through a system malfunction.

Drama

In 1999, Ohno made his TV drama debut in the volleyball-centered short drama V no Arashi, which was Arashi's first drama together.
In 2008, Ohno was given his first starring role in the suspense drama Maou. He co-starred with Toma Ikuta and portrayed a two-faced lawyer who sought for revenge against the person who murdered his brother years ago.
In 2009, he starred in his first comedy drama Uta no Oniisan. With Kanjani Eight member Ryuhei Maruyama as his co-star, Ohno played a musician who unexpectedly becomes a singing character for a children's program after being dumped by his girlfriend, kicked out of his band, and labelled useless by his family. Ohno also took part in a television mini-drama project titled 0 Gōshitsu no Kyaku, which aired from October 2009 to April 2010 and starred a select number of different artists from Johnny's. Ohno was the lead actor in the first story of the project called "Akogare no Otoko", which ran for four episodes in total. The story was about a salaryman and a club hostess visiting a strange "Room 0" that can reveal anyone's "grade" as a human being.
In January 2010, Ohno co-starred with the other members of Arashi in the human suspense drama special Saigo no Yakusoku. Ohno portrayed Satoru Mashiko, a 28-year-old employee of a cleaning company who is caught up in a building hijack. Beginning in April 2010, Ohno starred in the live-action adaptation of the manga and anime Kaibutsu-kun. Ohno played Tarou Kaibutsu, the prince of Kaibutsu Land who is ordered by the king to go to the world of humans for training as he is deemed unfit for the succession of the throne. He then reprised his role of Kaibutsu-kun for the Kaibutsu-kun special which aired on June 26, 2010. Ohno also starred in the second story, Hajime no Ippo, of the Fall 2010 Yonimo Kimyōna Monogatari special that aired on October 4, 2010.
In October 2011, Ohno once again reprised his role of Kaibutsu-kun for another Kaibutsu-kun special, leading up to the story of the 3D movie version.
On January 3, 2012, Ohno starred in the drama special Mou Yuukai Nante Shinai. He played the role of Shotaro Tarui, a freeter who can't forget his childhood dream of being a hero. However, he finds himself planning a fake kidnapping after he receives a request from the daughter of a boss of racketeers, played by co-star Yui Aragaki. Beginning in April 2012, Ohno co-starred with Erika Toda in his first Getsuku drama, Kagi no Kakatta Heya. He played the lead character, Kei Enomoto, an employee at a major security firm who has an obsession with keys and locks. Enomoto works with a pair of attorneys, solving mysteries that fall under the "locked room" genre, in which seemingly impossible crimes are committed.
On August 24, 2013, Ohno starred in the drama special Kyou no Hi wa Sayounara which aired as part of the annual 24 Hour Television telethon in Japan. Ohno plays a 29-year-old man named Kouta who is diagnosed with malignant lymphoma. Given three months left to live, he makes a resolve to accept his fate and face death properly.
On January 3, 2014, Ohno reprised the role of Enomoto Kei for the Kagi no Kakatta Heya special. He also starred in the live-action adaptation of the manga Shinigami-kun beginning in April 2014. Ohno portrayed Shinigami-kun whose job is to pronounce death to expected people and take their souls to the spiritual world. As a rookie reaper, he tends to make biased decisions towards the human side which always causes him to be reprimanded by his boss.
Beginning in April 2016, Ohno starred in a drama titled Sekai Ichi Muzukashii Koi. Ohno played Reiji Samejima, a company president in the hotel industry. Despite his success at work, he knows little about love. This romantic comedy follows Samejima as he pursues Misaki Shibayama, his very first love interest.

Film

In 2002, Ohno made his motion picture debut in Arashi's first movie together, Arashi filmography#Pikanchi Life Is Hard Dakedo Happy. He portrayed Haru, a bizarre high school student who gets swindled during his trip to Harajuku. Two years later in 2004, Ohno reprised his role for the sequel Arashi filmography#Pikanchi Life Is Hard Dakara Happy. Ohno reprised his role as Haru once again in 2014 in a spin-off of the two previous films, titled Arashi filmography#Pikanchi Life Is Hard Tabun Happy.
In 2007, the group came together once again to act in their third movie together, Arashi filmography#Kiiroi Namida, with Ohno acting as an oil painter.
In 2011, Ohno returned to the big screen starring as the lead actor in the film Kaibutsu-kun the Movie. His character, Tarou Kaibutsu, is about to be crowned king, but is met with unexpected booing. Trying to escape to the human world, Tarou and his three henchmen accidentally find themselves in a place known as the Curry Kingdom where he is mistaken as a legendary hero. The cast went overseas to India to shoot parts of the film. He became the first member in Arashi to star in a 3D film.
In May 2016, it was announced that Ohno will star as the lead actor in the film Shinobi no Kuni, set to premier in summer 2017. Shinobi no Kuni illustrates the epic battle between the Oda clan and the Iga ninja. Ohno plays Mumon, an Iga ninja renowned to be a deadly assassin with unmatched battle strength, but who is also equally lazy and only seeks to earn money to make his wife, Okuni, happy. In preparation for the film, Ohno underwent intensive training in sword fighting.

Other ventures

Radio

Ohno had his own radio show called Arashi Discovery, which aired every weekday from Monday to Friday on FM Yokohama from October 1, 2002, to March 31, 2017.

Art

When Ohno was in the third grade, he was inspired by his classmate's Dragon Ball illustration to start drawing. Since then, he has been drawing his own artwork and making original figurines. In 2008, he held an art exhibition called Freestyle, making him the first artist in Johnny's to hold one. In 2015, it was announced that Ohno would be holding a second art exhibition called Freestyle II in Tokyo from July 24 to August 23. In addition, Ohno held an art exhibition the same year in Shanghai from July 9 to 29, showcasing artwork from his first art exhibition, Freestyle. A new version of Freestyle, called Freestyle 2020 is set to open on September 9, 2020, and will include pieces from his previous exhibitions, as well as new ones, including the cover art for Arashi's single "Kite".
Because of his talent in the field of art, Ohno was appointed to host a four episode documentary for NHK entitled "Jakuchu Miracle World" starting on April 25, 2011. The documentary focused on analyzing artwork by a famous Edo era artist named Itō Jakuchū. On August 22, 2012, Ohno hosted another documentary for NHK entitled "Everything Is for the Sake Of Delivering Dreams ~Walt Disney Trajectory of Creation~". In commemoration of Walt Disney's 110th anniversary, the documentary explored and revealed the secrets behind the origins and processes of Walt's creations.
As of 2019, Ohno has designed the charity T-shirt for NTV's 24-hour television telethon four times, making him the first artist to do so. He was in charge of designing the T-shirt for the first time in 2004. In 2012, Ohno collaborated with Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara and their design sold 764,198 copies, setting a new record. In the following year, Ohno collaborated with Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama to design the T-shirt for that year's telethon. It sold 1,244,469 copies, making it the most successful in the history of the telethon. 2019 was the 2nd time he designed it by himself.

Commercials

Singles

Other charted songs

Publications

TV dramas

Films

Stage

Awards and nominations