NEWS

NEWS is a four member Japanese boy band consisting of Keiichiro Koyama, Takahisa Masuda, Shigeaki Kato and Yuya Tegoshi. The group’s nameis an acronym based on the cardinal directions (North, East, West, South) and the members locations. Formed in 2003 by Johnny Kitagawa as a nine member group under the label Johnny’s Entertainment, NEWS released a promotional single “NEWS Nippon”which was used for the World Cup of Volleyball Championships. In 2004, Takahiro Moriuchi (later became Taka, vocalist of One OK Rock) left the group and the remaining eight members released their debut single, “Kibou : Yell”, which ranked first at Oricon charts.  With various controversy surounding the members, Hiroki Uchi and Hironori Kusano later also left the group and NEWS became a six member group in 2006. NEWS became a quartet following the departures of Ryo Nishikido and Tomohisa Yamashita from the group in 2011 due to various reasons, like conflicting schedules and solo project.On July 18 2012, NEWS released “Chankapana”, their first single as a quartet. The single is available in 5 different version and a limited box set collection of all versions. The musicvideo for “Chankapana” premiered on TV on July 9. The single sold 121,097 on its first day and went on to become number one on Oricon Weekly Singles Chart.